John's Journey Home

Hi, my name is Katelyn Fischer and my co-worker and friend is going through the unthinkable. She almost lost her husband John. Thankfully, he pulled through, but it will be a long road to get him home.

On Oct 23rd John went to the hospital thinking it would be a quick visit to get antibiotics for a cough that he had. Once there he was immediately admitted to the ICU with low oxygen levels and double bacterial pneumonia. Within 4 hours of being admitted to the Pembroke Hospital John went septic which caused his kidneys, heart, lungs, and liver to go into organ failure. There was nothing more Pembroke could do so they ordered a critical care ambulance to have him transferred to the ICU at the Queensway Carelton Hospital in Ottawa. John's family was told that there was a good chance he would not make it to Ottawa and to prepare themselves to sat goodbye. Thankfully, John held on long enough to get to Ottawa. He was immediately put on a ventilator and the ICU doctors began working on him. He was put on medication to reverse the organ failure and his family was told he was critical and may not wake up from this. John was sedated and on a ventilator for 10 days before the doctors tried to start waking him up. The medication worked to bring his heart, lungs, and liver back however his kidneys were still not working. Because of this, John would need to be on daily dialysis.

On Nov 17th John was transfered out of the ICU at the Queensway Carelton and sent to the Ottawa General to continue to have dialysis and to have orthopedic surgeons look at his feet. When John was in the ICU the medications used to help his heart cut off the oxygen to his feet. The orthopedic surgeons let John and his family know he would need a double leg amputation below his knees.

On Nov 25th John had his amputation surgery. The surgery went extremely well and within 2 weeks John was off all medications, however was continuing dialysis 3 days per week. It will take approximately 6 months to 1 year for John to get prosthetics so in the mean time he will be wheel chair bound.

John's kidneys are slowly coming back. At this time we are unsure if dialysis is going to need to continue and when or if he will ever be able to stop going for it.

The next step for John and his family is getting him home. I order for that to happen there needs to be extensive renovations done to John and Brenda's home to accommodate John's new needs.

John was the kitchen manager at Kelsey's for the last 10 years, prior to that he worked in restaurants all over the valley. John's wife Brenda and kids have not left his side since Oct 23rd. John's medical needs have made it very hard for Brenda to return to her normal work schedule which has created a huge financial burden for the family. This go fund me will help with costs associated to the home renovations, hospital expenses (food, gas, parking) occupational therapists, prosthetics, and any other expenses that may come up while John is healing and entering this new chapter of his life.

Let's all come together to get this husband, father of 4, and Peepaw to 8 grandchildren and 1 great grandson healthy and home!

Thank you in advance, from the bottom of our hearts.