Derek Cornelius; The unluckiest man alive?

Hello, My name is Carl and I'm the closest Derek has to a brother. I am hoping to raise enough funds to keep my "Brother from another mother" alive.

Here is his story:

3 weeks and 27 hours of surgery later, Derek woke up missing 18” of the large intestine, 12” of bowel and donning a colostomy bag. This is where the adventure began.

At 27 years old, Derek entered the emergency room with intense abdominal pain and had been misdiagnosed. This had caused a rupture of his small intestine, which (coupled with terrible luck) has resulted in almost 19 years of hospital visits.

Here is his story.

After the surgery, there were a lot of discussions about what had caused the tear in his intestine. A biopsy confirmed that it had not been cancer, and the best conclusion was that a tiny piece of foil wrapper had caused the perforation. This was actually great news. This meant that he was now approved for reversal surgery and could be rid of the colostomy bag. Reversal surgery went beautifully, and he was on the mend. Derek spent the next five months getting his life back on track. As a small business owner, he had been forced to close his doors and had worked hard to get healthy enough to reopen. He only had one issue left – he had a volleyball-sized mass of hernias caused by the original tear and surgery. This was day surgery. This should not have been a problem.

During the hernia surgery, the surgeon nicked the bowel, which caused an infection. They cleared the infection and scheduled a second surgery (on the opposite side). In this surgery, the bowel was nicked for a second time. This caused a MASSIVE infection. He was treated in the hospital with antibiotics. One week later, the doctor came in and assessed that the infection had worsened. Right in his hospital room, he ripped Derek’s stomach open with his hands and moved him onto his side. Derek, the doctor and the nurse watched over 2 litres of the infected fluid drain. The infection had gotten too bad to close the wound so the doctor put a pump assembly on his front. Derek needed to leave the pump and his wound to heal on it's own. The hole was approximately 7 inches tall by 4.5 inches wide. Slowly the infection and wound healed. Finally, eight months later, they were able to remove the pump.

After recovering, Derek returned to work, where he caught the MSRA virus. MRSA is defined on the CDC website as a “methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a potentially dangerous type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics and may cause skin and other infections. MRSA infections can become severe and cause sepsis – the body’s extreme response to infection”. Derek became hospitalized in the ICU infectious disease ward for one month. At this time, there was an outbreak, and he was - 1 of 15 who survived. The priest came to see him three times and told him he was going to die. At his worst, he was told that Vancomycin had become available. It was this drug that saved his life. Derek entered the hospital at 235lbs and left at only 162lbs. One week after leaving the ICU, he came down with the external version of MRSA. This version presented in large pus-filled, painful bumps and fever. Derek required daily medications and homecare abscess drainage. This continued for three months.

1 year later, Derek was now well enough to survive the hernia surgery again. A large mesh spanning the full length of his torso was added. This surgery was a perfect success but required 3-week hospitalization. Coming to the end of his recovery, Derek was stabbed in his home in a violent home invasion.

The invasion was like something out of the movies. Three hours of being beaten, stabbed, threatened with a gun and slashed with razor blades. Finally, they loaded all of Derek's valuables into his vehicle and left. Recovering from the physical and mental injuries put his surgical recovery back months.

With the constant medications and abscesses, Derek started losing his teeth and having major dental issues. The dentist advised that this was common with the type of health issues he had experienced. Finally, the dentist removed the last of his teeth (he was in his early 40’s). However, as he had been working so sporadically, he had trouble making ends meet and could not get dentures for a few years.

On New Year’s Day, he woke up deathly sick. He went to the hospital and found that he was severely malnourished, severely dehydrated and MRSA positive. Derek had a blood infection, and he was diagnosed as a person with diabetes. Derek’s sugars were at 38 and hemoglobin at 68. His calcium and iron were at zero. His kidneys were failing (56% kidney function). The doctors worked to normalize his levels, and after a month, it was assessed that the damage done was irreversible. Diabetes had caused numbness in his lower extremities. He has little to no feeling from the knees down. A biopsy of his right and left kidneys confirmed that he had 26% function. He was given two years to live.

Enter COVID.

Oct 8, 2021 – Derek was admitted to the hospital with COVID. His kidneys shut down completely. He miraculously recovered. 3 months later, he was readmitted with Omicron COVID. His kidney function dropped under 5%, he had a blood infection and was MRSA positive and another infection in his bowel. He was again given heavy antibiotics (Veynvomicun), hoping to clear up without surgery as the doctors were reluctant to open him up again. Thankfully, this worked, and the infections cleared.

From this point on, he was put on dialysis; however, he kept dying on the table every time they began treatment.

5 sessions and 5 deaths later, it was determined that Derek is deathly allergic to Tanderpia, a common blood thinner used in dialysis. Saline is now used instead. Additionally, the dialysis caused him to have high blood pressure and burst veins in his retina, causing a 90% vision loss in his left eye. Dialysis has had around a 50% “success rate”. While it assists with his kidney function, it causes severe nausea, vomiting, lack of strength and very high blood pressure. Out of 10 sessions, 5 may go perfectly smoothly, and he will be able to function (albeit poorly) the following day. On the other hand, 5 may go terribly, resulting in his incapacitation.

Upon receiving his diagnosis one year ago, Derek was advised that he would have around 2 years left and that a kidney transplant would be very unlikely without a compatible match. In July of 2022, he travelled to Tofino; (something he had always wanted to do) and he attended dialysis twice on Vancouver Island. He was advised that the dialysis program in BC is considered the best in the country. Living in BC he would be put on a transplant list faster, and it may save his life. Currently, he is not on a list in Alberta.

Moving is hard. Moving to a different province while ill, single, and while owning a small business is harder. Derek does not have a medical benefits program. The rates quoted by providers have been unattainable. All prescriptions are out of pocket. While he will have assistance from friends and family; Derek will need financial support in the form of the following:

• Moving provinces

• Hiring a helper to assist with his business during and after surgery

• Clearing up medical bills

• Basic necessities while unable to work

Derek is very much loved by his friends and family. We appreciate any support you are able to give, whether it is in the form of a donation or a share on social media.

Update Sept 25 2022:

Derek is back in the hospital with a tear behind his ribs, the doctors are unsure how this has happened. He also has another tear in his intestine due to diverticulitis, which is leaking into his gut. This is now the 7th time the doctors are not wanting to open him up to fix the issue, the only want to give him more antibiotics to "hopefully get rid of the infection". Today he was moved from the Red Deer hospital to the Wetaskiwin hospital. Once I have more information I will update again.

“There are no grants available for people to use to get healthy. To be able to take the confirmed time off work to recover correctly. After everything I have been through, I still love life, love work and have the will and want to live through this. Just one more stepping stone so to speak. “

~Derek Cornelius