Lift Spirits, Lift Hope: Support Jim's Triumph Over Tragedy

My name is James Lea, and I became a bilateral below the knee (BKA) amputee on February 8, 2022, due to a simple mitral valve surgery that went catastrophically wrong. All ten of my fingers will be amputated, as well. The fingers on my right hand were amputated on June 23, 2022, and those on the left will be amputated soon after that.

 

I am currently unable to work to support my family, and my wife, Michelle, is my full-time caretaker and, because of this, cannot work.

 

The short part of a very long story (which will be given below) is: WE NEED A LOT OF HELP, AND WE NEED IT QUICKLY.

 

I've spent my life in service to others. Over the last 30 years or so, I've been to numerous disaster areas and war zones. In 2019, I went to Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas to help coordinate an airlift after hurricane Dorian destroyed the island. While I was in the Bahamas serving after the hurricane, I was bitten by a mosquito, and I contracted West Nile encephalitis. This disease wreaked havoc on my body and mind. One of the side effects of having the disease was that my mitral valve tore and nearly failed entirely in June 2021. At that time, COVID-19 was prevalent in our local hospitals, and my heart surgeon suggested I wait to have the mitral valve repaired until COVID-19 cleared out.

 

On December 8, 2021, I walked into the operating room to have what was supposed to be a simple surgery to repair my mitral valve using a minimally invasive approach. The surgery was supposed to take a couple of hours, and I was supposed to be able to drive myself home within three or four days. Something went catastrophically wrong during the surgery, triggering a sequence of events that would change my life forever.

 

I was in the original operating room for about 15 hours before I was transferred to another hospital in Orlando, Florida. Once I arrived at the new hospital, they continued with their efforts to keep me alive. I was told that I received an entire blood bank refrigerator full of blood during the first seven hours that I was at the hospital in Orlando. We still don't know what exactly happened, but we do know that I was in the hospital for nearly five months and in a coma for about two months. I was on every form of life support that they could give me, and I was on an ECMO machine for at least 56 days. I've been told that most people on ECMO don't survive if they are on it for more than two weeks.

 

One of the things that were done to help save my life was to put me on vasopressor drugs for about 2 1/2 months. Vasopressors work by constricting the capillaries in your extremities to force the blood to go to your vital organs. This means that my hands and my feet had restricted blood supply for 2 1/2 months. It is believed that because of this, both of my feet died and became gangrenous. All 10 of my fingers also died and became gangrenous as well. My feet were amputated on February 8, 2022, and the fingers on my right hand were amputated on June 23, 2022. The fingers on my left hand should be amputated within the next few weeks.

 

While in the hospital, I suffered a couple of dime-sized strokes. I also suffered a brain bleed in the region of my brain where my vision is controlled. I now suffer from extreme hearing loss and my left eye is currently uncorrectable. I am scheduled to see an ophthalmologist specializing in neurology in mid-August. I hope that she will be able to help restore my eyesight.

 

At this point, I am 100% disabled and unable to work to support my family. My wife is my full-time caretaker 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and she cannot work outside the home. Currently, she is not being compensated for being my caretaker, end it appears that she never will be. I have numerous doctor appointments every week, many of which are several hours away from home. These doctor appointments cost a tremendous amount of money for fuel to get to and from them, and we also have to eat out at least once every time we go to the doctor because we are so far away from home.

 

I've started a YouTube channel called the Legless Dad to help others who might be going through the same thing that I am. One of the ways that you can help is to subscribe to the channel and watch the videos. Also, please like each of the videos and share them on all of your social media. I need to gain a total of 1000 subscribers and have a total of 5000 hours of videos being watched before I can do things such as have live streams and question and answer sessions. Our family also has another YouTube channel called Ham Radio dot World. If you are interested in amateur radio, be sure to check out the channel and subscribe to it as well.

 

Many of you know that we have a family business called Shack-in-a-Box. We continue to work on this business, but I cannot do any of the work. Michelle and the children are doing their best to earn a living for our family, but we are falling short – way short. Another way you can help us is to purchase one of our ham radio go kits or solar generators. You can find out about them on our website.

 

We are asking for a large amount of money because our need is great. We hope that we will figure out how to increase our family income under the new circumstances that we have been dealt. However, we are not sure if we will be able to do so. The funds we are asking for will be used to help cover living expenses, find ways to make the business more profitable and for me to work in it, and possibly for durable medical equipment such as prosthetic legs, prosthetic hands, and possibly a power wheelchair. At the moment, our insurance has denied me all of the durable medical equipment that I need to be able to have a somewhat normal life.

 

Please be generous with your giving – we need your help. Also, please share this GoFundMe campaign on all of your social media accounts. Even if you were unable or unwilling to help financially, sharing the GoFundMe campaign can make a huge difference in helping us meet our needs. We appreciate your help, and we love all of you!

 

For those interested in seeing photographs, keep scrolling to see some pictures of me in the hospital. Be forewarned; some of them are pretty graphic!

 

 

 

This is the last photograph that was taken of me before my surgery. This is the last photograph ever taken of me before my life was completely changed.

 

 

Taken only four days after my surgery, this photograph shows me in a coma in the hospital. I was in a coma for nearly two months.

 

The large, blood filled, tubes coming out of my shoulder and my belly are from the ECMO machines. These are the heart-lung machine that kept me alive. Most people do not survive being on ECMO for more than a couple of weeks, but I was on it for at least 56 days and I am here to tell the tale.

 

This photograph is one week after the initial surgery that killed me.

 

 

This photograph was taken at 6:01 PM on Christmas Eve, 2021. I don't remember Christmas nor my youngest daughter's birthday from last year.

 

 

This is the homemade cake from my youngest daughter's 14th birthday party. I did not get to attend this party and I do not remember her turning 14 because I was in a coma.

 

 

This is what my left foot looked like after being on vasopressor drugs for about a month. As you can see, my foot had begun to die and gotten hard. Both of my feet were amputated on February 8, 2022. The fingers on my right hand or amputated on June 23, 2022, and the fingers on my left hand are scheduled to be amputated on July 14, 2022.

 

 

This photograph shows the fingers on my left hand after they had been subjected to vasopressor drugs for five weeks. As you can see, my fingers are dead and hard.

 

 

This is the last photograph I'm going to put in the story because go fund me only allows horizontal photographs. This photograph was taken two days after my feet were amputated, and it shows my two youngest daughters in the hospital room with me in Orlando, FL.