Brandon's Medical Fund #teambrandon
Donation protected
Hi everyone! My name is Kelsie and I am Brandon's girlfriend. Here is Brandon's miraculous story (so far) :-)
On Jan 7th, Brandon had a cardiac arrest around 3:45a.m. while he was sleeping. I found him gasping for air about every 10 seconds. I called 911 and they had me and my sister (who thankfully happened to come in town the day before) do CPR. We didn't quite get to 600 compressions before the first cop arrived. Turns out, the cop was at the gas station very close to the house and he just happened to have a defibulator in his car, which we found out later only about every 5 cop cars in Dunwoody have one.....just one of many many "God things" that happened for Brandon to still be with us. Another amazing thing we learned from the EMT that was onsite was that she had been doing this for over 7 years and had done CPR on about 400 people and Brandon was the only person she had walk out of the hospital (happy tears).
I am sure you are all wondering how in the world this happened to such a healthy 28 year old...well after 2 weeks of testing and EVERTHING coming back negative (praise the Lord!) the last test they did was an EP test that tests the electrical part of the heart and turns out, Brandon was born with Brugada Syndrome which is an electrical problem of the heart that is inheretable. It does not have any symptoms until you have a "sudden death" arrest in your sleep. It is more common than we know because more often than not, people who have it, pass away in their sleep and it never gets diagnosed. The sad thing is that it isn't usually detected on an EKG...for instance....Brandon's EKG was perfectly fine. The only thing that showed it was this specific EP test. The only "cure" for it, is for you to have a defibulator put in, so Brandon now sports a sweet "S-ICD" just under his skin on his left side. He isn't too happy about it, but I told him now his future kids get to say they have a real life "Iron Man" as their dad :-) and that because of the ICD, he will be able to live a long and healthy life now.
Joking aside...
Brandon is 28 years old and was in perfect health. He ran 6 miles every day and NEVER missed a day at the gym. He was in a medically induced coma for 5 days in ICU. It took him several days to come out of it and start to wake up. The doctors told us that all family needed to come visit because it didn't look good. They said after the 5th day, the chances of him coming out of it and having a decent life drastically decreased. As the doctor was explaining this, I couldn't help but tune him out and think, "My God is so much greater than Brandon's circumstance and he WILL make it through this and have a full recovery...he just needs some time and for everyone to pray and have faith." The first day he was awake, he only said 4 words the entire day and he couldn't do anything we asked like squeeze our hand. Fast forward to today (Thursday Jan. 28th will be just 3 weeks) and he is walking, talking, reading and eating. Of course he is still struggling with each of these but he improves every single day. He hasn't had a single day where he has taken a step back.
God has answered thousands and thousands of prayers from all around the country. We are so thankful for his unbelievable progress but he still has a very long road of rehab ahead of him. (Update) As of Feb. 9th, Brandon's therapy team told him he will have a tentative discharge date of March 4th from his 5 hours a day/5 days a week therapy then he will be able to do just speech and occupational therapy 2 to 3 times a week and hopefully go back to work and in due time, be able to drive again! This is yet another miracle, considering the doctors told us he would be doing the day program of therapy for at least 2 months!
When you are 28 years old, you have decent insurance, you have emergency funds, but you don't plan for medical bills consisting of 7 days in ICU, 8 days in the hospital and unknown amount of rehab hospital days. Add that to......Brandon and I just relocating to Atlanta in September and buying our first house the middle of December and Brandon being out of work right after that for at least 3 months. We want Brandon to focus on recovering as quick as possible so we want to alleviate as many other stresses as we can, especially finances. I have had multiple people ask me to setup a gofundme page and I can't wait to tell Brandon how friends, family and perfect strangers helped him and most importantly, prayed for him. Thank you all in advance! If you would like the detailed day by day story on Brandon, just visit my facebook page (facebookcom/kelsie.gray1) God has truly amazed us all...he is the ultimate physician and we owe Him all the honor and glory for Brandon's success!
I have setup a bank account for Brandon that is solely for paying medical bills and every cent of gofundme will go into this account. Brandon and I pray that one day we will be able to pay it all forward to others in need!
How I came up with the goal amount...the estimated out of pocket total is more than the goal, but Brandon's number has always been 27 and I just felt it was appropriate.
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
On Jan 7th, Brandon had a cardiac arrest around 3:45a.m. while he was sleeping. I found him gasping for air about every 10 seconds. I called 911 and they had me and my sister (who thankfully happened to come in town the day before) do CPR. We didn't quite get to 600 compressions before the first cop arrived. Turns out, the cop was at the gas station very close to the house and he just happened to have a defibulator in his car, which we found out later only about every 5 cop cars in Dunwoody have one.....just one of many many "God things" that happened for Brandon to still be with us. Another amazing thing we learned from the EMT that was onsite was that she had been doing this for over 7 years and had done CPR on about 400 people and Brandon was the only person she had walk out of the hospital (happy tears).
I am sure you are all wondering how in the world this happened to such a healthy 28 year old...well after 2 weeks of testing and EVERTHING coming back negative (praise the Lord!) the last test they did was an EP test that tests the electrical part of the heart and turns out, Brandon was born with Brugada Syndrome which is an electrical problem of the heart that is inheretable. It does not have any symptoms until you have a "sudden death" arrest in your sleep. It is more common than we know because more often than not, people who have it, pass away in their sleep and it never gets diagnosed. The sad thing is that it isn't usually detected on an EKG...for instance....Brandon's EKG was perfectly fine. The only thing that showed it was this specific EP test. The only "cure" for it, is for you to have a defibulator put in, so Brandon now sports a sweet "S-ICD" just under his skin on his left side. He isn't too happy about it, but I told him now his future kids get to say they have a real life "Iron Man" as their dad :-) and that because of the ICD, he will be able to live a long and healthy life now.
Joking aside...
Brandon is 28 years old and was in perfect health. He ran 6 miles every day and NEVER missed a day at the gym. He was in a medically induced coma for 5 days in ICU. It took him several days to come out of it and start to wake up. The doctors told us that all family needed to come visit because it didn't look good. They said after the 5th day, the chances of him coming out of it and having a decent life drastically decreased. As the doctor was explaining this, I couldn't help but tune him out and think, "My God is so much greater than Brandon's circumstance and he WILL make it through this and have a full recovery...he just needs some time and for everyone to pray and have faith." The first day he was awake, he only said 4 words the entire day and he couldn't do anything we asked like squeeze our hand. Fast forward to today (Thursday Jan. 28th will be just 3 weeks) and he is walking, talking, reading and eating. Of course he is still struggling with each of these but he improves every single day. He hasn't had a single day where he has taken a step back.
God has answered thousands and thousands of prayers from all around the country. We are so thankful for his unbelievable progress but he still has a very long road of rehab ahead of him. (Update) As of Feb. 9th, Brandon's therapy team told him he will have a tentative discharge date of March 4th from his 5 hours a day/5 days a week therapy then he will be able to do just speech and occupational therapy 2 to 3 times a week and hopefully go back to work and in due time, be able to drive again! This is yet another miracle, considering the doctors told us he would be doing the day program of therapy for at least 2 months!
When you are 28 years old, you have decent insurance, you have emergency funds, but you don't plan for medical bills consisting of 7 days in ICU, 8 days in the hospital and unknown amount of rehab hospital days. Add that to......Brandon and I just relocating to Atlanta in September and buying our first house the middle of December and Brandon being out of work right after that for at least 3 months. We want Brandon to focus on recovering as quick as possible so we want to alleviate as many other stresses as we can, especially finances. I have had multiple people ask me to setup a gofundme page and I can't wait to tell Brandon how friends, family and perfect strangers helped him and most importantly, prayed for him. Thank you all in advance! If you would like the detailed day by day story on Brandon, just visit my facebook page (facebookcom/kelsie.gray1) God has truly amazed us all...he is the ultimate physician and we owe Him all the honor and glory for Brandon's success!
I have setup a bank account for Brandon that is solely for paying medical bills and every cent of gofundme will go into this account. Brandon and I pray that one day we will be able to pay it all forward to others in need!
How I came up with the goal amount...the estimated out of pocket total is more than the goal, but Brandon's number has always been 27 and I just felt it was appropriate.
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
Organizer and beneficiary
Kelsie Gray
Organizer
Dunwoody, GA
Brandon Mohn
Beneficiary