Help Chloe recover from her brain surgery!

Our friends Chloé and Mike need our help. Chloé is chronically ill, and recently had brain surgery to remove a large cyst from her pituitary on 3/7. This was meant to be a routine procedure. The surgery went well, and she spent a week in the ICU before being discharged on 3/13. After two peaceful days at home with their dogs, Chloé started experiencing severe pain and stroke-like symptoms. Mike took her back to the ER on 3/15 at 9pm, thinking she was experiencing something small, like dehydration. Chloe actually experienced a very rare complication, a significant, life threatening drop in sodium, a case her doctors had never seen before. The depletion of sodium in her body post-op resulted in the same brain damage that a minor stroke would have caused. Chloé, a professional artist and tattoo artist in training, lost the use of fine motor skills in her dominant hand, as well as significant motor function on the entire right side of her body. She is currently still in the ICU while her doctors work to stabilize her sodium levels, which is proving to be very difficult. Once released from the ICU, she will need to go through extensive physical therapy to re-learn to walk, as well as speech pathology to help her regain her speech abilities. Mike has been by her side for 3 weeks, advocating for her and helping her understand her doctors’ advice and questions, which she can’t comprehend on her own. Because of this, Mike has had to take significant amounts of time off of work to be there for his wife.

Chloé is a long-time dog mom who has worked with multiple local animal shelters, and is a huge advocate for AHS Tinton falls, where she has adopted multiple dogs from. Mike “Terk” is a small business owner, you’ve probably seen him around town with one of their four rescue dogs, and have most likely had a conversation with him. Mike and Chloé are massive animal lovers, and selflessly adopt and foster dogs who have significant medical and behavioral issues. They are major advocates for animal rescue as well as addiction recovery.

The road to recovery for Chloé is long and brutal, and bills are still piling up. Chloé is still in the ICU and will be there indefinitely and will potentially be released into rehab to help with her stroke-like symptoms. On top of the surgical bills, ongoing ER and ICU bills, and physical therapy treatment which has not yet started, the two are feeling the stress of the broken medical system.

For those who know them, these two hate asking for help, and are more likely to be the ones giving help rather than receiving it. They are amazing members of our community, and are always ready and willing to lend a helping hand. They are in desperate need of our help this time, and we hope everyone can come together to help support these wonderful people.