The Carmalt Walton Family

My name is Desi, I have gone back and forth multiple times about doing this gofundme or not. Anyone that knows me or my family knows that we hate asking for help, but we also never thought we would ever have to endure what we have over the last 4 weeks and are still going through.

Our family has had an extremely rough few weeks, It started back on July 17th, my dad (Larry) went in for open heart surgery to have his artificial heart valve replaced (he got his first artificial heart valve put in at 23) as well as have his aorta repaired. The procedure went great, but his body didn't handle it well, come to find out that his artificial heart valve had been failing for months, causing a lot of damage to the left side of his heart. His doctor was not able to close his chest due to massive swelling, his heart was not beating on its own and he was on ECMO, Impella and a pacemaker, we truly thought that we were going to lose him. We rallied around as a family and never stopped praying. On July 24th his doctor successfully closed his chest and got him off of ECMO, by Wednesday the 26th he was having his breathing tube removed and we could finally see him awake! In the coming days, he came off the Impella and eventually off of the pacemaker and oxygen as well.

It's been a very rough slow road to recovery, with him under sedation for 10 days we knew his recovery would be long. Every day he is getting stronger. We have spent the last week or so trying to find him a rehabilitation center to go to so that he can get 6 days a week of physical therapy and occupational therapy instead of every other day he's getting in the hospital, he is not up and walking yet. We are just trying to take it one day at a time right now and keep moving forward.

My mom (Heidi) and I got a call Sunday evening (Aug 6th) that my little sister (Lacie, 22) was on her way to the emergency room from a friend's house, the friend said that they went in to check on her napping and she wasn't breathing. When we arrived at the hospital we immediately got pulled back to talk to the doctor where we found out that she went into cardiac arrest, it took paramedics 15 mins to get her back when they arrived at the house, they also lost her again on the way to the hospital and were able to get her back.

So the back story here that we found out was that a friend gave her something to try Saturday night at work, her body didn't react well and her work had to give her 3 nasal shots of Narcan and called an ambulance. Lacie was in the ER from about 11 pm - 4 am where they sobered her up and pumped her with fluids, making sure that she was completely okay before allowing her to leave. She was picked up from the ER at 4 am and taken back to her friend's house so they could keep an eye on her, the friend said Lacie was sleeping the entire time and that there was no possibility of her taking something again. The friend told my mom when they called that they went in to check on Lacie and her heart rate was weak so they called the paramedics, when paramedics arrived she was not breathing and her heart was not beating. We found out later that a friend of Lacie's gave her Coke which was laced with meth and fentanyl.

Sunday night (Aug 6th) they hooked Lacie up to a cooling machine to cool her body which is a common thing that they do for patients that have gone into cardiac arrest, they cooled her for 30 hours and then started the process of heating her body back up. Monday (Aug 7th) and Wednesday morning (Aug 9th) they did EEGs and things weren't looking good and she wasn't showing much brain activity, and her organs had also started to shut down. The doctors couldn't say anything for certain until they got her body up to temp and then gve iher body some time to heal once up to temp.

Today (Fri Aug 11th) we had a meeting with Lacie's ICU doctor and he told us that after many tests and consults with the neurologist that Lacie is brain dead and there is no chance of her coming out of this. We discussed where we go from here and decided as a family that Lacie would have wanted to be an organ donor, so we moved forward with that. Our family thinks that this would turn this horrible thing into something good by Lacie being able to potentially save multiple lives.

We got a call Tuesday (Aug 8th) from my dad's case worker from the hospital, letting us know that there aren't any beds available anywhere. so the 3 of us decided that we were going to bring Dad home and do what we need to at home to get him back to normal. We will have a physical therapist and occupational therapist coming to our house hopefully multiple times a week. But we feel that he would be better off at home surrounded by family while he continues to heal and while we all try and navigate where we go from here with my sister. After meeting with Lacie's doctor, we went back to the hospital my dad was at and brought him home! So he is home now.

A little back story on our family and why I decided to do a gofundme.

My mom and dad decided a few years ago (since they were finally empty nesters) that they were going to move in with my husband and I, because I had just given birth to my daughter and my husband was about to deploy overseas for a year. They moved in and helped me navigate motherhood with a newborn and a 6-year-old, things went great while my husband was gone and the system that the 4 of us have with these kids is great and works for us. These grandbabies have been my dad's push to get home, they miss their papa.

About a year and a half ago because my dad's health wasn't the best we made a huge family decision and my mom, dad and I quit our jobs so that my dad could stay home and focus on his health and start to get surgeries approved. My mom and I started our own business. Our business took off right away with no slowdown since we started, we do Estate sales and are currently booked out months.

Unfortunately with everything that has been going on with the family, we decided that we needed to take at least the month of August off and part of September. My husband has also taken time off work, unpaid (FMLA) and we aren't sure when we will be able to send him back. With everything thats going on my husband has been needed at home with our 2 kids (4 & 10)

So we as a family are asking for help so that we can continue taking the time off that we need to get through this and still be able to pay our bills, this money will also help us pay for my sister's funeral arrangement, any medical supplies that my dad may need in the coming weeks at home, and any other unforeseen expenses that may arise.

We also appreciate all the prayers that we can get as we try and move forward through these tough times....