Raising $ for My Brothers Expenses

My name is Garth Dalson.  My big brother's name is Blake Dalson.  I am on here asking for support in order to pay numerous bills that have accrued while my brother Blake has been fighting for his life in the Intensive Care Unit at Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  All of the funds, as in 100% of them will go torward my brother bills.  Please take the time to read his story.  His story is very heart warming, tragic, and full of hope.  It is about time my big brother Blake Dalson caught a break.  Before he started fighting for his life this last week & a half I had never saw my brother so happy (other than when his 2 children were born). My brother is picture in the middle, with his two children pictured to his right & left.

He FINALLY found a wonderful, caring, & loving companion, named Angi (butthead he calls her) and he has had a perma-smile since March of this year. It was finally nice to see my brother with someone who knew how to treat him, & SOMEONE WHO WOULD NOT TAKE HIS GENERIOSITY , KINDNESS, LOYALTY, SINCERITY, & CARING PERSONALITY FOR GRANTED.  Pictured on the LEFT is Blake & on the RIGHT is Angela.
However, now he is fighting every second of every day for his life. In the last 9-10 days we have lost him 5 times, but he is not ready to leave his family & 2 children.
BELOW PICTURE: Daughter on the LEFT, Blake Dalson MIDDLE, and his Son RIGHT.
My brother Blake suffered a massive heart attack a few days after his 40th birthday.  My brother suffered this heart attack on November 1st, 2015.  CPR was performed fairly quickly by the next door neigbor until the Ambulance arrived.  He lost his pulse a few times waiting for the ambulance, which then had to use the AED, in order to shock his heart to get it beating again.  Once he got to the hospital he received emergency heart surgery, and they found out his circumflex artery was 100% blocked.  Since the heart attack happened out of the hospital they induced him into hypothermia for a 24 hour period in order to save his brain function, and to prevent the brain from swelling. As I watched him get wheeled out of the operating room my eyes quickly teared up because he was experiencing what looked like mini siezures.  These tremors/ mini siezures lasted for what seemed like 2-3 hours until they used a paralytic agent and siezure medication to prevent this from happening.  After they were able to stablize him and cool him down to roughly 85 degrees for 24 hours, they began to rewarm him to normal body temperature. However, once they re-warmed him he started to get a very high fever and figured out he had bad bad pnuemonia & sepsis (blood infection). They used cooling blankets to get his body temperature to cool back down. After numerous anti-biotics he was still not improving. This led the doctors to do a scope of his lungs and other portions of his body.  They ended up finding a piece of his tooth that had broke off during intubation, the heart attack, seizure activity, etc. which ultimately led to the severe infection in his lungs.  The doctors were able to fight the infection aggressively; however, not before he "Code Blued" on a few occasions because the mucus and infectious buildup had caused his lung to collapse.  As of today, November 10th, he is still clinging onto life in the ICU and on Life Support.  The Doctors say IF/WHEN he beats this it is going to take him quite a long time to get on his feet again, due to the numerous setbacks he has had to battle through along this very tumultous journey.  He is curently battling Sepsis, high fever, & a very bad lung infection that is making it hard to breath.  Pictured on the LEFT, Garth Dalson, MIDDLE, Blake's Son, BACK MIDDLE, Cousin, FAR RIGHT Blake Dalson

As a family we have inherited bad genes when it comes to our hearts.  Our grandfather had his first open heart surgery at the age of 49, after suffering numerous surgeries and heart attacks he later succumbed to heart issues. Our father, Rich Dalson, recently retired after 47 years with Howmet; however, 3 weeks after he retired he received emergency heart surgery to save his life- to the tune of 3 stents (2 of which were in his widowmaker artery).  My brother, Blake Dalson, just turned 40 years old a few weeks ago.  He has a 15 year old son & a 13 year old daughter whom he loves very much.  When I say he loves his children very much, this is an understatement. He is the type of father that coached his children in youth sports, went to every parent teacher conferences, worked DIRTY , HARD, PHYSICALLY DEMANDING & LOW PAYING JOBs to support his Family, etc.  

He works long hours each day as a Heavy Equipment Operator (He LOVES his job & is VERY PROUD Heavy Equipment Operator) in an aspalt plant in order to make sure his two children have what they need to be successful in life.  He works in excess of 12 + hours each day without a complaint, if anything he is happy to have a job he loves because it is able to support his family. However, in the winter work is slow & so he gets laid off due to the harsh Michigan Winters.  He would be able to make much more money in a warmer climate working year around, BUT, he does not want to move because he wants to be as close to his 2 children as possible.
My brother is not the richest guy in the world, and makes sure his children are taken care of before his own needs are met. But, he doesnt complain, and does the best he can to survive, he works to take care of his children.  For example, he has put off going to a dentist for the last 8 years eventhough he needs work done on his teeth, because he makes sure his childrens teeth are taken care of before his own .  He often does not get to see his children that often, because he is a divorced father of 2 children & eventhough, he has joint custody of the children, they were moved away from him to the other side of the state.  This broke my brothers heart, like it would any loving parents heart.  Although, he is often torn apart inside he continues to work 12+ hours per day during the spring & summer months in order to give his children what they need. He does not complain at all about working long hours, because he knows he needs to do it.  Before he became a Heavy Equipment Operator (which he is VERY SUPER proud to be) he has held jobs at: Trucking Companies, Landscaping Jobs, Tiling Work, Garbageman, Coca-Cola Driver, Underground Irrigation, etc.  These type of jobs might not be the most glamerous to some people, but my brother has gladly worked & worked hard at all these jobs because his family is his #1 priority, first & foremost.  You will not be able to find a company that my brother has worked for that would not supply him with a good reference.

ABOVE PICTURE: Garth (me) on the RIGHT, Uncle Dan Farber MIDDLE, & Blake LEFT. Picture was taken during our Uncle Dans graduation from MP school.

This is my only brother, my big brother (in the pic above he is making sure Uncle Danny doesnt squeeze my head like a pimple). He has been there for me since I was young. I was not the healthiest baby, as I lived in a hospital pretty much when I was younger.  My mother tells me how worried my brother was during this time, and how he did not want to leave his baby brothers (3 YO at the time) side.  Eventhough, he was only 8 years old he showed more compassion and care than most adults are not capable of showing. My big brother has a big kind and tender heart.  He is like a Teddy Bear.  We might not always agree on everything, but no matter what he has been by my side. I can remember riding the school bus home when I was younger, and my big brother would be at the bus stop waiting for me to get off.  I would get picked on & bullied on the bus because I was the smallest kid, and this made my brother so angry he would wait for the bullies to get off the bus (same bus stop as me), and then he would proceed to challenge all 4 of them at the same time. Some of my earlier memories of my bigger brother were of him kicking these kids @sses, and them running away and crying. My parents would get phone calls from angry parents because their kids just got their @ss kicked.  To the surprise of these parents they couldnt believe their sons were bullies.

BELOW PICTURE: Garth Dalson (me) LEFT & Blake Dalson (RIGHT).  Picture was taken when I returned home from a 15 month deployment on the parade field at Fort Hood, Texas.  He's a big softy, and I saw tears under his glasses when he hugged me on the parade field.
I have been deployed to Iraq on two deployments totaling 27 months in Iraq as an Infantrman.  My big brother would go down to Texas and see me before & after each deployment.  This was not something easy for my brother to do, because he had to scrape nickels and dimes together to get down there to see me, even when he was going through a very emotional and sad divorce that took my brother through the ringer, he still made it a point to get down and see his little brother.  He has always thought about others before he thought of himself. This is something not a lot of people are capable of these days.  He has moved me to & from college many years ago.  When it was time for me to get out of the military after 5 years, he drove down to Texas and drove the U-Haul truck back to Michigan with all of my household items.  I did not even need to ask him for the help, he did not even volunteer to help me, he TOLD me he was going to drive the U-Haul truck back to Michigan for me.  

He not only looks out for his children & family, but he has been an outstanding friend to everyone else in his life.  I have heard many stories about the many friendships my brother has shared over the years. When growing up I was referred to as, "Blakes little brother." I hear many stories about the many things my brother has done for his friends, and just like he does for his family, he has gone out of his way to make sure his friends are taken care of. I have not met anyone that has ill will towards my brother, as everyone that meets me has always had good words to say about my big brother.
ABOVE PICTURE: Blake LEFT & Brad Wilson RIGHT. Brad has slept in the ICU waiting room with my family & has said several times that Blake would do the same thing for him if he ever needed it. These two have kept in touch since HS, and have formed a very strong bond.  Brad has become part of the Dalson Family. BELOW PICTURE: Blake pictured on the LEFT and Bryan Boardwell pictured on the RIGHT. Both Blake & Bryan have been best friends over the years as well.  
Anything you could donate would be appreciated. The money will be put to good use, that is a promise and my promises are better than a legally signed contract. 100% of this money will be going directly towards paying his hospital bills that are going to be INSANE, as well as any other bills that have been accruing since he has been in the hospital. He has undergone an ambulance ride, emergency heart surgery with the medical team waiting for him to come in, induced hypothermia, a few code-blue's (stopped breathing), Sepsis, high fever, & pnuemonia treatments around the clock non-stop 24 hours in an ICU unit. He has had his own nurse assigned to him on each shift that comes in to give him immediate personal care, & most of the time he has had 2 nurses assigned to him on each shift. He has undergone surgeries, heart attack, paralyzation, seizures, etc.

On top of the hospital bills he has other bills that every average human being has.  Unfortunately all of these bills are also getting pushed under the rug right now. I cant even begin to think of what might happen if some of his bills are not paid.  So, please, I know you do not know my brother, but if you did he would be the type to go out of his way and make sure he lent you a helping hand if/when you needed it.  Thank you for taking the time to read my Big Brother Blake's story.  If you have any questions please dont hesitate to contact me.....

[email redacted]