Support Aaron Wheeler's Lung Staph Infection Recovery

My name is Ari Berenbaum, owner of Ninth Street Bakery, in Durham, NC.

My friend and employee Aaron Wheeler (pictured above with his son), age 36, suffered a minor heart attack July 21st, 2024. At the time, he was our head pan dough bread mixer, arriving at 4:30am to mix bread dough. The heart medication he took afterwards made him feel so drowsy he could no longer work his early morning shifts. He chose to resign his position to take care of his health by driving Uber rather than come in periodically late to work and put the team in a tough spot. This was July 29th. This was Aaron's second heart attack in two years. To prevent further heart attacks, a potentially life-saving defibrillator was installed August 14th. By September 7th, after a few follow up appintments, Aaron began to feel very ill and returned to the hospital to figure out the source of the new symptoms. By September 14th, he learned he had a staph infection. In his own words:

I went to the emergency room on 9/7 because I was having really bad chest pain on the right side as well as in my back between my shoulder blade and spine.

In addition to that, I was having trouble breathing. There was a sharp pain on my right side every time I took a deep breath. I was also running a fever of 102.4. The X-ray showed I had pneumonia and I was given two different antibiotics to treat it.

I took them as prescribed up until Wednesday night, September 11th, when I was beginning to have adverse side effects. I called the hospital and I was told to discontinue the one that was making me sick.

On Thursday the 12th, I only took the one antibiotic. In addition to being violently nauseous, I was starting to notice my breathing worsening and the pain in my back and chest getting worse. I was also running a constant fever of 102 since the Saturday the 8th.

I decided to go back to the ER to find out why I wasn’t getting better. I was given a CT scan that showed I had fluid building up around my right lung and it was only expanding to around 15%. I was admitted that night and scheduled for an emergency surgery Friday morning the 13th. During the surgery the fluid was removed as well as an abscess and infection that were growing on my lung. Two tubes were put into my chest to continue to drain fluids while I laid in the hospital recovering.

On Saturday morning the 14th, the surgeon informed me that I had a staph infection after testing some tissue that was removed during the surgery. I spent a few extra days in the hospital making sure that it was safe for me to go home and developing a treatment plan moving forward.

On September 18th I was discharged with 5 different prescriptions to manage the infection, and appointments with the surgeon and with infectious disease control two and three weeks from now to get CT scans and see if the treatment is working.

I was told that I can’t work for 3-4 weeks because my immune system is compromised and it won’t take much for me to land another trip to the hospital. At the moment all of these medications and visits and procedures are out of pocket, though I am applying for Medicaid. I’m also not able to pay rent, my car, phone, food and any unexpected expenses for me and my 12-year-old son (who spent his birthday with me in the hospital) and for whom I have sole custody. I need to focus on resting and getting better, but it’s hard not to try and push myself to find a way to cover these expenses that isn’t going to compromise my recovery.

My lung, filled with fluid and abscess and infection at 15% of its normal expansion:

My lung, after surgery and drainage, noticeably more expanded.

Unfortunately, good wishes for healing will not be enough to help Aaron here. Do you think you can chip in $50 or $100 to help him get back on his feet?