Help Tim Wickstrom and his battle with COVID-19

Hi:

 

My name is Arielle Wickstrom and I’m the eldest daughter to my Dad, Tim Wickstrom.

 

So why are we here?

 

In late August, right after the kids went back to school, my Dad contracted COVID from one of his kids. After quarantining for several weeks at home, he admitted himself into the MedStar emergency room on the 3rd of September. When he went in, we thought he’d improve quickly and we’d see him soon.

 

What we didn’t know at the time was that Dad had also caught pneumonia as well. Five days later, his condition had declined so severely that was moved into the ICU. On the morning of the 12th, I received a call at 3am finding out that Dad needed to be induced into a medical coma and then put on a ventilator where they informed me that once on a ventilator the chances of him coming off of it were around 10%.

 

Two days later, it got even worse. Dad’s lungs were so damaged that the ventilator just wasn’t effective enough to get him enough oxygen. On top of this, his kidneys started to fail. MedStar was almost out of options for Dad’s critical condition, so thankfully they reached out to John Hopkins for assistance.

 

Somehow, we were able to secure the last bed Hopkins had open so on the night of the 14th, he was airlifted for Hopkins to takeover his care. Upon arrival, they connected him to an ECMO machine (pumps blood out, super oxygenates the blood, pumps it back into Dad) and a dialysis machine for his kidneys.

 

Then, we had to wait. I got calls every other day and each update seemed like riding a rollercoaster where every day I did not know whether the call was going to be good news or if I was going to pick up the phone to find out he was declining again or the worst possible scenario, gone. It was a brutal and I don’t wish that on anyone.

 

I think it was on day 50 or 51 when I finally got ‘that’ call from the Hopkins Doctor. They were starting to wake him up.

 

It sounded great at the time but it was another mixed bag of news. On one hand, he was finally awake, but he still cannot speak due to the ventilator and they actually needed to get him on physical therapy because his lungs weren’t showing signs of recovery. Since that day, it’s the same. Some things have improved and others declined.

 

At the time of writing this, Dad has been in the hospital for 87 days and he’s been sick over 100 days. He’s still on ECMO, dialysis, and the ventilator. Our goal is to get him off of ECMO and get him healthy enough for a lung transplant and one of his kidneys. We’re unsure but hopeful we’ll get there.

 

 

About us:

 

Tim has four kids including me (Arielle) who is the oldest: Arielle 23, Bailey 18, Sawyer 15, and Abby 13. Our Dad has been single for the last year and a half and lives in Howard County, MD with the three youngest kids. Dad’s been running a USSSA youth baseball tournament business for the past few years. I was working and finishing my last year of college in Pittsburgh but I’ve since moved back home to run the house, be the kid’s temporary guardian, and finish my undergraduate remotely.

 

We had thought this was going to be temporary we’re facing challenges.

 

Our Current Challenges:

 

With such little notice, it’s been extremely difficult to try to understand and run Dad’s business but we were able to successfully finish up the Fall season of tournaments. Unfortunately, at this time we aren’t able to plan for Spring so we’re at a loss at what to do going forward.

 

We don’t currently have an incoming revenue from my Dad’s business. Nor can I work as I’m already overwhelmed with finishing my last year of college, completing a full time internship, and running the house.

 

We have started to fall behind on some of the bills but it’s be amazing how extremely kind and understanding many have been. Thank you for your grace if you are one of those kind souls!

 

We’re in the progress of filing for aid with the County but the system is still behind and no one knows when everything will be processed. This said, we and have had an amazing group of people supporting us and we’re both grateful and humbled by the generosity of the Howard County school system, Sawyer’s baseball teams, and our close friends and family. Thank you from all of us! You have no idea how much your kindness has helped.

 

All things said, we’re running out of funds and need help getting through till Dad can come off of treatment and get through physical therapy. This will be a long road so we’re grateful for any help you may be able to provide.

If you share or post add the hashtag!

#HelpTimBeatCovid