Cole Guffey Covid Recovery!

Hey guys!

I've seen our small, everybody's-like-family, town come together so many times that I know we can all pull together again to make a mighty difference for Cole Guffey! For those who don't know Cole, he's a healthy 35 year old, down to earth, friend to all, family guy who graduated from Hayesville High. A month ago, he came down with covid and became sicker than anyone could have imagined.

Many times with my patients, I feel a calling to do a little something "more" for them. Whether it's taking time to sing some old blue grass gospel with my little old man, or paint some nails for lil granny (really miss my nursing home ladies) or grab balloons and celebrate a discharge. Now, I've had a calling laid on my heart that is MUCH BIGGER than I. For the past few weeks I've had the honor of taking care of a patient that I actually grew up with and who graduated with my husband. Living in Hayesville, NC and working in Gainesville, GA is much different than the days that I worked at our home town hospital and nursing home where everybody knows everybody. So imagine my shock when I walk into room 1105 and see a very familiar face looking not so recognizable at first glance. Right away, the lord spoke to my heart. I knew that Cole had a very long and hard road to recovery ahead of him and that he would need community-wide support. The first day that I had Cole as a patient, he had just been extubated and transferred out of ICU the day before and was making great respiratory strides requiring only 3l of oxygen. That's a big deal for someone who was intubated for 13 days, lying flat on his stomach (prone positioning) with drs discussing every day that he was very unlikely to survive this. In addition to still needing oxygen support, Cole also required a feeding tube down his nose that was his only source of nutrition for weeks. He was unable to swallow anything until he was finally able to regain strength and control in his throat essentially. Today he is requiring no oxygen and is eating all meals by mouth with no more tube! Unfortunately though, Cole was diagnosed with critical care myopathy and acute kidney failure. This means that Cole is going to require very intense physical and occupational therapy as well as long term dialysis. That's where the support from the community could make a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE for Cole!!!

Unfortunately Cole has no health insurance. Like many hard working, 30 year old folks, insurance can be extremely expensive if even available and at 30, we could never imagine that one day we're fine and the next day we're waking up to a tube being jerked out wondering what is going on. After spending almost 2 weeks on my unit after being in icu for 2 weeks Cole was finally able to be moved to the inpatient therapy floor as a medical admit right now. From the myopathy, his left arm is completely flaccid and he will have to regain very basic things such as head and neck control, core strength, and relearn how to walk again. He has to be medically cleared and then officially accepted by therapy and then at that point will only be granted so many days when he will then have to come home and will need at home therapy.

In addition to this, he will be continuing dialysis indefinitely until his kidneys are finally able to wake up and take off on their own. This will mean at least 3 trips a week to the dialysis center. So, of course given all of this, he won't be able to work for the foreseeable future until the day that he is finally back on his feet! To start with, we are creating this GoFundMe page. I would love to eventually be able to do a fundraiser with the help of the community if anybody has any ideas on that as well!! More than anything, prayers and words of encouragement for Cole are most important. It is very hard spiritually and mentally to be sick in the hospital but then not being able to have his mom, Autumn, Lisa, or the kids visit him at all during this has been extremely trying for him.

Of course, this is all shared with Cole's full permission. I shared with him and his mother the desire that was laid on my heart to figure out how to offer financial help. They are very humble but after a while the totality of the situation begins to set in. I agreed to help put into words what he is facing and create this on Cole Guffey's behalf. Please pray that we are able to reach our goal for him!!