Morgan’s Stroke Recovery: Help Support Family

On November 18th, 2024, Morgan Hentemann was admitted to Sparrow Hospital, leaving her 4 children and a newborn infant daughter with family. The admittance seemed routine and appeared to be symptoms of postpartum preeclampsia. Thursday, November 21st completely changed Morgan and her husband Stephen’s life. Morgan had a non-emergency MRI completed that revealed an unknown 4 cm brain aneurysm that had ruptured. Morgan was immediately rushed to the Neuro ICU at U of M Sparrow and underwent a procedure to stabilize the aneurysm. Over the next two weeks and several procedures later, Morgan’s condition waxed and waned. Morgan’s medical needs required an additional six vasospasm procedures to maintain blood flow to her brain.

On November 30th at 10:30 pm, Morgan tragically suffered a shocking second re-rupture of her aneurysm. Due to this re-rupture, Morgan went into severe cardiac arrest. The rupture and cardiac arrest event left half of Morgan’s brain starved for oxygen for an unknown length of time. Morgan’s husband Stephen was left making life and death decisions for his wife of 10.5 years. Stephen chose to fight for Morgan’s life and the choice was clear, emergency transport to U of M Ann Arbor. Sparrow rushed the order and U of M accepted.

Fast forward to today - Morgan’s aneurysm is stabilized, but her family’s life is completely shattered. Morgan had to remain in a medical coma for 1 month. Her husband Stephen has faithfully advocated for her and remained by her side day and night since November 18th. Due to these necessary decisions, their family has been swamped with expenses while missing some of the most sentimental holidays due to this traumatic experience. Morgan is attempting to recover, but her injuries are severe. Medically speaking: Morgan is in God’s hands, but her husband and children (ages 3 months - 9 years) are trying their best to maintain as both Morgan and Stephen have been out of work for 2 plus months.

Friends and family have tried their best to support, but this is a journey that Morgan and Stephen will be on for at least another 8 months in optimistic terms.

Going forward, Morgan will have many therapies to help with her recovery including but not limited to heavy physical rehab, speech therapy, neuro specialists, and of course, medical expenses are all to be expected. Due to high costs of therapies Morgan’s care is expected to exceed what will insurance will cover costing Stephen and Morgan tens thousands of dollars for her medical care.

The bills have already started to roll in and Stephen is trying to maintain his wife’s care in addition to their 5 children. The time has come to reach out to our community for help.

Funds raised would be to help this family cover necessary medical expenses, food for their children, and donor breast milk for their newborn daughter Clare, which can cost up to $80 a day.

Sacrificial love and charity is what we are all called to do and this is a family who would truly appreciate that support. Morgan has demonstrated this sacrificial love to extreme measures throughout her entire young life—from being a compassionate caregiver to her own mother who passed away due to polycystic kidney failure, to Morgan giving life to 5 sweet children. Morgan and Stephen have been faithful members of their church. They have both worked diligently in their full-time careers and Stephen has donated his time to coaching youth soccer for no compensation at the Saint John’s Soccer Club. These two persons have been some of the closest family friends my husband Zach and I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Please share and consider donating to Morgan and Stephen via GoFundMe or Venmo @SHentemann.

Thank you.

- Gwen Tahvonen

Update 1/13-

Morgan and her husband desperately need help. Morgan had her health insurance policy give notice of non renewal due to the unexpectedly extreme cost of her medical care. Morgan’s husband was informed that due to the costs associated with insuring Morgan, they would now be required to pay $5,000 a month just to maintain insurance alone, not including the actual deductible costs of her care. Thank you all for any contribution and please continue to share this link!

Nov 28- Morgan’s last time holding their newborn daughter before her cardiac arrest

November 31- after the Cardiac arrest