Joyce Maestas

Hello family and friends, in the afternoon of November 16th 2018, my husband Cody Maestas had a seizure while laying on our living room couch and went into a coma.  Upon arrival to Saint Rose Sienna, the hospital staff inserted a ventilator tube down his throat to his lungs. Shortly after, they did an MRI on his head to see why this seizure occurred. Two days later, the doctor had some bad news; there was a big black mass on Cody’s left temporal lobe. The doctors told us that they did not know what it was or what caused it and that it could be one of a few different things such as an infection , a tumor, or cancer. This was terrifying news. The doctors started giving Cody antibiotics through I.V. just incase it was an infection. Cody remained in a coma for 4 very long days. On November 20th, around 7 in the morning, Cody woke up and pulled the ventilator tube out of his throat. Even though my husband was no longer in a coma, he still wasn’t all there. He was still very groggy and his speech was affected by the mass on his brain. At this time, the doctors were scheduling a biopsy surgery to find out what that mass was but couldn’t because Cody was taking blood thinners due to a blood clot in a vein going to his liver (portal vein thrombosis). So we had to wait until his blood was able to clot again before surgery was even an option. On November 29th, Cody’s blood finally thickened up enough for surgery, so off to the operating room he went. Later that day, he comes back to his room and his whole head is wrapped with bandages, which caused some concern. The next day, the surgeon’s assistant removes all the bandages to reveal a gigantic incision that stretched from in front of Cody’s left ear, to the top of his head and curved down to the middle of his forehead. Later on, the doctor comes in and tells us that the mass was a  chronic bacterial abscess and the biopsy surgery turned into a full blown brain surgery because the it popped when they entered his skull. The doctors took some samples and tested it and didn’t know exactly what it was so they sent it out to California for a second opinion. It looked like a  bacterial infection but since he had already been on antibiotics, the sample was already being eaten away so they weren’t able to figure out what exactly it was. The solution the doctors came up with was to give Cody every antibiotic under the sun until the infection is completely gone.

Time passes and Cody is making great progress! His speech is improving, he sits at the edge of his bed during physical therapy and he knows where he is at so the doctors talk about transferring him to a rehabilitation center around the corner from our house. The doctors said that Cody should be there for 6 to 8 weeks getting antibiotics and rehab everyday. On December 10th, Cody got transferred to the Kindred facility at Saint Rose DeLima. Everything is flowing smoothly, Cody is talking a lot, he’s eating  puréed food, and he’s more alert. A couple weeks later, Cody starts going down hill. He’s eating less and less, his speech is really slurred and mumbled, he’s sleeping around the clock and it’s hard to wake him, he’s not doing any physical therapy, he’s  hallucinating, having ridiculous mood swings, and he’s really swollen. We found out two things. The first thing is that he has  ascites (an abnormal build up of fluid in the abdomen) caused by his liver being bad due to the clot. The second thing that we found out was that the night nurses had been giving Cody sedation medication even though his main doctor put an end to all sedation a long time ago at the other hospital. We were furious because this was supposed to be the final stretch and Cody was transferred to this facility to get better so he could come home to our family but he ended up going down hill.  I was fed up with all  the abuse and lack of care, so I  spoke with the main doctor and requested that my husband be transferred back to Sienna. On Monday January 7th 2019, Cody was transferred back. Upon arrival to Sienna, they ran tests on every part of Cody and find out that his liver is not working properly, he is extremely malnourished, his kidneys are not working properly, and he has liquid in his lungs. They discover a big bed sore on his bottom and cuts and bruises all over him. Wednesday the 9th, he goes under the knife again to remove all the built up liquid in his abdomen. After the procedure, several doctors came in and told me that he is improving. Now Cody is speaking a lot more clear and he is a lot more aware of what is going on. 

This all has been a long painful and very stressful nightmare and we still have a long road ahead of us. This has been so expensive and we have exhausted all of our savings and our income has dropped a lot. I am asking for $5,000 but anything will help. Please share. Thank you for taking the time to read all this and God bless you.