Kimberly Walburg’s Medical Bills

My name is Cara and I am Kim’s cousin. On May 6th: Kim began feeling symptoms such as bad migraine and had been vomiting off and on for almost 24 hours straight. She was taken to the ER, where she was tested for COVID, the flu, and they also did a blood test. Everything came back normal and negative. She was given an IV too, which helped her feel slightly better. She was released from the ER and was told she had a bad migraine. Wendy (Kim's mother) came down to stay with her over night.

May 7th: The symptoms of vomiting, fatigue and bad migraine persisted through the next 12 hours. She went back to the ER in the afternoon. This time they decided to do a CT scan of her head and brain. She sat in the hospital for 5 hours waiting to get imaging done. The CT scan revealed she had been suffering from a brain bleed. They called down and let Wendy know Kim needed care immediately. The first step would be a procedure to brain fluid from the brain to relieve pressure off of the brain. This was successful and they continued to monitor her overnight. The next step would be a Suboccipital decompressive craniectomy, which is the removal of the base of the skull temporarily to keep pressure off of the brain.

May 8th: The doctors called at 6:30am and said Kim couldn't wait anymore and needed to have the craniectomy because she was lethargic and the swelling continued. At this point they had still not confirmed the reason for the bleeding in the first place. The craniectomy would relieve pressure and allow them to further diagnose the problem. Kim went into the Suboccipital decompressive craniectomy surgery around 8:30am. The surgery took 3-4 hours and the doctors reported it went very well. They did an angiogram to try to determine the cause of the bleeding at about 2:30pm. This concluded that the brain hemorrhage was caused by an Atriovenous malformation (AVM). An AVM is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain that less than 1 percent of the population is born with. Only 4 percent of AVM's eventually hemorrhage. Kim's AVM will need to be removed. She will have a breathing tube in throughout the night and will have tubes draining the fluid from her brain for the next week. They took her off of sedation and she was responsive to commands, opening her eyes, and moving body parts. Kim will need another brain surgery to remove the AVM. This will be done in the next week to 10 days. They need to make sure the swelling of the brain goes down enough to perform the surgery but they do not want to wait too long.

Kim has a long road ahead of her. She will be in the ICU until the next surgery and then will be in the ICU for at least a week after the surgery. Her medical team has been superb in taking care of Kim and providing updates and expectations for the family.

Please pray for steady healing hands and wisdom for the medical team working with Kim. Pray for Decreased swelling, energy, healing, and no long-term complications associated with this whole progress. Pray for continued strength, and comfort for Kim's family that will be in the hospital with her through much of this process.

We are very grateful for the progress she has made so far and for all the prayers and support through this journey. Any funds raised will go Kim’s medical bills.