Rodney Camps Back on My Feet

Hi, my name is Mari Kay, and I am raising funds for my brother in law, Rodney Camps.

In April of 2022, Rodney suffered a mild heart attack while spending a normal morning in the woods doing what he loved most, making wood. Not knowing what it was, he made an appointment to follow-up with his local doctor and was passed to cardiology. It was determined at that time, he had some blockage and would require a stent, but during the stent procedure, it was determined that he would need a double bypass due to this blockage.

On July 5th, Rodney went in for a routine double bypass procedure as a follow-up to this mild heart attack and stent procedure. The surgery went great, in fact, he was done an hour earlier than expected and went into recovery, or so we thought. As they tried to wake him, his lungs were having issues oxygenating. Basically, this means he was not able to pull the needed amount of oxygen from his lungs to his blood to allow his organs to function properly. At this point, he was left paralyzed and, in a coma, as they tried to understand his issue. Over the next few weeks, the medical staff would treat him and slowly begin to wake him up, only to have to put him back under as there was no change.

At the point of exhausted resources in Marquette ICU, he was med flighted down to University of Michigan hospital on July 19th and placed in the Surgical ICU. At the hospital here, he was left in the paralytic state, as they tried to find the issue in his lungs. They did discover a very rare bacteria that was present in his lungs that was the causing this issue. This bacteria, Serratia Marcenscens, is a very strong infection that causes issues in the respiratory and urinary track that causes a lining inside that does not allow any fluid or gas to pass through. This bacterial can also mimic pneumonia, and although we treated this, it would return as soon as the treatment would stop. Once we did have the cause, a very strong treatment was started that started to cure the issue.

Although we started making progress one night in particular, Rodney coded and had to be resuscitated. This caused the doctors to actual implant a pacemaker and start dialysis on him to help his body recover from the many days of paralysis and drugs in his system. In the time at the UofM hospital, Rodney went through many rounds of antibiotics, a tracheostomy, CT scans, and X-rays, as well as being on ventilation for almost 6 weeks

On August 27th, he was transferred out of the ICU to another hospital in Ann Arbor to continue his therapy and dialysis as well as recovery. He spent the next 30 days achieving many milestones in his recovery as he fought so hard to get back to healthy for his family and friends.

On September 28th, he was transferred to Stonehill rehabilitation facility in Dubuque Iowa to continue his therapy and recovery from this horrific event. At this point, he no longer has any dialysis or tracheostomy, he moves around this facility in a wheelchair with the affectionate nickname “Speedy”. He is currently transitioning from a wheelchair to a walker as he starts to gain his leg strength back. Although he has only been at this facility for a little over 2 weeks at this time, he has made amazing strides in his recovery. He will continue to recover at this facility until he is able to walk on his own and get back to taking care of himself.

Through this incredible journey, many ups and downs, we want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers as well as the help of people around us. We will continue to fight and move forward until once again; he is home in the woods!!