Please Support Jennifer for Sammy's Recovery

My name is Gina and I'm a coworker/friend of Jennifer Hoch. I first met Jennifer almost 2 years ago at Ridge Dental where we are employed. We both started at the same time and quickly became friends. She has two beautiful children, a daughter, Kaitlyn, and a son, Sammy. Sammy is special needs; he was born with partial deletion of chromosome 10, Epilepsy, and Kidney Disease. He is non-verbal and requires 24-hour care. Jennifer is his main caregiver.

Recently, doctors thought due to Sammy's severe Scoliosis he was in need of a Spinal Fusion. His spine was so curved he sat hunched over and as years passed it continued to worsen. This surgery would improve his quality of life greatly. Surgery was scheduled for February 2024. Due to a data breach at Lurie's Children's Hospital in Chicago, it was pushed back to May 23, 2024. Jennifer was very confident in his surgical team and the difficult task ahead.

The day of surgery the Spinal Fusion went great. No complications. Sammy tolerated everything well and woke up from anesthesia doing amazing. Later that evening things took a turn and Sammy was having breathing issues. He was placed on a BiPap machine and given breathing treatments. From there it was a roller coaster of ups and downs for him. He was eventually intubated, sedated and being treated for Pneumonia. They also placed a feeding tube to maintain nutrition. Test results would soon show Sammy has Bacterial Pneumonia. After a regimen of antibiotics, he continued to have ups and downs.

Sammy is currently in the PICU with Jennifer by his side. She is unable to work until he is home and stable enough to be with a caretaker. These complications were very unexpected and bring unexpected stress. He has already been in the hospital 16 days. Doctors are saying minimum 14 days more if things start going forward and continue forward.

I started this account to hopefully help raise funds for Jennifer to go towards any expenses due to the extended stay at the hospital, bills due to not working, anything that may be needed for Sammy when he does finally come home. Any donations are greatly appreciated. Thoughts and prayers are too. Thank you so much for your consideration of donating to my wonderful friend Jennifer and her strong Sammy.