Help support Rey against COVID-19

For the past few weeks, my dad, Rey Punzal, has been in the ICU at a local San Diego hospital. After being initially diagnosed with pneumonia on March 23, 2020, his condition quickly worsened and was admitted to the hospital two days later after his fever would not break, his body would not stop experiencing chills, and his oxygen levels dropped dangerously low. The next day, he was confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19. Due to his inability to receive enough oxygen on his own, he had to be placed on a rotating bed, intubated, and heavily sedated in order to relax his body into accepting oxygen by ventilator. While being hospitalized, his fever slowly waned but his lungs started to fill with water and his kidneys began to fail. On April 8, 2020, the doctors put him on dialysis but at times his blood pressure would drop so low that they needed to stop despite his high creatinine levels.

Thankfully over time, his body started to respond well to the dialysis and his lungs began to slowly need less support from the ventilators. Currently, he is still on dialysis and the ventilators are only on back up. While my dad has been progressing extremely well, being heavily sedated for so long has begun to present new sets of issues. The heavy sedation had been making it hard for him to properly wake up and respond to commands that test his reflexes and awareness. But on April 9, 2020, a week after we were first told his organs were failing, he was able to open his eyes for the very first time! Since then, he’s been able to sometimes blink and weakly squeeze the doctor’s finger but still has difficulty following the doctor’s finger with his eyes. But during the long period of heavy sedation, he also developed chronic illness myopathy, which means his muscles have weakened severely. Due to this muscle weakness, he has virtually no gag reflex, which is critical in removing any build up in his lungs.

Right now (as of April 18, 2020), if my dad manages to test negative for COVID-19 twice, doctors are considering tracheostomy (a surgery that involves cutting a hole through the neck into the windpipe or trachea) in order to aid in removing build up in his lungs if he remains unable to do so himself. While my dad has been doing so well so far, we’re still uncertain of the extent of the damage the virus has already caused and how long that will affect his recovery going forward. So in this time of difficulty, my family and I are asking for any financial support (and prayer especially!) to help alleviate the financial burden as my dad recovers.

As hard as it’s been these past few weeks without being able to physically be with my dad or communicate with him in any way, my family’s been so incredibly touched by all of the love and support that’s been extended to my dad. Whether it’s through money or encouraging words or just prayer, anything and everything means the world to us right now. To anyone still reading up to this point, I sincerely hope and wish that you and your family have been well and taking extra care always. I know it’s not just a difficult time for my family but for everyone as well in their own different ways but still, let’s flatten the curve and avoid potentially overwhelming our healthcare system by doing our part in staying home, social distancing, wearing masks, and frequently washing your hands! Love you all and keeping everyone in our prayers! Stay safe!

Much love,
Punzal Family