Kipp Mckay continue to have home care

Major medical catastrophic incidents put us in places we never imagined ourselves to be. Many of you know that Kipp had several strokes last November, afterwards spending time in ICU, 3 weeks in the hospital 6 weeks in a Skilled Nursing Facility before coming home in time for Christmas.

The most distressing thing is that this should have never have happened. Some things can just not be made up because the nightmare is real. Kipp had had several small strokes prior to last November that led him to be unstable on his feet. On 11/4/2021 he fell in the bathroom and injured his hip. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital. At the ER the X-ray showed no fracture, just severe bruising of the hip. Other blood tests showed an elevated white count and they wanted a urine sample. Due to his pain level, he was unable to provide a urine sample so they proceeded to use a catheter method in which they injured him and caused bleeding. He was admitted to the hospital to manage the bleeding and hip pain. In the hospital his blood thinners were stopped to control the bleeding from the catheter injury, he suffered a stroke within 48 hours due to stopping the blood thinners. From the stroke, he aspirated vomit which caused sepsis, and he went into cardiac arrest. He was revived with CPR, intubated and placed in ICU.

His story got worse…during his stroke episode they placed a catheter in his thigh to administer medications. After days in ICU, coming off intubation, talking, sitting on the side of the bed, etc. they decided to move him from ICU to the stroke unit. Upon removing the thigh catheter he began to hemorrhage at the site. It was found that a through and through puncture of his femoral artery had occurred during placement of the CVL catheter. He had to have many blood transfusions and surgical placement of a stent to repair the puncture. During the event his blood thinners were stopped again and he suffered a more severe stroke leaving him without movement on his right side. After more time in the hospital he was released to the SNF late last year.

I contacted many attorney’s in our area about this, and while they all said there was an obvious case, due to California’s personal injury limits of $250,000 it wouldn’t be worth it to go against a big hospital because of the costs to go against their unlimited resources and nothing would be left for Kipp. I could find no one to take his case even though they agreed that thing went seriously wrong.

Since January we have proceeded with home health, PT, OT, ST and did our best. But August 12th he suffered another stroke that affected his strong side. He spent more time in the hospital and I was advised that he should go to a SNF again. After 12 days of maltreatment at the SNF he was taken by ambulance to the ER for loss of consciousness. It was found he had developed a severe pressure sore, he was badly dehydrated and had sepsis. They advised he go back to a SNF…I refused and they agreed if I had a home caregiver.

That is where we are at…he is not yet eligible for Medicare, we don’t qualify for Medi-cal, we fall in the middle. Not low enough income to qualify for assistance, not rich enough to have unlimited income. Just an average family.

I knew if I took him back to a SNF he wouldn’t last for long. So I brought him home and privately pay for caregivers but that can’t last much longer. Our medical costs, loss of income, etc.

At this point he is bed bound, has a permanent feeding tube (unable to swallow), and needs someone with him 24 hours a day. Which is mostly me .

I never would have imagined I would be in the place to ask for assistance, but life takes us to those places.

At this time the cost of home care is $40/hr which I have been able to pay for so far, but we are in a tough place until he qualifies for more assistance. At this point we pay 8 hrs/day @ $320/day and I provide the additional 16 hours which includes repositioning him every 2 to 3 hours including through the night. I am exhausted never sleeping more than 3 hours at a time.

My first request is…Do you know a Pro Bono Attorney that would look at his case? Second, embarrassingly, if you would like to help us out, we will gratefully and humbly accept.

Prayers are always the most welcome gift of all!