Jeff and Kelly Siegenthaler - Emergency Expenses

Hi everyone, my name is Kirsten. I am reaching out to you all to ask for help and support for my dad, Jeff Siegenthaler, who had to have emergency open heart surgery on Sunday, November 13th.

On Sunday, my dad started experiencing symptoms that mimic a heart attack. He was transported to the hospital to ultimately discover that his aorta had dissected into multiple parts. Your aorta is the main artery that carries blood away from your heart to the rest of your body. After they diagnosed him, they immediately had to transport him to Cleveland to have emergency open heart surgery. At this point in time, the doctors were unsure he was going to make it because his diagnosis would be fatal if left untreated almost immediately. By the Grace of God, he made it and he was taken in for surgery that would last 6-8 hours. They also were unsure what else they would have to fix once they were in there. During his surgery he had to be put on bypass multiple times. They also had found that his aorta not only dissected downwards, but also upwards causing it to block his right carotid artery. It was 99.9% blocked which means he was losing almost all blood flow to his brain. They were in turn worried he would suffer from some loss of brain function. They also had to repair his heart valve because it was leaking. After surgery, he was at increased risk of excessive bleeding and having a stroke. They had to monitor him closely for the next 4-6 hours and then would start the process of waking him up to do tests to determine brain function. My dad ended up making it through that time without any complications and was ready for the next steps. At this point, they were going to start waking him up to do brain tests. They did the testing and did not think he had any loss of brain function which was amazing news considering he had very minimal blood flow to his brain for an unknown amount of time. The next few hours would entail waking him up every so often to see how his pain was and then putting him back to sleep. The following morning, they had to do blood work and make sure that it looked normal so they could go ahead and take out his breathing tube. Everything came back how it should and they removed the tube. Since then he has been doing as expected. Good, but in an extreme amount of pain. He’s still on a heavy flow of oxygen and pain medication, but they’re doing their best to keep him comfortable. They’re hopeful that in the next few days they can transfer him out of the ICU to a step down room to start truly recovering. His recovery is going to be extremely long and hard. It will entail therapy, many many appointments, taking things extremely easy, and ultimately not being able to work. This is going to unfortunately entail a lot of expensive medical bills. My mom is currently staying in Cleveland to be as close as possible to him, but is not allowed to stay with him. She is also having to take off of work.

If you know my dad, you know he is rough around the edges. Straight to the point and tells it like it is. But he has a huge heart. He loves with everything in him. He’s a hard worker and will give you the shirt off his back if need be. He’s a fighter and will persevere through this tragically unexpected time. Please help me in showing support to my dad and mom during this time of need. All proceeds that are raised will go directly towards food & lodging expenses during my moms stay in Cleveland and first and foremost, all of my dads medical bills. This will help relive some stress so they can focus on my dads recovery and healing process.

Our family understands that times are tough so if you can not make any monetary donations, please share this and keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you in advance.