Gary's Reconstructive Surgery at Cleveland Clinic
Donation protected
Hi there! Our names are Michele Benner and Sharon Schaffner and we are the mother-in-law and mother of Gary Schaffner. Several years ago Gary went in for surgery and things did not go as planned and was in the hospital for 8 months. He has had many surgeries and complications along the way. He went septic and was in a coma for a month (the first time) and ended up getting a stage 4 decubitus ulcer leading to osteomyelitis, the removal of his coccyx and part of the left side of his sacrum. This left him with a very large hole in his back that has been slowly closing over the years. His stomach and esophagus were not connected for an entire year to repair the damage that had gone wrong during the surgery. After many failed attempts to reconstruct his abdomen he has finally been given the green light to have the surgery. Beaumont informed him that his case is too complex and has been working with Cleveland Clinic, who has more experience with harder cases like his. 2 days ago at his appointment they threw them a curveball and added a surgery. They are trying to speed up the healing on his decubitus ulcer on his lower back so it is further along when going into his larger surgery. They will be cleaning it up and putting a irrigating wound vac on and will have to stay in the hospital for a week or so. When they see healing is at a place of their liking, they will relese him home with a regular wound vac that his wife, April will care for at home. He will heal at home for about 2 months and then will being going back to Cleveland Clinic for his large abdominal repair. This surgery will take the doctors 14-16 hours to perform and will be their only case that day. They will be removing Gary's skin graft that is over the hernia currently. They will have to work with his organs to arrange them in his abdominal cavity to fit better than how they currently are. With the trauma to the organs, some of the intestine is fused to other intestine (which they may or may not be able to separate) and other areas have been damaged and had to be repaired. They will try to pull Gary's abdominal wall (which has been frozen on his sides since he has been open for so long) to the midline and cover what is not able to be covered with a permanent mesh, for stability. They will then take a free flap from Gary's left leg to use over part of the hernia. The free flap comes with many risks since they are harvesting part of his leg muscle, skin and blood vessels. They will then put a skin graft from the right leg over the area from where the free flap was taken. Due to the complexity of his case and having several wound sites, Gary will be in the hospital 3-5 weeks in Cleveland.
Having to be out of state, Gary and April will have to stay at Cleveland Clinic for several weeks. Our goal is to try to help them with Lodging, Medical fees (including the 20% copay), Travel expenses, Medical Supplies and Food. With the complications he has had in the past, there has been alot of stress with the planning and scheduling of these surgeries. Our hope is to help take some of the stress off by helping with the finances of this huge venture. We would like to thank you in advance for anything you can do to assist Gary and April on this adventure.
Organizer
Michele Benner
Organizer
Oak Park, MI