Carlos’s Journey to Recovery

Carlos "Chiquilin" Marin’s Journey to Recovery

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In April of 2021, Carlos Marin was in more pain than normal after playing in a soccer game. Carlos is a very active person who plays soccer and coaches kids, teenagers and adults on a daily basis so a few aches and pains are normal. However on this day, something was not right with his left lower leg and he knew it needed to be checked out. Carlos initially went to urgent care, but they were not able to give him an
exact reason for the pain he was having.

Carlos has spent nearly 1 month in excruciating pain and visited seven (7) Doctors before finally getting an answer; a blood clot somewhere in his left lower leg. He was sent directly to the Emergency Room and was admitted for testing. Three days after admission, Carlos was taken to surgery to remove the blood clot. When the surgeons went in to remove what we thought was one (1) clot, they found the three (3) main arteries in his lower leg were completely full of clots. The surgeons were not expecting this and unfortunately, the clots were not able to be removed.

Carlos was sent home with blood thinning medication which he had hoped would help the situation. He had multiple follow up appointments to try to figure out how this happened and a solution as the pain was increasing daily. Carlos was fortunately home in time to be at his sons Niko and Lukas’ birthday party in May, but was back in the emergency room four (4) days later due to pain and now a wound that developed on his pinky toe. The doctors in the ER told him to do wound care and sent him home which did not seem right to Carlos and his wife but they did as instructed and trusted the doctors.

The Friday before Memorial weekend (May 28, 2021) Carlos’s wife was concerned about the increased pain and noticed a black discoloration to the wound on his pinky toe. She had him seen at the surgeon's office immediately. He was told “that’s normal” and was sent home. Again, this did not seem like the right plan of action but they did as instructed by the doctors.

By Sunday morning, May 30th, Carlos was in the most pain he had ever felt in his life. The pain was so much that he was inconsolable and now the black discoloration from the wound on his pinky toe was spreading throughout his entire foot. Something was going wrong quickly and help was needed immediately. Michelle took Carlos to Tampa General Emergency room and he was admitted on Memorial Day,
May 31, 2021.

Carlos had 3 more surgeries within the first week at Tampa General. The vascular surgeons were not able to remove the clots during this time. The clots had been there too long going undetected and the arteries were badly damaged. The surgeons were able to slightly open his arteries to allow blood to pass around the clots, hoping this will allow enough blood flow to his foot. After 24 hours of the third procedure, we heard something great, a pulse was found in his left foot with a doppler. Carlos has not had a pulse in his foot since April, so that was encouraging, but it did not stay for long. Carlos’s pinky toe became necrotic and the surgeons told Carlos that it had to be amputated.

The doctors set a date and on June 7, 2021 Carlos had surgery to amputate his pinky toe and metatarsals. Carlos was told that if the wound for this surgery showed progress and healing, then that was a good sign of blood flow to his leg. Unfortunately five (5) days after surgery, the wound started to show signs of necrosis and the hope to save his leg started to dwindle.

On June 14, 2021 the decision was made that amputation of the left lower leg would give Carlos the best chance at a functioning life with a prosthetic leg. After an emotional week of having the surgery delayed and then rescheduled, Carlos had his left lower leg amputated below the knee June 21, 2021. He will be in the hospital healing and recovering for quite some time until the next step of the journey takes him into rehabilitation.

Carlos is a highly energetic, outgoing, adventurous sports fanatic who loves spending his time with his family and staying fit through outdoor activities. Carlos spends most of his evenings on the soccer field coaching and mentoring the youth with skills to use on and off the field. Carlos has a passion for teaching kids the fundamentals and art of the game. His passion to see others grow and excel in soccer is what he enjoys and mostly the many bonds and friendships that he has made over the years from playing on multiple teams in Venezuela, Germany, across America and mostly in South Florida. He is determined to get back on the field to continue participating in the game he loves and with a tremendous amount of support from his family and friends, he surely will get to play again one day.

This journey that Carlos, his wife Michelle and three children, Farren (23), Nikolas (6) and Lukas (2) have been on for 2 months, has been both mentally and emotionally exhausting. His family is heartbroken that Carlos has to endure this change, but they embrace it and stand by each other, the best way they know how and that’s together as one. If you know Carlos, he always brings a positive energetic spirit into any room he enters and throughout this difficult time he has remained optimistic about the future.

Carlos knows there will be challenges with his new life, but there is a reason his life has taken this new path. Carlos has already said that he will embrace these challenges to show his children that they can overcome anything. Even through the pain and suffering, Carlos remains determined to take this unforeseen situation and turn it into something positive that will have an impact on his family. Carlos will be going through months of healing, intense rehabilitation, fittings for a prosthetic and rehab again once the prosthetic is available for use.

During this difficult time Carlos has not been able to work and is not receiving any income. Michelle has also had to take time off from work to be by her husband's side as much as she can, which has depleted all of her accrued paid time off. There will be days that Michelle will need to be with Carlos and the financial impact of Carlos' medical bills, rehabilitation, and prosthesis are more than they can tabulate or comprehend at this time. Carlos has always been the type of person to help a friend or family member without any questions asked. All it would take is one text or phone call and he will be ready to go, no matter what you need him for or ask him to do. Whether he knows you for 5 minutes or 30+ years Carlos treats everyone with kindness, love and respect.

IT IS NOW TIME FOR US, HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS, TO BE THERE FOR CARLOS WHEN HE NEEDS OUR SUPPORT THE MOST.

Friends and relatives of Carlos all over the world have been praying continuously for a full recovery and also have been wanting to help him financially especially during this time. Hence, we have set up a GoFundMe page to facilitate this and it is being managed by a team, Carlos' wife, Michelle Marin, his sister Karina Marin Kobil and his brother-in-law Stefan Shirley.

Please take the time to support Carlos and his family with your prayers, thoughts, donations and well wishes. Carlos, Michelle, Farren, Niko and Lukas truly appreciate everyone who has already reached out to check on Carlos and to offer help in any way.

If you have Carlos' cell phone number please send him messages of love and support. With words of encouragement from family and friends, it will surely help Carlos through the toughest of days and let him know he is not alone on this journey.

Updates will be posted here to keep all family and friends informed of Carlos progress.

We love you Carlos “Chiquilin”!

Friends and Families of Carlos “Chiquilin” Marin Jr.