Support for Leon Smalley
Donation protected
Our father, Leon Smalley, has end stage kidney failure, congestive heart failure and non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, among other health complications such as contracting a deadly, antibiotic resistant infection (C-Diff) in the hospital. (Please scroll down to see the full details of his recent medical journey.)
As a result of being in the ICU for a long period of time and continual hospitalizations due to his health conditions, Leon has lost his strength and mobility.
He is currently staying in a skilled nursing facility and receiving physical and occupational rehabilitation in the hopes of regaining his strength and mobility to be able to come home where our mom, Joy, can care for him.
Our father, Leon Smalley, has spent his entire life working hard and providing for his family. He would still be working today if he was healthy and able. Unfortunately the decline in his health has forced him to retire and lose his employer health insurance. He now has Medicare. His health and quality of life has been slowly deteriorating and his medical bills, despite having Medicare, are growing.
Leon is the type of person who would give you the shirt off his back if you ever needed. He doesn’t ask for help or handouts. He has a big heart and never really asks for anything in return.
Any donations received will be used to help cover extensive medical costs that are not covered by Leon’s health insurance.
Our goal is to help cover the expenses of necessary ambulance transport (which is not covered by his health insurance) to and from dialysis and his various doctor appointments until he can rebuild his lost strength and mobility and hopefully come home!
The details:
Last September, Leon underwent full sternum open heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm that was at risk for rupture. Additionally, he had two heart valve replacements to help improve his heart function and an ablation to correct his atrial fibrillation.A week following the open heart surgery, Leon’s heart rhythm was too slow and irregular so the Medical Team decided to insert a pacemaker to help regulate his heart rhythm.
One of the risks of open-heart surgery is acute kidney damage which results from the strain of the surgery on the body’s organs. Doctors believed the acute kidney failure would turn around with dialysis treatment. Unfortunately this was not the case and in December, Leon was diagnosed with ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease). His life now depends upon having either a kidney transplant or dialysis treatments 4 hours per day, 4 days per week. The average wait time for receiving a kidney from the donor registry is approximately 5 years and the average life span for someone with ESRD is 3-5 years. All of Leon’s problems are further exacerbated by his 20 + years of Type 2, Diabetes.
Additionally, the likelihood of Leon being given a donor kidney is very low because of all of his other health conditions, (diabetes, congestive heart failure, COPD, etc). The best chance would be for a private kidney donor.
Since December, Leon has been in and out of the hospital approximately every 3 to 4 weeks due to fluid overload and other complications caused by his ESRD.
During a hospital stay in early January to treat fluid overload, Leon developed a Cellulitis infection caused by fluid seeping from his arm and legs. The antibiotic treatment in the hospital put him at risk for developing a superbug infection called C-Diff which is very difficult to get rid of and can be deadly to a patient with a compromised immune system.
In February, Leon was rushed to the hospital via ambulance because he was too weak to be transported by car to his dialysis treatment. He was admitted to the ICU because his C-Diff was so advanced that it had become sepsis and he began to experience multiple organ failure.
The strain on his body from the infection resulted in a diagnosis of non-alcoholic related cirrhosis of the liver.
He remained in the ICU for 6 long weeks and during this time became very weak and lost all strength and mobility.
He has been transferred from one Rehab Center or Skilled Nursing Facility to another and back to the hospital for repeated occurrences of C-Diff, complications from fluid overload and pneumonia.
He has only been home for a total of 3 days since discharged from the ICU. We are unable to care for him at home yet because he is too weak to even sit in a chair and we cannot yet safely assist him from bed and to a wheelchair in order to transport him to dialysis.
He needs to be transported to dialysis and various doctor appointments by gurney and he is also oxygen dependent which necessitates ambulance transport.
His health insurance, Medicare, will not cover ambulance transport because they have deemed it is not “medically necessary”. We are basically caught up in a Catch 22 situation with our healthcare system and in the meantime Leon grows weaker and weaker.
As a result of being in the ICU for a long period of time and continual hospitalizations due to his health conditions, Leon has lost his strength and mobility.
He is currently staying in a skilled nursing facility and receiving physical and occupational rehabilitation in the hopes of regaining his strength and mobility to be able to come home where our mom, Joy, can care for him.
Our father, Leon Smalley, has spent his entire life working hard and providing for his family. He would still be working today if he was healthy and able. Unfortunately the decline in his health has forced him to retire and lose his employer health insurance. He now has Medicare. His health and quality of life has been slowly deteriorating and his medical bills, despite having Medicare, are growing.
Leon is the type of person who would give you the shirt off his back if you ever needed. He doesn’t ask for help or handouts. He has a big heart and never really asks for anything in return.
Any donations received will be used to help cover extensive medical costs that are not covered by Leon’s health insurance.
Our goal is to help cover the expenses of necessary ambulance transport (which is not covered by his health insurance) to and from dialysis and his various doctor appointments until he can rebuild his lost strength and mobility and hopefully come home!
The details:
Last September, Leon underwent full sternum open heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm that was at risk for rupture. Additionally, he had two heart valve replacements to help improve his heart function and an ablation to correct his atrial fibrillation.A week following the open heart surgery, Leon’s heart rhythm was too slow and irregular so the Medical Team decided to insert a pacemaker to help regulate his heart rhythm.
One of the risks of open-heart surgery is acute kidney damage which results from the strain of the surgery on the body’s organs. Doctors believed the acute kidney failure would turn around with dialysis treatment. Unfortunately this was not the case and in December, Leon was diagnosed with ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease). His life now depends upon having either a kidney transplant or dialysis treatments 4 hours per day, 4 days per week. The average wait time for receiving a kidney from the donor registry is approximately 5 years and the average life span for someone with ESRD is 3-5 years. All of Leon’s problems are further exacerbated by his 20 + years of Type 2, Diabetes.
Additionally, the likelihood of Leon being given a donor kidney is very low because of all of his other health conditions, (diabetes, congestive heart failure, COPD, etc). The best chance would be for a private kidney donor.
Since December, Leon has been in and out of the hospital approximately every 3 to 4 weeks due to fluid overload and other complications caused by his ESRD.
During a hospital stay in early January to treat fluid overload, Leon developed a Cellulitis infection caused by fluid seeping from his arm and legs. The antibiotic treatment in the hospital put him at risk for developing a superbug infection called C-Diff which is very difficult to get rid of and can be deadly to a patient with a compromised immune system.
In February, Leon was rushed to the hospital via ambulance because he was too weak to be transported by car to his dialysis treatment. He was admitted to the ICU because his C-Diff was so advanced that it had become sepsis and he began to experience multiple organ failure.
The strain on his body from the infection resulted in a diagnosis of non-alcoholic related cirrhosis of the liver.
He remained in the ICU for 6 long weeks and during this time became very weak and lost all strength and mobility.
He has been transferred from one Rehab Center or Skilled Nursing Facility to another and back to the hospital for repeated occurrences of C-Diff, complications from fluid overload and pneumonia.
He has only been home for a total of 3 days since discharged from the ICU. We are unable to care for him at home yet because he is too weak to even sit in a chair and we cannot yet safely assist him from bed and to a wheelchair in order to transport him to dialysis.
He needs to be transported to dialysis and various doctor appointments by gurney and he is also oxygen dependent which necessitates ambulance transport.
His health insurance, Medicare, will not cover ambulance transport because they have deemed it is not “medically necessary”. We are basically caught up in a Catch 22 situation with our healthcare system and in the meantime Leon grows weaker and weaker.
Fundraising team: Leon Smalley (4)
Paula Schmidt
Organizer
Alameda, CA
Joy E. Smalley
Beneficiary
Amanda Hernandez
Team member
Samantha Joy Kaufman
Team member