Andrea Adamo-Sheppard Critical Care Funds

I'm Heather Adamo, Andrea's sister-in-law. Two weeks ago Andrea was admitted to the hospital for severe abdominal pain. She was placed on a ventilator and given medications to stabilize her while being rushed to the operating room. The OR team repaired a hole in her stomach and intenstines and she returned to the ICU. Surgeries involving the intestines are very dangerous and can have many complications for months, even years, later. Andrea's surgery is no exception. In the past two weeks she has received multiple blood transfusions, been off the ventilator and then placed back on for full support, her kidney's have failed and she is receiving hemodialysis. She went for a 2nd emergency surgery this past Friday night and the surgeons removed over 5 feet of bowel that was dying. She has another surgery planned for Monday and after that the surgeons will be seeking other hospitals that can handle her surgeries that will follow. Andrea, a wife, a mother, our sister, our hair dresser confidant and our friend, is currently under complete sedation on a breathing machine being fed through an IV with medications to keep up her blood pressure and daily dialysis to take over the work of her kidneys. Her abdominal incision is open because there is too much swelling to close it. The intestines aren't all connected and will need expert gastric surgeons to reconstruct it.

To complicate matters, her health insurance has lapsed and Andrea and Joe have begun construction on her parents' house in Redlands. Andrea has been self-employed for almost 30 years and isn't receiving any state benefits while not working. This fundraiser has been started to assist Joe with household and medical bills. IF Andrea survives these next few weeks, she will have months of rehab and need skilled care. She will also not be able to work for many, many months.

The love and support that has already begun to pour out leaves the family in awe. We appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers. Joe, Cassidee and Scott have received many calls and aren't able to answer them all. I will use this site as a way to keep everybody updated to Andrea's condition. Joe and Cassidee don't have any immediate needs and if you are someone that likes to bake or cook, feel free to drop your goodies off with the ICU staff on the 3rd floor of Redlands Community Hospital...they have been amazing.