Help us fight my child’s rare disease
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Hi, my name is Beth, and I am my daughter's 24/7 caregiver (I get paid a stipend when she is home and not at a facility or hospital then I lose my income)it’s not much but every little bit helps me to stay with my daughter instead of work “I’m 58. We lost our immediate family and support system before Covid-19 in 2020. We lost my mom suddenly to brain cancer in December of 2017. Then my husband of 35 years died from a heart attack in March of 2018. Then my father had heart failure and died from a heart attack in November of 2019. Then in 2020, my disabled adult daughter contracted Covid-19, within 12 hours she was symptomatic, within 24 hours positive for Covid and within 36 hours she was hospitalized with staff pneumonia, sepsis, and blood clots in the legs and lungs. In 48 hours she was in ICU on a ventilator. After a month on the ventilator, there was no improvement, and the odds were against us, so she was life-flighted to a city hospital. They said her only option was ECMO but by some miracle her oxygen level started to rise and she started to improve. It was then that they discovered the stage 4 bed wound, I watched as a nurse put her entire fist into a hole in my daughter to measure approximate size. Two month later she was able to come off the ventilator and be awoken out of the medical induced coma she had a tracheostomy and feeding tube to help keep her alive. it was a long struggle but she finally recovered as much as she would by December 2020 we had gotten to go home without the tracheostomy it was a little rough at first but then every month she developed severe pneumonia and would have to be hospitalized eventually about July 2021 she was hospitalized for pneumonia again, this time they decided to do a bronchial scope and found that her trachea collapsed and they would have to reconstruct it. She had a NICU Intubation tube placed to save her airway, it was the only thing small enough to fit and they had a difficult time. She was in another medical induced coma on the ventilator, after about a month she was awoken and taken off the ventilator but they were unsure if she would ever speak again and she would live with the trach for the rest of her life. In September of 2021, she came home with a tracheostomy; she has severe lung failure from Covid, tissue and nerve damage as well, and an oxygen dependence requirement. It's been almost a year of ups and downs since she got home. I come to you as a mother that's been through hell and back and is down on her luck. My daughters doctors are 2-8 hours away some require a couple night stay and our car need work and upkeep and had is so expensive if we are going to continue to travel for her health , and she requires so many medical supplies like trach pads and collars as the cheap supplies causes irritations on the skin, oxygen supplies like an oximeter and vital devices I can monitor her with as well as other medical paraphernalia, to name a few adult diapers, diaper cream, over the counter medication and medications not covered by insurance, incontinence bed pads that is medicine and medical supplies (that Medicaid and Medicare does not cover). I'm trying to support my disabled daughter with a running vehicle and Maintain a home ( we struggle so much to pay the bills, but we have to wait for a handicapped place as she now requires a wheelchair, but it's a long process, so she is mostly home and bed bound for now), the food she can tolerate, which isn't much for example diet ginger ale, saltines, mashed potatoes, yogurt, ice cream, and on occasion, a plain, no sauce, cheese, pizza. I want to give her the best chance at life; Covid-19 took so much from her, so as a widowed mother from parent to parent, I humbly ask for help not for myself but my child. Help me feed her. Help me keep a running home. Help me buy the necessities she needs to try to function like you and me on our bad days. Help me provide a way to get her to treatment for a better life and a better future.
Fundraising team: Treatment for Terri (2)
Beth Lassiter
Organizer
Greensburg, PA
Mary Gesford
Team member