Covid Hit Home this Month

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
Hopefully Mods are OK with this, if not I understand.

Toward the end of August my dad called me to tell me my Brother and his Wife have Covid, didn't think to much about it at first since they where just quarantining at home (and both my parents had and recovered from it last year), then Friday (4 weeks ago this coming friday) I wake up to finding out my Brother was admitted to the Hospital in the middle of the night and by Saturday afternoon the Hospital had him on a Ventilator. Then I find out one of my Sisters has it also, then a few days later one of my Nephews (he's a teenager), my Sister, my Brothers Wife and my Nephew have all recovered but my Brother is still in the ICU on a Vent, he's had 3 pneumothorax's and his heart stopped for a few minutes one day, he's still with us and the doctors are doing everything they can and he has made some significant progress since the last pneumothorax, the vent is running at much lower settings then they needed before, but he's starting to suffer from the longterm side effects of being on the sedatives they have him on. We keep praying he will recover and asking everyone else to pray for him.

In the mean time, folks from his Gym are putting together a fundraiser, if anyone is in the North Georgia Area and wants to participate or just wants to donate see the attached flyer. I know a good bit of money is being spent on Hotel Rooms so his wife can stay nearby the hospital because every time she's gone home (about 2 hours away) the hospital has called her to come back, so she is staying down there until he gets stabilized.

He's a fighter, we aren't giving up, but recovery will be a long road.

1632952968196.jpeg
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Glad to hear many of your family members have recovered, prayers that your brother follows suit sooner than later. I've had my share of friends who got hit hard by the virus and ended up hospitalized, and more recently some of my coworkers. So it definitely stays fresh in the front of my mind, as we hope to get positive updates from folks. 🙏
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
Thinking of you and your family at this time. It's a tough fight and hopefully he recovers.
 

TollKeeper

Supporting Donor
Member
Dec 3, 2011
8,047
Brighton, CO
My thoughts to you and yours.. Heres to a speedy recovery
 

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
Counting today as one of the good days, The Doctors keep reminding us there will be good days and bad days and you just gotta keep hoping for more good days then bad, well today they got him to the lowest level of ventilator support they've had him on, FIO2 of 60% and a PEEP of 10, his nurse said he was producing more urine and his eyes where open, like he opened them (keeping in mind, this time last week he was just coming off the paralytic and was heavily sedated), still getting residuals from the tube feeding so they stopped that but he is still getting IV Nutrition. More importantly despite being moved around his oxygen saturations are holding at these lowered vent settings which is good to see, gives hope we can get him into surgery this week to do a tracheotomy, he's been intubated for 4 weeks now so they really need to get the tube out of his mouth and switch to a trach for the long term, pre-covid they typically would do a trach at 3 weeks on the vent but with covid they push to 4 weeks, you don't want to be on the tube longterm because it can mess with the throat.
 

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
Update, FIO2 down to 55% and they are working on lowering the Inspiratory Pressure before trying to take the Peep any lower, he is at the top of the list for getting the Trach, pray for a smooth surgery and switch over without a need to raise ventilator settings.

also getting 20 cc's of tube feeding per hour, which is the highest it's been in over a week. also working on possibly getting him off the Covid Ward and to the normal ICU which could make it possible (using a "work around" that one of the nurses hinted at) to visit.
 

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
Bad Day today, we had him lined up to get the trach, surgeon called it off because he had some subcutanious air in his neck and wanted the doctors to figure out where it was coming from then just an hour or 2 ago he had another Pneumothorax, he didn't handle the move to the OR and back very well and they think this one came from his chest tubes being off suction during the move and they are worried they will just keep happening.

WE NEED A MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
Same here.
 

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
OK, got an update, they have decided to do the Tracheotomy in his room instead of moving him to the OR (since he responded so poorly to the move), so the plan is to do it tomorrow, he is at the high end of the range of vent support so there is some concern if he can hold enough oxygenation during the couple of minutes it takes to switch out tubes, so right now the primary prayer request if for the trach to go well and for him to pull through the surgery. We are approaching 5 weeks on the vent so we really need him to get switched over to the trach.
 

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
Not a good day, no luck on the trach, in the middle of the night last night the ventilator tube got disconnected for like 20-30 seconds and his o2 sats went way down and now he is requiring more support from the vent, currently on 80% fio2 so the surgeons won't even comment on when they think he might be able to get it, they just gotta wait and see when/if his numbers improve enough to try again.
 

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
Screenshot (4839) - Copy.png
We got to video chat just a bit ago while his wife was visiting, he's been requiring more support and having other issues, he either has blood clots or his body is just giving up, the doctors don't know yet, never thought I would be rooting for a blood clot. He did move his head around several times.
 

Matt

Member
Dec 2, 2011
4,019
I'm so sorry mate.
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
That's terrible news, Was praying he would pull through
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
My deepest condolences for your loss to you and your family.
 

Daniel644

Original poster
Member
Feb 27, 2015
573
We Celebrated what would have been his 40th Birthday on Saturday Night at his favorite restaurant and then we had his service on Sunday, I wore the "Kuwait Camel Racing Club" hat he brought home for me when he returned from his Deployment back in 05-06 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

20211027_004305.jpg

His service ended with what they call a "Last Dispatch Call", which is something the Georgia Forestry Commission does when they lose one of their own, he worked for them for over 10 Years, we had about a Dozen or more of them come in from all over the state to be there. Here is a video of the Last Call



The church also Livestreamed the whole service, we had probably 200-250 people there for the service and another 400 plus watched the Live stream and a few hundred more have watched it since (the service starts about an hour into the livestream, before that is just photos on a loop)


There is also a GoFundMe link in the Livestream Description if anyone wishes to help out with any costs, we where blessed with an anonymous donor paying the entire funeral home bill, but there are still some hospital costs to cover and other things like her Mortgage till she can sell the house, gain access to his bank accounts (anything other then automatic drafts from his accounts would constitute fraud, so she has to go through a bunch of paper work and stuff, so any money he had in his accounts is tied up at the moment) and we are gonna convert the unfinished basement at Dakota's Parents house into an Apartment for her and my Nephew, she understandably can't handle going back to the house they lived in together for the last 6 years (his birthday was also their 6th Anniversary, he was one of those guys that was smart enough to pick a date so that he could never forget his anniversery), I'm gonna help by doing the design and layout and help with the construction, I have a bunch of tools since i've been working on my basement for the last several years so I have things like a Drywall Lift, Nail Gun, Finish Nail Gun, Compressor, Miter Saw, Cordless Circular Saw, Drill's, Impacts and all that kind of stuff.
 

Forum Statistics

Threads
23,273
Posts
637,499
Members
18,472
Latest member
MissCrutcher

Members Online