Brandon Marsh at Children's Hospital - Let's Help!

To know Chris and Jamie Marsh and their family of 6 is to love them. Chris is a pastor and Jamie is a teacher, and also does ministry. Together they have four of the best kids ever. Their oldest son, Brandon, 11 years, is currently at Children’s Hospital. On Friday, November 24, Brandon had a seizure and stopped breathing, which ultimately resulted in a life-flight from Steamboat Springs to Denver, Colorado. More than a week later, he is still recovering at Children’s Hospital. He and his family need your help and prayers.

Here is Brandon’s mom, Jamie, recounting of what happened: “Brandon had mentioned a persistent headache off and on for about a week, when it suddenly flared into a migraine Monday evening, November 20th. When over the counter medicines didn’t help, we took him to an urgent care where they treated him with several different medications, which seemed to help. But that Wednesday night he said the left side of his face was feeling numb, so we called the urgent care back the next day and they asked us to bring him back in for an MRI. So Thanksgiving morning, Chris drove Bran back to Steamboat for an MRI. The MRI showed a mass of some sort in his sphenoid sinus, but they weren’t exactly sure what it was. They assumed it wasn’t urgent, and we made plans to call Children’s Hospital the next day to schedule new imaging and possibly surgery there within the next week to remove whatever it was in his sinus.

The morning of the 24th, Brandon started acting strange, alerting us to something being really wrong, so we rushed toward Steamboat, calling 911 for an ambulance on the way. About halfway to town, we met up with a deputy, and as he opened the door to check on Bran, he went into a full grand mal seizure in the car and stopped breathing. The deputy lifted him out onto the ground as soon as his seizure stopped and immediately started CPR, and the ambulance arrived a few minutes later to transport him to the hospital.

Unable to be airlifted to Children’s Hospital due to bad weather moving in, the doctors immediately started treating him with several different antibiotics as soon as his bloodwork and CT scans showed signs of a major infection. On Saturday evening, November 25th, we were finally able to get him life-flighted to Denver Children’s Hospital, where they confirmed the mass in his sphenoid sinus was actually a large pocket of infection, that had worked it’s way through the bone and into his cranial cavity, forming what they called an intracranial empyema (or abscess). The abscess was pressing against the lining of his brain under the frontal lobe, which is what caused a focal seizure that led to the grand mal seizure. ENT did a procedure to wash the infection out of his sinus cavity, but because the abscess is hard to get to without major brain surgery, neurosurgery felt it was safer to continue treating the infection with several strong antibiotics, with the hope the infection will shrink and scar over the opening in the bone. In the meantime, the inflammation in his brain and swelling around an artery in his brain caused by the infection makes him at risk for both seizures and strokes. In addition, the intubation caused some slight damage to his vocal cords and ability to swallow, so we are looking at possibly another procedure to repair that if necessary.

Brandon now has a picc line in his right arm, and will continue to receive IV antibiotics for at least 6 weeks, which can hopefully be managed from home if ENT will clear him to drink liquids without risk of aspirating and allow him to be discharged. For now, we are still in the hospital, and seeing little improvements each day. His headaches are getting better but are still persistent and may linger for several more weeks. We are praying the infection continues to shrink and scar without causing any permanent damage to his frontal lobe, that his vocal chords and throat will improve without another surgery, and praying the Lord heals him back to 100% full recovery sooner than the doctors are predicting!”

Please pray with us and give as you are led to help Brandon’s family with overwhelming medical bills. All donations will go straight to the Marsh family.

- Thank you so much!

Holly Styles, BFF of Jamie