Andre Spann Surgery/Medical Fund

I, Todd, opened this for my sister Ashley Gramenz since her pride won’t let her.  Ashley is a single mother of 4 that puts her all into everything she does, especially when it comes to her children.  She is their sole provider.  She has a full-time job outside of just being a mother as well.  But as you may have seen her oldest son, her helper, Andre had gotten injured, and it has turned into so much more than that.

Here is their story: 

*On Friday, September 22, 2017, Andre was playing football and got tackled a couple pretty good times which lead him to a concussion in which was discovered…

*On Monday, September 25, 2017, when he was brought to the hospital by his mother, due to lightheadedness, headache and nausea.

*On Thursday, September 28, 2017, he was brought for a follow-up to his concussion at 11:30am.  At 6pm Andre hurt his foot by attempting to run up the stairs in the house just for fun.  At 10pm, it was confirmed Andre had broken his foot.  They sent him on about his way with only crutches in hand, and was told to follow-up with a foot specialist.

*On Tuesday, October 3, 2017, Andre had his follow-up appointment at 2pm.  The doctor said looking at the X-ray he was to undergo surgery.  He had broken his growth plate and moved the metatarsal bone just enough to have this procedure done. 

*On Friday, October 6, 2017, Andre had surgery on his right foot.  The bone already started to heal in its position, so they had to cut open the top of his foot and readjust the bone to line it up.  They then made a slit in the bottom of the foot and put the pin in through that way.  A splint was put on. Surgery was a success…or so they thought.

*On Thursday, October 19, 2017, Andre went in to get the sutures removed from the top of his foot, visual on his healing, then rewrapped with a cast. Still looking good at this point.

*On Monday, October 23, 2017, Andre was in so much pain, he was in tears.  His toes looked reddish purple and swollen.  Ashley brought him into the emergency room thinking maybe the cast was too tight.  They looked at it and were trying to send them home without doing anything, and told them to call the podiatrist again.  Ashley refused and told them to cut the cast off cause he was in so much pain.  They cut it off. They wrapped it, not knowing how or what to do, sent them home. 

*On Tuesday, October 24, 2017, Andre was is so much pain, he couldn’t even go to school (and this boy loves to go to school).  Ashley called into work and made some calls.  He got in the clinic to see the podiatrist that did his surgery at 11am.  The podiatrist said he needed to do an emergency procedure to remove the pin, because his foot looked infected.  He attempted to remove the pin without any medication and it put Andre through some excruciating pain.  He made calls and got Andre a room at 5pm to have a procedure done to pull the pin and wash out the area where the pin was.  They stayed overnight to monitor him on IV antibiotics.

*On Wednesday, October 25, 2017, at about 11am, Andre was sent home.  Ashley called into work again.  At 4pm Andre had spiked a fever of 101.4, started vomiting, had a migraine and had the chills.  Ashley made calls to see what they wanted her to do with him.  She had to situate the rest of the kids before she could bring him anywhere.  She was going to head to Children’s when the Podiatrist personally called and told her they knew she was coming and he wanted him in right away.  He was going to clear the schedule to get him in to have another procedure done in the morning…so she took him there.

*On Thursday, October 26, 2017, at 9am, Andre had another procedure to wash out his infected foot.  This time the doctor reopened him up on the top of the foot and the bottom of the foot and washed right through.  He bandaged him up and they have been in the hospital since.

*On Friday, October 27, 2017, at 2pm, Andre had to have a PICC line put into a vein.  This means he has to get antibiotics through an IV at home every 8 hours over the next 6-8 weeks.   This also means he cannot use crutches, they have to rent a knee scooter, which is a costly but effective item for him at this time.

My sister works 10+ hour days, 50+ hour work weeks, so with that being said she will not be able to attend work and be there to support my nephew.  She had to take a Leave of Absence during this time, but because she is caring for another person and not herself, she will only be getting 2 weeks paid.  With how things are looking, she may need to have more time off then just that.  On top of this, Andre having to undergo 3 surgeries all using the anesthetics, plus the hospital stay, emergency room visits, the medial bills are starting to add up quickly.  Ashley has coverage only through work and it doesn’t cover much. 

At this time, I am reaching out to have you help her get through this, through continued prayers and any donation you can give!  Truly appreciated.