Donate to Shawn's Fight for Life and Family

1/13/25

It’s with a very heavy heart I must share that my big brother Shawn lost his battle today.

Shawn had been doing so well and was receiving his 4th round of chemo when he started to have issues. He ended up with another round of pneumonia, his kidneys really started taking a hit and carbon dioxide was taking over his body. He was unable to exhale deep enough to rid of the CO2. The toxicity was deadly and doctors told us he was actively dying. The vent wasn’t able to keep up with his needs any longer. The team suggested we go with Comfort care before his heart gave out which could happen at any time. He was surrounded by myself, his older sister Renee, his mother Debbie and the love of his life Connie. We said our goodbyes and told the team when we were “ready”. He was sedated more and given pain meds. Within seconds, Shawn took his last breath.

He fought so hard but his body couldn’t take it anymore. He will be greatly missed and life will never be the same without him.

This fundraiser will continue to help Connie as she needs all the support she can get, she’s now a single mother to the best gift Shawn left all of us, Baby Shane. Extra costs will help with bills and funeral expenses that the family may not be able to cover. Please help in any way you can. We all are so very grateful for your support in every way, shape and form. Thank you for being a part of this journey that ended in a way we all hoped would never happen.

Shawn David Zalot

11/9/82-1/13/25

A beloved father, son, brother and friend. God Speed Brother. You are forever loved and will be missed immensely.

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Hello everyone. My name is Ashley and I am Shawn’s little sister. As many of you know and for those of you who don’t know, my brother is very sick.

A couple weeks ago, we found out that Shawn has testicular cancer that has metastasized to his lungs and liver. He started having difficulty breathing with small, around the house tasks. Due to these breathing issues, Shawn went to urgent care which then turned right into a hospital stay. He has been in the hospital since. He started a very intense round of chemo. Unfortunately breathing became even more difficult and he got moved to the ICU at Shore in Somers Point and the chemo stopped. Essentially his body went into complete shock.

On Thursday morning 10/24/24 doctors wanted to intubate him so his body could rest because Shawn had not been eating or sleeping and was struggling to breathe even being on oxygen. His body needed to rest and recover so it was not emergency intubation. When the doctors intubated they said his throat was covered in dried blood from the cancer in his lungs. They also then proceeded to tell us this wasn’t going to end well. Which absolutely gutted us. Shawn had requested the day prior to looking into other hospitals and getting him out of Shore. The doctor at Shore spoke with Penn in Philly and presented his case. They accepted him and within 2 hours they arrived via helicopter to transfer him to UPenn.

He was in very bad shape when he arrived at Penn. He was on 3 blood pressure meds to up his very low blood pressure, tested positive for the flu on top of having cancer, heart rate was so fast he was nearing heart failure, intubated with being on sedation and a paralytic as well as being maxed out on the vent. We as a family requested prayers and we started to see improvements. As of today 10/29/24, after days of receiving good news he took a turn for the worst. He went back on the paralytic, has a high fever, his vent back up to 90( he was down to 55) and his organs are slowly shutting down possibly needing dialysis as his potassium is extremely high and that alone is deadly and his blood pressure started dipping too low again needing to go back on meds to up it.

With all of this happening, he has his sweet baby boy Shane at home, Connie has been traveling to Philly everyday and the rest of us have been trying to get to Penn as often as we possibly can. The financial strain and worries need to be the last of anyone’s worries. One of Shawn’s comments 2 days before intubation was concerning how much all this will cost. If he can make it through this stage, get off the vent and restart chemo he still has a very long road ahead of him and will be out of work for a long time.

If you know my brother, you know he is the type of person who will give you the shirt off his back. He’s got a big heart, kind, selfless and hard working.

With having an almost 6 month old son at home and Connie staying out of work to be with Shawn, being that she just went back to work in September from maternity leave she cannot take anymore FMLA.

We are asking if you could be so kind to donate anything, to help with the costs of daily life, bills, medical bills, gas for traveling back and forth to Philly daily, etc. I know Shawn and Connie would be ever so grateful so the need to worry about finances is off the table. If you’re unable to donate please share this.

And please continue praying for him or sending positive thoughts into the universe. He needs it all.

**Update 10/29 10:12pm. Shawn has successfully gotten the port for dialysis. This was a risky procedure due to his current state but we had to take the risk otherwise we would have lost him. Thankfully the procedure went well. He will be receiving a continuous feed to lower the potassium. Hopefully then we can start to see improvements and get back to being hopeful.

Update 11/8/24

Shawn has had a very back and forth week since I last posted. This past Wednesday(11/6) it was discovered that he has several blood clots in his legs and the cancer has spread to his brain. He’s been getting numerous CT scans and ultrasounds a day. They did a procedure to put in filters to stop the clots from traveling to his heart. The also put a slit in his chest to relieve the excessive air that collected in his neck(pneumothorax). My mother and I went to visit him yesterday and a lot of the extra air was gone and you could actually see his neck now. They took him off the paralytic and had hoped he would do well through the night because they want to get him off the vent and do a tracheostomy. He is having the surgery to get the trach today(Friday). They will then be able to wake him up, allow him to recover this weekend, and start his 2nd round of chemo Monday! They stopped the dialysis today because his potassium has gone down to close to normal levels and his kidneys are functioning normally again! This is the beginning of finally getting our Shawn back. Please continue prayers for him as the road to recovery is still a very long one. And please continue to share and/or donate if possible to help support his little family as well as medical bills, as he will be out of work for quite a long time. Thank you to all who have shared and donated. Your support means the world to all of us!!!!

Update 11/17

Last week after Shawn received his trach he was doing quite well. They had lowered his sedation to quite low and he was responding to commands. However a ct scan was showing something going on in his lungs. Unfortunately he has a fungus growing on his lungs amongst all the cancer tumors. The fungus is a result of being on the vent. The drs have him on a blanket anti fungal because they are not sure the type of fungus it is that he has. He’s been running into some hypertensive issues as well but they have been monitoring and doing everything they can to heal him. He has been receiving his 2nd round of chemo as well since he received the trach last week. He has not been as alert as he was the past few days and they do have to keep him on some sedation to prevent agitation and stress. That’s all I have for now. I will try to update more often. Thank you again for all that continue to donate and pray!