Dan Richardson End of Life ICU Expenses

Hi. Jessica here.

 

A lot of people have been saying "let me know how I can help," after I announced the news that my dad shuffled off this mortal coil on Sunday evening. The purpose of this fundraiser is not desperation, just a buffer and an opportunity for those who wanted to assist my family and was unsure of how to. 

 

**You can also donate to my Venmo @sweetpjess or PayPal [email redacted]**

 

This is me and my dad celebrating his birthday in October. We had sushi, went to see James Bond, and had a shake to finish the night.

 

 

 

Let me tell you how this time last week my family entered a roller coaster we definitely did not ask to get on.

 

A little about the last 7 Days for my family...

 

In August my dad was in a four wheeler accident that crushed his ribs and punctured his lung. During one of his scans, the doctors found tumor on his kidney. He had that tumor and his kidney removed two and a half weeks ago because they found the tumor was cancerous. His appointment was supposed to be today to find out if the cancer had been removed fully.

 

 

 

Fast forward 3 months...

Last Tuesday morning at about 4:00 a.m. he woke up in excruciating pain and ended up back in the emergency room. They did some surgery to relieve some abdominal pressure and it wasn't making anything better. They decided to do another surgery at night and found that my dad had necrosis on his stomach. They think it could have been a complication of the kidney surgery that caused a tiny blood clot which then burst by the stomach.

 

After that surgery he went into septic shock. The hospital (the place which shall not be named) that he was at was not equipped to take full care of him. Around 1:00 a.m. I got a call to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Fortunately his vitals leveled out. Small Miracles. The next day (Wednesday 24th which was also my brothers birthday) we were given three options to either put him on comfort care, see if he could hold out, or see if there was a room available in the valley at another hospital with a constant dialysis machine.

 

After a little while they were able to find a room at the University of Utah in their trauma ICU unit. Within 20 minutes a helicopter landed and 35 minutes after that he was transported. They did warn us that he could have a heart attack on the way.

 

 

 

I knew he would make it cause he loves to fly!!

 

They were able to get his levels and everything stable from what it was however it took a team of doctors and nurses and he was still on life support and in a coma. They did exploratory surgery Thursday morning and found that because of the drop in blood pressure part of his colon had died. They had to wait a couple more days to do the surgery to repair that. On Saturday we sat down with the surgeon to discuss all the things that could happen good and bad. We all felt really positive going in. (That is the up in the roller coaster of hope) Going into surgery prep my dad's breathing plummeted. He had a blood clot go into his lungs.

 

The next day, Sunday, my mom had already made the decision and we sat down with the surgeon again, who was so absolutely incredible the WHOLE team at the U of U hospital were such a gift, and she let us know that if we kept going his quality of life would be diminished. My dad would be so mad and annoyed at the thought of that.

 

 

My dad was gathered by one of his best friends, my biological mom, and many ancestors to go on this new journey at 5:52pm on 11.28.2021.

 

 

 

 

I love roller coasters but the last 7 Days happened to be the worst roller coaster I've ever been on. Thank you for reading this and for supporting my mom and brothers and me.