Help Needed for End of Life Care and Transition

Hello. My name is Skyler Newsome and I am fundraising for my grandparents Judy and Cornelius "Whitey" Newsome.

My grandpa Cornelius is a US Army Veteran, stationed as an officer in Germany during the Vietnam War. He and my grandma Judy have lived at their home in Warsaw for 48 years, and have just celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary. Together, they've started and run several commercial cleaning companies, serving the Warsaw community until their retirement in 2003.

For the last 3 years, he has been undergoing dialysis to support the cleaning of his blood. He has been a lifelong diabetic, suffering from extreme vision impairment for the last 20 years (causing his early retirement) and stage 5 kidney failure.

In 2023, he cumulatively spent nearly 6 months hospitalized. During this medical care, he suffered a stroke in the basilar artery at the rear of his head. Miraculously, and thanks to the quick response of hospital staff, he came out of it with little to no repercussions. However, several weeks later, he underwent a procedure to remove gangrenous tissue from his right foot that resulted from poor circulation. Ultimately, amputation of his right leg below the knee was necessary to prevent the spread of infection. Included in his time in the hospital, he also spent several weeks in a rehab to home facility in an attempt to get his strength back. In total, since November 2023, he experienced 8 hospitalizations due to complications with attending dialysis, and difficulty caring for himself and difficulty for his wife Judy in caring for him without the use of his leg.

As of January 17th, the decision was made, according to the recommendations of doctors and nurses providing his care, to stop dialysis, as his body could no longer handle it in addition to it no longer benefitting him. He is currently on hospice care at home with his wife.

While our family is doing everything we can to help her and keep him comfortable, we were hit with an unexpected accident on January 23rd. While visiting him in their home, we felt the house shake. Minutes later, we were informed that a car had driven into their home after swerving to avoid another vehicle stopped on the road. The vehicle hit a main support beam, pushed the wall in about 3 feet, destroyed the exterior masonry, broke several water lines, including the hot water lines, and the bathroom it entered will effectively need to be demolished and rebuilt. As our family is adjusting and caring for our grandfather/father and attempting to ease the burden of our grandmother/mother, we did not expect something like this to happen. We are doing all we can to help them have plenty of food, water, assistance with care, and clean clothes.

While the VA hospital and Medicare have been instrumental in covering the vast majority of his care over the last year, there are things they would not cover. Specifically, his time spent in a rehab facility was not covered, and my grandma will have to pay out of pocket for that.

This care comprises the majority of my goal for this fundraiser, but I'd also love to raise a little extra to give to my grandma Judy to cover the expenses she will incur from having such extensive damage done to her home in an already difficult time. Things like extra food, extra water, gas, laundromat visits - things she may need to take care of if we are unable to provide them for her for any reason.

Anyone who knows Whitey and Judy knows that they are two of the sweetest and most caring people in the world. They've spent their lives taking care of others, and I'd love for all of us to show them that we'll take care of them in this incredibly difficult time. Anything and everything helps.

Thank you for considering us and for any help you can provide.