Help Zach Schimmel Recover from Brain Cancer!

For those of you that do not know, Zachary Schimmel, who is only 27 years old, has been medically sedated, on a ventilator, in a Neurological Intensive Care Unit for about 1 week now (Since July 31st). He has had 2 brain surgeries and is unable to talk, or breath on his own. As of now Zach is unaware of what is happening. He has been medically sedated since the first seizure Saturday and is still unaware of his current condition. For a detailed timeline on what has happened so far medically, please see below.

The doctors are expecting him to be in the ICU for at least another month, and are saying that it will be months before Zach is able to work, drive or live anything near a normal life again. We are unsure of when he will be released from the hospital. We are asking for help to cover his expenses to relieve any additional stress on himself, Carrie, & his family at this time.

While we are still in the waiting process, his medical bills are continuing to grow, and like many people around our age, Zach is uninsured and has yet to build much savings. We are asking for any kind of support that could be provided, whether that is financially, by donating, or by sharing this link with as many people as you can. We will continue to update all of you on his progress and care, as we get updates ourselves.

Before this past weekend, Zach and his girlfriend, Carrie, were approved for their first apartment together. Their move-in date was Sunday, August 1st, the day after he was taken and admitted into the hospital. Carrie has not left Zachary’s side since this has happened and is quickly running out of her sick days and vacation days. On top of everything going on with Zach, Carrie is now left with the responsibility of caring for all of their expenses alone, while also trying to be at his side.

While we will have a lot of bad news for Zachary when he wakes up, we are hoping that through this GoFundMe, we will be able to give him some good news as well by showing him how much love and support he has and by having this donation fund to take some of this weight off of himself & Carrie, by helping to pay for all of his expenses.

DETAILED TIMELINE:

On Saturday July 31st Zachary was celebrating the gender reveal of his good friend’s baby when he unexpectedly collapsed at the party. He was taken to the nearest hospital, thinking he had heat exhaustion and needed rehydration, but on the way to the hospital he began having seizures in the ambulance. At the hospital they found that Zach’s brain was enlarged and he had hydrocephalus (extra fluid on the brain). After running multiple tests, the CT revealed that he had a brain tumor. They tried to have an MRI done to get a better picture of the tumor but unfortunately it was not possible because Zachary had another seizure during the procedure.

It was at this time that Zachary was transferred to another local hospital to have emergency brain surgery, to install a drain into his head. This was to drain the extra fluid and relieve as much pressure off his brain as possible. Once some of the pressure was relieved, they successfully performed an MRI which showed that he had a 4cm tumor between his 3rd and 4th ventricles, pressing on his pineal gland (right in the center of his brain). The doctors waited 1.5 days to perform surgery to allow some of the brain swelling to go down before operating.

Monday August 2nd, Zachary went in for surgery to remove the tumor. Unfortunately, the doctors were unable to remove all of the tumor, due to how deep it was within the brain. The part of the tumor that was removed was sent to a laboratory at Duke University to have testing done to determine the type of tumor and what treatment the remaining part will need moving forward. Pathology can take about a week to get back, so we are still waiting to hear those results.

Since surgery things have been quite a rollercoaster ride. Zachary has been kept medically sedated and is still on a breathing tube, using a ventilator to breathe. His brain pressures (ICP: intracranial pressure), have not been stable, they are constantly elevated and he needs fluid drained from his brain every hour. He has also spiked a fever, with his temperature sitting at about 101 degrees, even while taking around the clock Tylenol. He has not been able to be woken up, due to his continuously unsteady ICPs and his elevated heart rates.

Wednesday August 4th, overnight, into Thursday August 5th, Zachary had fallen from his bed, resulting in many of his monitoring devices being removed (ripped off). The drain in his head (which also measures his ICP) was ripped out, his ventilator tubes were disconnected, and his arterial line was ripped out. Zach did have his head drain reinstalled but the resulting damage from the drain being removed so rapidly/traumatically is unknown. Unfortunately we will not know if there is any damage until the doctors are able to un-sedate him and wake him up.

Today, Zachary is still medically sedated. We are waiting to hear what the next plan of action is. Once we receive an update, we will update all of you as well.