Hello Linda’s family and friends,

In mid-January, Linda went to the ER due to pain in her abdomen and ended up having a pretty intensive surgery. She was released quickly even though she was still having issues and returned to the ER days later with some pretty serious complications. She had another surgery. Her deteriorated condition required her to be air lifted by helicopter to an ICU in Portland on January 29th.

In Portland, they found that she had sepsis, tissue necrosis, and a collapsed lung due to pneumonia. They had to perform an additional surgery to inflate her collapsed lung and get rid of necrotic tissue. The sepsis was a 10 out of 10 infection that could continue to spread like wildfire.

When Linda finally woke up, she was amazed to be alive. She had about 100 messages from family and friends who love her dearly.

Although she is now out of the ICU, Linda continues to have a large open wound in her belly, so infections and complications are still a concern. She’ll have to remain in Portland while recovering to receive the best care.

Jody drove from Medford on the night of the 29th and stayed for the last few weeks. He received a housing voucher from the hospital that paid for the first 10 days of his hotel, but now they'll have to fully bear that cost. He will be traveling 4 hours each way to visit and support Linda in Portland and continue to have to pay for all travel expenses during his stays. Unfortunately, right now neither of their cars are reliable enough to make the frequent trips up to Portland.

We started this GoFundMe to help with some immediate expenses (like hotels, meals, gas, and car repair or rental), as well as the likely overwhelming medical bills. Since Linda is on medical leave, she will have to start paying for her own medical insurance premiums starting in May. So, as you can tell, there's a lot of financial concerns going on. We're hoping to try to alleviate some of the burden of them worrying about finances during this time. All funds will be distributed directly to them. Any help is welcome and sharing the link for this GoFundMe to others is appreciated.