Support Peggy's Family After Her Suicide Attempt

My name is Dale Leifheit, and I am starting this fundraiser for two of the most selfless people I have ever known and their 5-year-old daughter. If you know my sister, Peggy Keasler (Leifheit), then you know how sweet & caring she is. Her husband and one of my closest friends, Darrell Keasler, is one of the greatest people I have ever known. He literally helps people every single day and never asks for anything in return. In fact, I chose not to ask for his permission to start this fundraiser because I knew he would talk me out of it. Neither one of them has ever accepted handouts and they have always worked hard for everything they have.

A few years back while trying to conceive another child, the doctors ended up finding cancer and crushed their hopes of ever having another baby and Peggy ended up having to have a hysterectomy. Thankfully they were able to remove the cancer with the procedure and the risk of it coming back is very low. Being the great people that they are, they accepted and overcame this and seemed to be moving forward with their life until about 6 months ago when my sister began struggling with depression and anxiety again. My sister has struggled with anxiety and depression since she was 14 years old and for the most part the medication has helped her to live a normal life. Unfortunately, the doctors haven’t been able to get her medications right and about 4 months ago after an emergency room visit and mental evaluation, they put her in an intensive outpatient program that lasted 6 weeks. She had to miss work this whole time as this was a full-time program. Upon completion of this she was doing okay for about a month until she started to have suicidal thoughts. After revealing these thoughts to Darrell, he checked her into an inpatient program at Linden Oaks and after 6 days she was released back to the outpatient program. After doing the outpatient program again for 2 weeks and showing no signs of improvement, she unfortunately didn’t see any way out from the constant hurt, pain, and suffering and attempted to take her own life on February 5th. Thankfully, Darrell got home in time to call an ambulance and saved her life. After spending the night at Mercy Hospital, she was again transported to Linden Oaks.

As you can imagine, Linden Oaks does not seem to be helping her at all. She needs to go to a long-term in-patient facility that can monitor her medications under supervision and keep her there until she shows real signs of improvement. Unfortunately, she has exhausted all her sick time, vacation time, & FMLA and more than likely will not have a job to return to when she is finally healthy enough to do so. She is also on the verge of losing her insurance which would be detrimental as they already have lots of medical bills to deal with that have accumulated over the last few years. Darrell has done snow removal, fixed up and sold lawn mowers and snow blowers to try to make extra money to make ends meet, but now with Peggy out of work for the foreseeable future, his back is against the wall, and he must face the harsh reality that he may not be able to pay everything on his own.

It has been a struggle to find a long-term care facility that accepts her insurance. However, we were fortunate enough to find one called Discovery Mental Health that has great reviews for people struggling the way she has been. They will keep her from 30-45 days or even longer if needed. Unfortunately, this facility is in Kansas, but the good news is that they will take her insurance. Even with the insurance, their out-of-pocket cost will be approximately $5,000. Obviously, it will be important for her to maintain her insurance throughout this ordeal so they will have to start paying the entire amount of insurance which will be around $1,000 per month or more. Darrell has had to take care of his daughter, his wife, and all the household responsibilities while this whole thing has been going on. He has so much to worry about as it is, I don’t want him to have to worry about not being able to pay for the treatment my sister needs or to keep her insurance going. I am asking you for your donation so that Darrell can focus on what is most important right now, which is getting my sister healthy again and being there for his young daughter. I am so blessed that my sister has someone as special as Darrell to see her through these tough times and I would be grateful for any donation that you are able to make. I fully understand how tough times are right now for everyone so if you are unable to donate, I would please ask that you share this with someone you know who might be able to help out this lovely family.