Clay's Road Back

This is my son-in-law, Clay. On April 2nd, Clay woke up with a sore throat

and by the early hours of April 3rd was rushed to the hospital experiencing

intense shortness of breath and pain in his back. By noon he was on a

ventilator and by 6pm doctors made the decision to admit him into the ICU

where he would be put on life support and in a medically-induced coma. We

didn't know it at the time, but Clay was suffering from an aggressive strain

of strep and pneumonia which devastated his lungs and sent his body into

septic shock. The next day he was taken to the ICU at Lutheran General

where multiple specialized medical teams worked tirelessly to stop

the infection from taking over his body.

After a grueling three weeks of terrifying ups and downs, Clay is taking

steps in the right direction.

His long journey towards recovery is just beginning as he faces an unknown

amount of intensive rehab. As you can imagine, weeks on life support and

extended therapies for the foreseeable future, are costly and the bills are

already starting to pile up. Clay, who is a proud husband and father of

three young children, is also the owner of his own small business. Since

his illness began almost a month ago, Clay has not been able to work. And

due to how the illness aggressively attacked his organs, it is obvious it

will be many many months, if not longer, before he will be able to begin

work again.

We are so grateful for the prayers and support of friends, family and the

excellent medical care received at Lutheran General. This has meant more to

all of us than can be adequately expressed.

Many have already asked how they can donate to help cover some of the unimaginable medical expenses facing Jamie & Clay as a result of this, as well as living expenses (as we don't know when Clay will be able to work again) We wanted to set up a centralized place for you to do that. Any support you provide would be greatly appreciated. Please keep Clay, Jamie, and their 3 children in your prayers--the outpouring of faith and love has and will continue to make a

difference!