Support Family Of Shannon And Mark

Shannon is a loving wife of a U.S. Marine veteran, grandmother of two and mother of seven. She is an active member of her church and has a beautiful voice and loves to sing. She sings in different choirs across the country and at weddings. She also plays the flute. She lives to take care of her children and submerge herself in classical music. She is so caring and generous and has always put her kids, her husband and others before herself. She hadn't been feeling well for a week or so but thought it was just a cold. After about three days of resting in bed she wasn't feeling any better. Finally on her birthday she felt it was time to get some medical help because it was difficult for her to eat and drink. Her husband Mark took her to the hospital to be seen and she tested positive for the flu and strep. They also said she was severely dehydrated. At this point she was conscience and in good spirits given the circumstances. They said they might need to put a breathing tube in because her throat was swelling closed since being hydrated. Her husband was by her side until about 1 o'clock in the morning until he decided to go home and be with their kids. He gave her a kiss good night and told her he'd see her in the morning because they said she would be sedated for the night to sleep. The next morning around 5 AM he got a call from the doctor telling him to get to the hospital as soon as possible. They had put his wife into a medically induced coma because her condition had taken a turn for the worse. Her chance of surviving the day was about 10%. She went downhill extremely fast her blood pressure was 30 over 23, she had gone into septic shock, had fluid and a severe infection in her lung. The doctors suggested an ECMO machine. It had the potential to save her life. But they weren't sure if they could even get their hands on the machine in time. Even if they could there were several risk factors during the procedure to install this machine such as a stroke or hemorrhaging and those both would mean certain death. If she made it through the procedure with no complications she would have a 24 hour window to improve or they would have to remove the machine. The ECMO machine was delivered to the hospital, they rushed her into the procedure, she was completely on life support, dialysis and had this ECMO machine cleaning and pumping her blood and she survived the surgery. Within 5 hours of the surgery her condition became somewhat stable. Her blood pressure came up to 50 over 30 and by the end of the day it had crawled up to 70 over 45. And her oxygen levels in her body came up from 35% to 75%. So she could stay on the machine. It's been five days now and she's still heavily sedated, on the ECMO and dialysis. The family is taking it day by day and so far they have no date to look forward to her going home yet.

The money from this campaign will go toward supporting her family during this trying time, while they spend a lot of time in the hospital by her side so they can have one less thing to worry about while their wife and mother is fighting for her life.