Support Nick Barksdale & his family

We are raising funds for Nick Barksdale and his family. Nick is the host of the popular Youtube channel The Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages and is a pillar of the online history community. He has been in hospital for months, has had multiple heart surgeries and is fighting for his life; all the while his wife is pregnant with a second child. Nick has no paid medical leave and has lost essential income. Please help!

Nick turned only 30 in June and his Youtube channel is his passion. He and his wife Morgan have a 3 ½ year old daughter, with another daughter on the way. They just purchased their dream home with room for a new studio for Nick to produce even more videos for his channel, which is currently on hold. All money from this fundraiser will go directly to Nick & Morgan Barksdale.

 

Nick's Story

 

On August 4th Nick had a sudden on set of symptoms that took him to the ER where they tested him for multiple things and sent him home with a prescription of antibiotics. Over the next several weeks he continued to battle mysterious symptoms which led to more hospital visits, with many tests and still no solid answers. Feeling progressively worse and worse, he ended up back in the ER on September 9th where they did more tests then sent him home. The hospital called him back the next afternoon and told him that he needed to return to the ER immediately - he was septic.

 

 

He was admitted with a sepsis diagnosis and the search began to find the source. It was finally discovered that he had endocarditis, an infection in the heart. By this time, the infection had abscessed his heart and had shredded his aortic and mitral valves. So they began aggressively treating the infection and put him on the schedule for open heart valve replacement surgery on September 27th. By the morning of September 25th, his two valves failed, his lungs filled with fluid and he coded due to heart attack. They had to put him on ECMO (a machine that does the job of his heart and lungs) and do emergency open heart surgery on the 25th. He made it through surgery but had complications with clots within 48 hours and had to be taken back into emergency surgery on the 27th. He seemed to do better but then a week later, more complications which led to another open heart surgery. At one point, a heart transplant was the only option on the table.

 

He has had complications with pneumonia, non-working kidneys, severe pain and a weak heart that has made it very difficult to make fast progress. It has been three steps forward and two steps back for going on 9 weeks now. As of this writing (11 November 2021), Nick is still in ICU, intubated, on dialysis for his kidneys and on too many medications to list to keep everything functioning. Our prayers and hope is that he will beat this, gain his strength and be able to come home to continue his life with his family. It has been the most surreal experience that struck completely out of left field for Nick and his family. Who would have thought a seemingly healthy 30 year old man would literally end up in this condition and without any real answers as to how? There is still no answer and there may never be an answer as to where this infection started or how it got into his blood stream and ultimately into his heart.

 

Nick was growing his Youtube channel and was only working part time at his regular job, meaning he had no benefits or sick leave available. He has been on Family and Medical Leave Act to hold his job but that is without pay. Morgan has thankfully been able to work flex hours at her job to keep her income going. Thankfully they have health insurance but even with that, their portion of whatever this hospital bill becomes will likely be significant. A discharge date is not even being discussed at this point, so they have no idea how long his hospital stay will ultimately be.

 

 

 

To say it has been a scary, trying, painful 9 weeks for them is the understatement of the year. They have a strong faith and loving family support but Nick is not out of the woods yet and the fight for his life is not over. They are grateful for the many words, notes and letters of encouragement they have received and are totally humbled by the outpouring of love and kind deeds. There are not enough words to convey their heartfelt thankfulness.

 

This fundraiser is organized and supported by World History Encyclopedia , a non-profit organization that has worked closely with Nick and his Youtube channel in the past. The whole WHE team is shocked and does everything they can to help Nick and support his family. All funds raised will go directly to Nick & Morgan Barksdale.