Lacey's Medical Bills

Hi, This is the parents, Shane and Ashley, of Lacey. We are starting this fundraiser to help with the medical bills Lacey received from her accident with her brother on November 2, 2022. Shane received the call around 4 pm on November 2 that Tristyn and Lacey were involved in an accident. EMS arrived at the accident scene and cleared Lacey to go home; right before exiting the ambulance, she vomited a large mass of blood. Shane then decided that she needed to be checked out further. He took her to Frye hospital for further evaluation. When arriving at the hospital around 6 pm, Lacey was very pale and lethargic. She was taken back for a CT scan, where the radiologist found she had a shattered spleen, two broken ribs and a lacerated kidney. From that examination, the hospital staff realized that she was losing a large amount of blood from the internal bleeding of her spleen. Lacey was given three units of blood; during the blood transfusion, the surgeon on call came in to speak with Shane and I to inform us that Lacey had a life-threatening injury and her spleen needed to be removed immediately, or she would lose her life. With no second thoughts, we signed the consent for her to get her spleen removed. She was then transported from Frye Regional Hospital to Catawba Memorial Hospital. During the ride, she was still receiving the blood transfusion. She arrived at Catawba Memorial Hospital, where an entire surgery team was waiting at the entrance door of the operating room to rush her back for emergency surgery. Once her surgery was completed, the surgeon came out and explained the next steps. Lacey would remain intubated and be flown to Brener Hospital in Winston Salem. She would be monitored to ensure she was healing properly, to get her kidney, neck/ spinal cord, and ribs examined, and to ensure her kidney was functioning correctly. She stayed intubated until 11 pm the night of November 2nd. On Thursday, November 3rd Lacey remained in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Breners. During this time, she was wearing a C collar until she could verbally express if she had any pains in her neck. She was then given morphine for the pain that she was going through. She had a few complications with the morphine, which caused her to be sick. She then had to take Zofran on top of the morphine to receive a powerful enough pain medication to make her comfortable from the surgery. We were then moved to a regular room at Breners around 6 pm the night of November 3rd. She settled in for the night, and from all the stress and confusion of what was actually going on, she would only sleep for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time and then wake up confused and wondering what was happening and where she was and why she was there. On November 4th Lacey had to have an NG tube inserted around 6 am. This was not an easy task for her to endure at nine years old and fully awake to know every movement and feel every movement. Radiology came in and checked it and said it was placed correctly. We continued our day of sleeping on and off. Waking up to thinking another nurse was coming into the room. Her dad and I had to reassure her that things would be okay and that we were alone in the room and no one else was there. After about half of the day passed, her O2 stats started to drop. She was going down into the 80s, and her blood pressure was very elevated. She was then moved back to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where she received five units of oxygen when she had made it to only 1 unit of Oxygen. She slowly progressed to 4 units once she was settled in the PICU. The NG tube was examined again and then had to be moved further down two more centimeters for it to work properly. She again had to endure the pain and mental anguish of the NG tube being moved further down. After being in the PICU overnight, her O2 levels began to be stable again, and she was on the rise back to the 90s, and 100's her blood pressure started to drop down slowly as well. On November 5th Lacey started to progress even more she then decreased to no oxygen and kept O2 stats of 98-100. She began to try walking with the physical therapist from her bed to the chair beside her bed. She worked on her lung-building exercises more often and then slept for the more significant portion of the day from the exhaustion of not sleeping the night before. November 6th Lacey continued to be doing fine without oxygen and breathing on her own. She still had to have her NG tube to remove fluids and the blood that had come from the shattered spleen. She stayed awake for a great portion of the day and finally felt good enough to talk with some friends over face time. She also had her bandage from her incision removed, her drain tube from the surgery, and 1 IV removed, which they had to replace due to the other being used so much. By the end of the day, she was able to remove her NG tube as well. This was a big day for her; she held strong and accomplished these things with bravery, even through the pain it caused. On November 7th, she was moved back to the regular floor for care. She finally had her first drink of water since November 2nd. Her O2 stats continued to stay at a normal range, and she walked to the nurse's station with her Physical therapist. The surgery team then cleared her to be able to have solid foods. this was the most exciting thing for her during the entire hospital stay, and if you know Lacey, she is not one to get excited over food. She started using the bathroom independently and stayed awake until about 3 pm that day. Then slept pretty much the entire night with a few exceptions of waking up thinking someone was back in to check on her tubes again. On November 8th Lacey woke up around 7 am. She had some breakfast. She was getting out of her bed and moving to the recliner multiple times. She walked up three stairs with Physical Therapy. She did complain a little about her ribs hurting, but with all the movement she had done, it was to be expected. She had her first real shower of actually being able to get in and relax and enjoy it. the surgery team also met with us and informed us that she would have to be on penicillin V for the remainder of her life due to having her spleen removed. She had to also get a few special vaccines before leaving to help her immune system be able to keep up and fight off anything she may come into contact with. On November 9, we were released to go home from the hospital. Lacey was so excited to be finally going home to be in her own bed. Since then, she has been moving around a little more each and every day. She is still short-winded. She can't run around and be her normal high-energy self yet, but she is working towards that part.

We have been working with a Lawyer, and they informed us that the lady who crashed into Lacey and Tristyn had the minimum insurance coverage in North Carolina. So we will have to pay out of pocket what her insurance will not cover, which is not even enough to cover the helicopter ride to Breners Hospital. If there happens to be any money that is left over, we will be placing it in an account to cover future medical expenses for both Lacey and Tristyn. For instance, the antibiotics she has to be on indefinitely, follow-up appointments and illnesses resulting from her weakened immune system's inability to fight off things due to her not having a spleen. Even if you can not help with the monetary donation and you can give blood, we ask that you at least do that. You could save a life with something so small that no one would ever even think matters in the world. Thank You for taking the time to read Lacey's story and for all the prayers we have received over the past three weeks. It is all by the grace of God that Lacey is here with us today and the power of prayer.