Matt and Katy Smith's Story
Donation protected
Matt and Katy Smith started just like a lot of other couples. They met, fell in love, got married and were starting their life together. They were married on December 2, 2018, just five months ago. Matt was working at a pest control company and Katy was working at a Radiology group in Braselton, cleaning and organizing their supplies. A couple of medical crises changed their lives completely.
First, Katy had to have emergency gall bladder surgery in January of 2019. This resulted in a lot of medical bills piling up, in addition to their normal monthly expenses and the cost of setting up housekeeping as a newly married couple. Katy was out of work for two months.
Then on May 1st, (his birthday), Matt had an episode while driving. He was sitting at a light when he blacked out for a minute, and had trouble speaking. Katy took over and drove him home. Katy and Scott (his Dad) took him to the ER. They ran tests and sent him home.
Two days later, on May 3rd, Matt was at work and his left hand went numb. His boss called paramedics and they took him to the nearest hospital. After taking a CT Scan, the hospital decided that he could be treated better by the specialists at their Marietta hospital. The specialists wanted him at the Marietta hospital as soon as possible so they transported him (by ambulance, siren on) to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta GA. After doing an MRI they found that he had suffered a stroke.They ran tests all weekend trying to find the cause of the stroke. No luck.
On Monday, they did a test where they ran a small camera down his esophagus to look at the back side of the heart. They discovered that there was an infection on the aortic valve, and some on the mitral valve. The infection has damaged the aortic valve and it needs to be replaced with open heart surgery.
The infection was causing his body to throw off small clots, which is the source of the stroke he had on May 3rd. Infectious disease doctors are running blood tests trying to find the source of the infection. The infection is also causing issues with his blood. They have put Matt on IV antibiotics for the next 4-6 weeks to fight the infection before they can do the open heart surgery.
As of May 14, Matt has been allowed to fight the infection from home, at least until the decision is made on when to do the open heart surgery. Matt receives an IV treatment of antibiotics every 8 hours around the clock. He will have to have his blood tested two times a week. If a certain test shows low numbers, he will have to be given plasma protein and fibrinogen to get the numbers up so that he will not be subject to having a bleed. The hospital has plasma and fibrinogen on hand so if he goes in for testing and the numbers are not good, they will be able to administer the needed blood products to bring the numbers back up.
After the 4-6 week antibiotic treatment his team of 4 doctors will decide when it is safe for Matt to have open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve and repair the mitral valve.
After the surgery Matt will be facing a 6 week recovery time before he can go back to work. During that time, he will have no income.
We are asking for donations not only for the extremely high medical bills from Matt’s hospital stays and treatments and upcoming open heart surgery, but also from Katy’s surgery in January. All of this is facing a newly married couple who were married only five months ago and who are still trying to get their normal living expenses in order. With Matt out of work, he and Katy are worried that they will not be able to pay for their apartment and normal expenses while he is going through this medical challenge.Matt and Katy started off like any other couple, but now they are on a different journey. They are facing the future with hope and holding onto each other and God.
Any donations would be appreciated. God Bless and Thank you so much!
First, Katy had to have emergency gall bladder surgery in January of 2019. This resulted in a lot of medical bills piling up, in addition to their normal monthly expenses and the cost of setting up housekeeping as a newly married couple. Katy was out of work for two months.
Then on May 1st, (his birthday), Matt had an episode while driving. He was sitting at a light when he blacked out for a minute, and had trouble speaking. Katy took over and drove him home. Katy and Scott (his Dad) took him to the ER. They ran tests and sent him home.
Two days later, on May 3rd, Matt was at work and his left hand went numb. His boss called paramedics and they took him to the nearest hospital. After taking a CT Scan, the hospital decided that he could be treated better by the specialists at their Marietta hospital. The specialists wanted him at the Marietta hospital as soon as possible so they transported him (by ambulance, siren on) to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta GA. After doing an MRI they found that he had suffered a stroke.They ran tests all weekend trying to find the cause of the stroke. No luck.
On Monday, they did a test where they ran a small camera down his esophagus to look at the back side of the heart. They discovered that there was an infection on the aortic valve, and some on the mitral valve. The infection has damaged the aortic valve and it needs to be replaced with open heart surgery.
The infection was causing his body to throw off small clots, which is the source of the stroke he had on May 3rd. Infectious disease doctors are running blood tests trying to find the source of the infection. The infection is also causing issues with his blood. They have put Matt on IV antibiotics for the next 4-6 weeks to fight the infection before they can do the open heart surgery.
As of May 14, Matt has been allowed to fight the infection from home, at least until the decision is made on when to do the open heart surgery. Matt receives an IV treatment of antibiotics every 8 hours around the clock. He will have to have his blood tested two times a week. If a certain test shows low numbers, he will have to be given plasma protein and fibrinogen to get the numbers up so that he will not be subject to having a bleed. The hospital has plasma and fibrinogen on hand so if he goes in for testing and the numbers are not good, they will be able to administer the needed blood products to bring the numbers back up.
After the 4-6 week antibiotic treatment his team of 4 doctors will decide when it is safe for Matt to have open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve and repair the mitral valve.
After the surgery Matt will be facing a 6 week recovery time before he can go back to work. During that time, he will have no income.
We are asking for donations not only for the extremely high medical bills from Matt’s hospital stays and treatments and upcoming open heart surgery, but also from Katy’s surgery in January. All of this is facing a newly married couple who were married only five months ago and who are still trying to get their normal living expenses in order. With Matt out of work, he and Katy are worried that they will not be able to pay for their apartment and normal expenses while he is going through this medical challenge.Matt and Katy started off like any other couple, but now they are on a different journey. They are facing the future with hope and holding onto each other and God.
Any donations would be appreciated. God Bless and Thank you so much!
Organizer and beneficiary
Scott Smith
Organizer
Dawsonville, GA
Matthew Smith
Beneficiary