Support Alex Plamondon and family while in hospital

Hi, my name is Angela Welsh. My husband Anthony and I have started this fundraiser on behalf of Vonita Tobin and Brian Hoots in support of their son and step-son Alex.

On Wednesday, October 9th 2024, Vonita had taken her 15 year old son Alex to the local emergency room after he had been fighting a flu-like illness with seemingly no improvement.

It was quickly discovered that Alex was dealing with much more than a cold or a flu. The virus his body had been fighting had began to not only affect his lungs, but his heart and other vital organs. It was determined at this point that he was too ill to remain in Fort McMurray and he was flown by air ambulance to the Stollery Children's Hospital.

Once arriving to the Stollery, Alex was assessed by the team at the cardiovascular intensive care unit. He was diagnosed with a severe case of viral myocarditis, a potentially life threatening illness causing inflammation and damage to the heart muscle and consequently damage to his other organs.

After no improvement with initial treatment, it was decided that Alex would need to be placed on life support and an artifical heart and lung machine to allow his body and organs to rest.

At this time, Alex remains on life support with his mom Vonita and step-dad Brian at his bedside.

The last thing we want this family to be worrying about is finances as they focus on supporting their son while in hospital.

This fundraiser will be focused on helping mitigate the effects of missed work as well as hotels/food/travel and other expenses associated with having a critically ill child in hospital.

Thank-you for reading and for your support on behalf of Vonita and Brian.

Update 1:

To say it's been a whirlwind since Alex was first brought to the hospital would be a massive understatement. With Vonita and Brian's permission, I will try to summarize all that's happened this past week as they have navigated Alex's condition.

As I mentioned in my initial fundraising story, Alex is on life support. This came as a result of his body not responding to initial treatment of the inflammation surrounding his heart and affecting the function of his other organs.

The reality is that shortly after his arrival to the Stollery, Alex's heart and body reached a breaking point. Overnight, his heart went into an abnormal rhythm and stopped beating.

His heart stopped for a total of 11 minutes and he required CPR and resuscitative measures. This is how he ultimately ended up on life support and an artificial heart/lung machine (ECMO), which essentially took over for all his organ function following his cardiac arrest.

These measures are not taken lightly. They are used as a last resort, life preserving intervention when the heart cannot be used to pump blood through the body and the lungs cannot take oxygen from the air breathed and filter it into the bloodstream.

Following this, Alex was sedated for a time.

A number of hours later, they reduced the sedation to see if Alex would wake at all. If he did, they wanted to know if he was able to respond or communicate.

The miraculous news was that he could.

Following this, Alex remained on the machines to allow his body rest and to see if his heart, lungs and other organs would begin to recover. What ensued was a series of micro steps forward and backwards as they monitored how his body responded to different treatments as they adjusted accordingly.

As his lab work improved and his organs showed signs of healing, the weaning process with the ECMO machine began. The big question then was:

Will Alex's heart and lungs be able to start doing their jobs again in circulating his blood and providing his body with the oxygen it needs?

Unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan. As they began to withdraw the ECMO, it became clear that his heart wasn't able to resume it's normal function.

So, the next step for Alex will be a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). Basically, this is a pump that will be surgically implanted in Alex's chest and will allow blood to continue circulating Alex's body while his heart is unable to work.

This leaves two possibilities. There remains a chance that Alex's heart can still heal and function. For this, we all remain hopeful.

The alternative is a heart transplant.

For every answer received, more questions crop up. At this time, nobody really knows when and how more answers will come.

As Vonita, Brian and Alex continue to navigate all of this, they will remain in Edmonton, off work and away from home. Alex remains on ECMO and life support as they prepare for the LVAD insertion.

Their four other children and grandchild have thankfully been able to make it to Edmonton so their family and be together at this time.

Alex's journey isn't over and him and his family need support more than ever as they wait to see what the future holds.

Thank-you on behalf of Vonita, Brian and Alex for the outpouring of love and support over this extremely difficult past week.

As for us, we are in awe of how many people have shown their support for this family during such an awful circumstance.

This community never ceases to amaze us with its overwhelming generosity and willingness to lend a helping hand to those in need.

With all that being said, hold your loved ones tight. You never know what could happen in the blink of an eye.

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone.

Take care,

Angela and Anthony

Update 2:

Big changes over the last little bit as Alex, Brian and Vonita wait to see what their new normal might look like.

First and foremost, Alex had his LVAD installed and his surgery was a success. After briefly needing to be paced, Alex's body took well to the LVAD and it began to do it's job. This meant that they could begin reducing his sedation and waking him up to see if they could take out his breathing tube and get him off life support.

They started reducing his sedation to where he could use a marker and whiteboard to communicate. His first message:

Blue Gatorade

Anybody who knows Alex, knows what that means :)

Roughly twenty-four hours later, not only was his LVAD working nicely, but he was also awake and able to breathe on his own without any machines. GO ALEX!

After everything, Alex's kidneys were being stubborn and his renal function wasn't bouncing back as quickly as desired. The kidneys are essential in filtering toxins from the body, and it doesn't take long for toxins to build if the kidneys aren't working. His care team is very hopeful that they will make a full recovery, however they did end up needing a little rest. Alex was placed on dialysis for a few days. Since then, his blood work has continued to improved to the point where they were able to discontinue dialysis and his kidneys have been effective thus far.

Now Alex and his family have been focused on recovery. It started slow with getting out of bed and into a chair at his bedside. Eventually it turned into walks around the hospital in a wheelchair with his parents. Yesterday he was finally able to get a brief trip outside for some fresh air! Vonita and Brian said he was very happy about that.

Alex has also been working closely with a multidisciplinary rehab team to regain function. He lost a lot of weight while in hospital, and what many people don't realize is how big of a toll being bedridden on life support takes on the body. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to rebuild the muscle and the function that inevitably wastes away when they are not being used.

Additionally, there's the fact that Alex essentially now has an electronic heart. This means that he, Vonita and Brian have to learn and memorize the ins and outs of this machine. They will be educated in how to care for it, troubleshoot it, and know when they need to seek medical attention. That means many education sessions regarding post-op and ongoing management.

Luckily, things have been progressing well enough that they can actually now start to see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel in terms of discharge from the hospital. This will still be likely a couple months from now, but if things continue the way they are going, this timeline will start to solidify.

At this time, it's still unclear if Alex's heart will make a full recovery. In the meantime, the LVAD will be a temporary solution as they continue to monitor his cardiac function. At some point next year they will likely reevaluate things and determine whether to expedite the heart transplant process or if his heart can work on it's own again.

This also means, as I previously mentioned, Brian and Vonita are now preparing to move to Edmonton and surrounding area in the immediate future.

The expenses continue to add up, and Vonita and Brian continue to take time off work to support their son.

This means they still need our help, and I would encourage anybody who can to donate in continued support of ensuring this family can be together and support Alex in his recovery with minimal worries regarding finances.

As always, a big thanks on behalf of Von and Brian!

Thanks from us for reading this update and Happy Halloween!

Angela and Anthony