Help Linda through brain trauma recovery
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Hello Friends,
Thank you for showing consideration by visiting this page. We appreciate your compassion and hope you understand how your support would mean the world to us right now.
Linda Parkins (54 years old), suffered from a brain bleed that was detected on May 18th, 2020, by a CT scan after suffering from severe headaches that were so painful to the point she began vomiting and couldn’t see straight.
Linda was taken by ambulance from Lancaster, WI, to the UW Hospital in Madison, WI. When she arrived at UW, she was quickly taken into surgery due to pressure on her brain.
The following day she needed to have an additional surgery due to swelling and bleeding on her brain. This time they had to make a larger opening and chose to keep the bone piece off to allow the swelling to go down over time in hopes this was going to assist in a faster recovery.
Linda didn’t have any head trauma or anything that led up to this occurring and the doctors are at a loss as to why this happened and is continuing to happen.
The doctors decided to perform an angiogram to try and determine if there was an underlying issue or an explanation as to why. The angiogram showed nothing unusual. Linda was having seizures and has been placed on seizure medication to keep them under control, and has sensors placed on her head periodically to track the seizures.
While at UW Hospital, Linda seemed to be improving. She was able to open her eyes and talk some. She was very tired but continued to fight as she wanted to be back home with her husband, son, daughter, and her fur babies (2 cocker spaniels).
Linda’s husband (Tom Parkins) was with her every day during the first month at UW, and was not allowed to sleep at the hospital overnight due to COVID-19.
Tom had to take the month off from work and needed to drive back and forth from his sister’s house in order to be with her daily so he didn’t have to do the 1 hour and 45 minute drive back home.
As you can imagine the medical bills are piling up even though they have insurance. The financial strain that this is causing for Linda and Tom makes us concerned, hence the reason we decided to set this up. Tom and Linda are not the type of people to ever ask for help. They are the ones always helping.
Linda was transferred to another medical facility for approximately 3 weeks to 1 month after being released from UW Hospital in hopes to start the rehabilitation process of PT and OT as she was able to start walking with a walker, feed herself, and talk some.
Unfortunately during this time, no one was allowed to see her due to COVID-19. Linda seemed to be declining from the minimal information we were being told by the nurses at the new medical facility. We voiced our concerns, so they contacted UW Hospital and spoke to the original neurosurgeons that performed the surgeries and they determined she needed to be transferred back to UW Hospital by ambulance as it seemed she had declined drastically from when they had last seen her and she wasn’t making any improvements.
Linda has been at UW Hospital again in Madison since last week Wednesday, and due to declining, she was placed into ICU this week and placed on her stomach as she had a rare brain condition known as Shrunken Brain Syndrome, and they are trying to determine if any of this decline is due to a spinal tap that was performed a while back to determine if she had an infection in her brain.
At this time it seems to be a guessing game and trial and error to determine what is going on as this is not the cookie cutter Traumatic Brain Injury.
There seems to be no answers to any of this.
Linda has had to have a feeding tube and breathing tube on and off over the past 2 plus months. Tom and Linda’s insurance company is making this even more stressful as they are stating that Linda had a stroke and it’s not medically necessary for her to be admitted into an actual hospital and they believe she should be in a nursing home. At no time has any doctor or nurse said to us that she had a stroke.
Tom and Linda have been happily married for 35 years, and it is taking a huge toll on Tom not having the love of his life home and healthy with him. Then not having anyone there to support him at times he’s supporting Linda.
COVID-19 is making this even harder as no one can visit Linda during this time, and she’s only allowed to have one person per day with her while she’s at the UW Hospital and none of the other facilities she may be transferred to will allow any visitors whatsoever.
This has been a living nightmare for Linda and her family.
As you can see there’s been a significant amount of hospital stays already and there’s a long road to recovery ahead.
We all need Linda; our wife, mother, daughter, sister, auntie, great-auntie, “grandma”, and in-law in our lives and need her to keep fighting the good fight and beat this.
We love you Mom/Linda...
Any donation isn’t too small and is greatly appreciated and our family will be forever grateful for anything you can provide. If you can’t afford anything monetarily, please keep Linda and her family in your prayers.
Thank you for showing consideration by visiting this page. We appreciate your compassion and hope you understand how your support would mean the world to us right now.
Linda Parkins (54 years old), suffered from a brain bleed that was detected on May 18th, 2020, by a CT scan after suffering from severe headaches that were so painful to the point she began vomiting and couldn’t see straight.
Linda was taken by ambulance from Lancaster, WI, to the UW Hospital in Madison, WI. When she arrived at UW, she was quickly taken into surgery due to pressure on her brain.
The following day she needed to have an additional surgery due to swelling and bleeding on her brain. This time they had to make a larger opening and chose to keep the bone piece off to allow the swelling to go down over time in hopes this was going to assist in a faster recovery.
Linda didn’t have any head trauma or anything that led up to this occurring and the doctors are at a loss as to why this happened and is continuing to happen.
The doctors decided to perform an angiogram to try and determine if there was an underlying issue or an explanation as to why. The angiogram showed nothing unusual. Linda was having seizures and has been placed on seizure medication to keep them under control, and has sensors placed on her head periodically to track the seizures.
While at UW Hospital, Linda seemed to be improving. She was able to open her eyes and talk some. She was very tired but continued to fight as she wanted to be back home with her husband, son, daughter, and her fur babies (2 cocker spaniels).
Linda’s husband (Tom Parkins) was with her every day during the first month at UW, and was not allowed to sleep at the hospital overnight due to COVID-19.
Tom had to take the month off from work and needed to drive back and forth from his sister’s house in order to be with her daily so he didn’t have to do the 1 hour and 45 minute drive back home.
As you can imagine the medical bills are piling up even though they have insurance. The financial strain that this is causing for Linda and Tom makes us concerned, hence the reason we decided to set this up. Tom and Linda are not the type of people to ever ask for help. They are the ones always helping.
Linda was transferred to another medical facility for approximately 3 weeks to 1 month after being released from UW Hospital in hopes to start the rehabilitation process of PT and OT as she was able to start walking with a walker, feed herself, and talk some.
Unfortunately during this time, no one was allowed to see her due to COVID-19. Linda seemed to be declining from the minimal information we were being told by the nurses at the new medical facility. We voiced our concerns, so they contacted UW Hospital and spoke to the original neurosurgeons that performed the surgeries and they determined she needed to be transferred back to UW Hospital by ambulance as it seemed she had declined drastically from when they had last seen her and she wasn’t making any improvements.
Linda has been at UW Hospital again in Madison since last week Wednesday, and due to declining, she was placed into ICU this week and placed on her stomach as she had a rare brain condition known as Shrunken Brain Syndrome, and they are trying to determine if any of this decline is due to a spinal tap that was performed a while back to determine if she had an infection in her brain.
At this time it seems to be a guessing game and trial and error to determine what is going on as this is not the cookie cutter Traumatic Brain Injury.
There seems to be no answers to any of this.
Linda has had to have a feeding tube and breathing tube on and off over the past 2 plus months. Tom and Linda’s insurance company is making this even more stressful as they are stating that Linda had a stroke and it’s not medically necessary for her to be admitted into an actual hospital and they believe she should be in a nursing home. At no time has any doctor or nurse said to us that she had a stroke.
Tom and Linda have been happily married for 35 years, and it is taking a huge toll on Tom not having the love of his life home and healthy with him. Then not having anyone there to support him at times he’s supporting Linda.
COVID-19 is making this even harder as no one can visit Linda during this time, and she’s only allowed to have one person per day with her while she’s at the UW Hospital and none of the other facilities she may be transferred to will allow any visitors whatsoever.
This has been a living nightmare for Linda and her family.
As you can see there’s been a significant amount of hospital stays already and there’s a long road to recovery ahead.
We all need Linda; our wife, mother, daughter, sister, auntie, great-auntie, “grandma”, and in-law in our lives and need her to keep fighting the good fight and beat this.
We love you Mom/Linda...
Any donation isn’t too small and is greatly appreciated and our family will be forever grateful for anything you can provide. If you can’t afford anything monetarily, please keep Linda and her family in your prayers.
Fundraising team (3)
Dustin Parkins
Organizer
Waterloo, IA
Lucille Umohette
Team member
Amber Parkins
Team member