Help with medical expenses-Matthew and Lilly Swan

The following is written by Sara, Matt’s younger sister:

My brother Matt is one of my favorite people in this world. He’s a gentle giant teddy bear of a man, while watching him with his daughter Lilly or his niece and nephews show’s abundantly clear how good and kind his soul is, his many friends over his life will attest to this.

Matt has been a solo parent to Lilly (9) since she was an infant, and has been a stay at home dad to her following a workplace injury in 2014 that ended his career. Matt turned a life course altering event into a positive one, because it gave him insight of his true goal— to be the best dad to Lilly, and making her happiness his entire focus. The road has not been easy— Matt is on a fixed income due to his disability, and other physical ailments have always posed a challenge to his health and lifestyle. Last summer, he had ankle reconstruction surgery with the hopes that he could live life in less pain, and be more mobile and active to keep up with Lilly. This surgery was step one of two, 1 being to fix the ankle and lead a more active life, and step 2 to improve his overall health, Matt wanted to commit to his weight loss goals to ensure he’d be around for Lilly for a very long time.

December 1st, Matt had a routine minimally invasive surgery called Gastric Sleeve with the goal of this surgery to act as a tool aiding in his weight loss journey and success. Statistically weight loss surgery is extremely safe, with minimal risk of complications, but Matt hit the numbers of the worst lottery possible and developed catastrophic complications related to this surgery. A few days after surgery, he suddenly became deathly ill and Lilly jumped into action (even though she was very scared, she was VERY brave!!) and called 911 to have EMS assess him and ultimate take him to the hospital for immediate intervention. Over the course of the next few days, the medical team determined that Matt had suffered a leak in his new stomach— which not only was the cause of the severe pain he’d been experiencing, but posed an extreme life threat. Leaks happen in less than 0.5% of bariatric surgeries, so they are extremely rare, but despite being rare they can cause catastrophic consequences for the patient even when they are caught early and corrected. Matt spent over a week in the surgical ICU fighting septic shock from the infection in his abdomen, caused by the leaking stomach acid, and nearly lost his life in this fight. Surgeons were able to correct the leak in his stomach with a second more invasive procedure, and he was able to start the recovery process while they continued to monitor him in the SICU.

Thankfully, Matt has overcome this first hurdle and has been discharged home to recover. That said, his recovery will be much longer and more extensive, and what was expected to be a minor procedure has turned into a crisis of many factors— Matt and Lilly need the support of their community more than ever.

This setback has the unfortunate timing of happening right before Christmas. As you can imagine, this setback not only poses a major financial cost of added expenses, but with being in the hospital for an extended time and now facing a more extensive recovery, this makes it hard to prepare for Christmas. I know my brother worries about disappointing Lilly and having Christmas being less magical this year. He is unable to go out and go shopping for gifts, and the added financial stress of these added medical expenses also poses a roadblock to making christmas magical.

Lilly has been so brave and resilient through this, even when posed with the frightening need of calling 911 and then also facing the possibility of losing her only close family member and her favorite person, her dad. She has been through so much and deserves the world.

We are asking the community for their support through helping to make Christmas magical for Lilly, and anything after that will be used to lessen the burden on Matt during his long recovery. Monetary contributions or direct donations via Lilly’s Amazon wishlist are both appreciated and welcomed, and any amount helps. You have our gratitude and love ❤️

https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/3D0TOGYGL5B0W