- M
On Christmas Eve, the day of his trip to California from Austin, Texas to see his family for the holidays, Chris called home to tell his mom that he wasn’t feeling well. All day he had been struggling for energy with a sore throat, fatigue and aches and had pushed his body to its limits with a long, physically demanding day. He had called home to cancel his Christmas trip, but after talking to his mom, decided to make every effort to get to the airport for his late evening flight so that he could relax with his family and be taken care of while on break from work. That phone call saved his life.
By the time he arrived in California, Chris was weak and visibly sick. As the week continued, instead of feeling stronger, he was getting weaker. He complained about difficulty breathing, an inability to sleep due to chest pressure and was unable to eat because his throat hurt so badly. After identifying the illness as strep, he went to the urgent care for help, but they sent him home with an antibiotic referral. By December 29th, six days after his initial illness, he was at the point where he could no longer bare the discomfort. His parent’s rushed Chris back to the urgent care for another examination, and again, the doctor stated that Chris as a young, 26 year old athlete, would be just fine and probably pulled a muscle or tweaked his back causing discomfort breathing. It took a praying mom to demand to the doctor for his lungs to be checked and what they found would be shocking...Chris’ chest was filled with fluid. The doctor, unknowing how Chris was still alive and functioning, hastily called the ER and arranged for doctors to be waiting for him upon his arrival. Driving over to Hoag Hospital, the French family had no idea that this was just the beginning of a 16 day long battle at Hoag for Chris’s life.
After receiving Chris into the ER, doctors began running test to reveal that he had a severe, life threatening case of pneumonia, which caused an infection in both lungs and Empyema that allowed the infected fluid to fill up his chest cavity, crushing his lungs. The family was shocked that Chris had been suffering for so long without complaining of the severity of his illness. Chris was immediately taken to the ICU where they had to perform an emergency surgery to put two tubes in his lungs, a painful process in which they make incisions in his back to insert the tubes which would be left in him the duration of his hospital time to drain the infected fluid that was crushing his lungs. After 4 days of draining fluids, Chris was told, despite what seemed like a gallon of fluid being removed from his chest, the right lung that was initially less impacted was now full of fluid and Chris would have to have another tube inserted. And a few days later when his left lung partially collapsed, yet another tube was inserted (a total of four tubes and four separate surgical procedures). Up until the last four days of his hospital journey, Chris’s condition was unwavering and life threatening.
Thanks to the doctors and nurses at Hoag, Chris' body was able to fight the infection and his lungs were cleared enough for him to breath. Truly it was answered prayers that Chris didn’t have to undergo any further major surgery and was finally sent home a survivor! The doctors said that if he didn't get help right when he did, he would have most likely died in his sleep. Praise God he is still here with us today!
Although now home and in the care of family, doctors project he will need 10 weeks of daily, intravenous antibiotics. Due to the fact that he has to remain under the doctor’s care for bi-weekly follow ups, Chris must remain in California until he regains strength and his lungs are healed enough for him to be cleared for travel back home to Texas. Now that the battle for his life has been won, Chris is being faced with staggering hospital bills from the 11 doctors who each billed separately during his 16 day stay in the hospital.
This is where we are asking for help. Chris is a 26 year old recent college graduate (Texas State University). After his college football career, he worked hard to pursue his dream to move to the city and become a graphic designer for a firm in Austin, Texas. Chris' just received word that his insurance will only cover a portion of the costs after his deductible has been met, leaving him initially out of pocket $10,000, due in the next 30-45 days. The hardworking individual that he is, instead of resting, Chris has already gone back to work remotely this week in order to maintain his job to be able to continue to pay his rent, car insurance bills, etc. but the stress of having hospital bills on top of that has become overwhelming and is hindering his full recovery. The hope is to help pay off this first initial bill in order to make sure he doesn't have the burden of being in debt for medical expenses.
Thank you so much for reading Chris' story. If you feel compelled to give, no amount is too small! We are excited to present this to Chris and to show the love and support of his community around him. Any additional funds will go towards his continued medical bills for his treatment.
By the time he arrived in California, Chris was weak and visibly sick. As the week continued, instead of feeling stronger, he was getting weaker. He complained about difficulty breathing, an inability to sleep due to chest pressure and was unable to eat because his throat hurt so badly. After identifying the illness as strep, he went to the urgent care for help, but they sent him home with an antibiotic referral. By December 29th, six days after his initial illness, he was at the point where he could no longer bare the discomfort. His parent’s rushed Chris back to the urgent care for another examination, and again, the doctor stated that Chris as a young, 26 year old athlete, would be just fine and probably pulled a muscle or tweaked his back causing discomfort breathing. It took a praying mom to demand to the doctor for his lungs to be checked and what they found would be shocking...Chris’ chest was filled with fluid. The doctor, unknowing how Chris was still alive and functioning, hastily called the ER and arranged for doctors to be waiting for him upon his arrival. Driving over to Hoag Hospital, the French family had no idea that this was just the beginning of a 16 day long battle at Hoag for Chris’s life.
After receiving Chris into the ER, doctors began running test to reveal that he had a severe, life threatening case of pneumonia, which caused an infection in both lungs and Empyema that allowed the infected fluid to fill up his chest cavity, crushing his lungs. The family was shocked that Chris had been suffering for so long without complaining of the severity of his illness. Chris was immediately taken to the ICU where they had to perform an emergency surgery to put two tubes in his lungs, a painful process in which they make incisions in his back to insert the tubes which would be left in him the duration of his hospital time to drain the infected fluid that was crushing his lungs. After 4 days of draining fluids, Chris was told, despite what seemed like a gallon of fluid being removed from his chest, the right lung that was initially less impacted was now full of fluid and Chris would have to have another tube inserted. And a few days later when his left lung partially collapsed, yet another tube was inserted (a total of four tubes and four separate surgical procedures). Up until the last four days of his hospital journey, Chris’s condition was unwavering and life threatening.
Thanks to the doctors and nurses at Hoag, Chris' body was able to fight the infection and his lungs were cleared enough for him to breath. Truly it was answered prayers that Chris didn’t have to undergo any further major surgery and was finally sent home a survivor! The doctors said that if he didn't get help right when he did, he would have most likely died in his sleep. Praise God he is still here with us today!Although now home and in the care of family, doctors project he will need 10 weeks of daily, intravenous antibiotics. Due to the fact that he has to remain under the doctor’s care for bi-weekly follow ups, Chris must remain in California until he regains strength and his lungs are healed enough for him to be cleared for travel back home to Texas. Now that the battle for his life has been won, Chris is being faced with staggering hospital bills from the 11 doctors who each billed separately during his 16 day stay in the hospital.
This is where we are asking for help. Chris is a 26 year old recent college graduate (Texas State University). After his college football career, he worked hard to pursue his dream to move to the city and become a graphic designer for a firm in Austin, Texas. Chris' just received word that his insurance will only cover a portion of the costs after his deductible has been met, leaving him initially out of pocket $10,000, due in the next 30-45 days. The hardworking individual that he is, instead of resting, Chris has already gone back to work remotely this week in order to maintain his job to be able to continue to pay his rent, car insurance bills, etc. but the stress of having hospital bills on top of that has become overwhelming and is hindering his full recovery. The hope is to help pay off this first initial bill in order to make sure he doesn't have the burden of being in debt for medical expenses.
Thank you so much for reading Chris' story. If you feel compelled to give, no amount is too small! We are excited to present this to Chris and to show the love and support of his community around him. Any additional funds will go towards his continued medical bills for his treatment.
Organizer and beneficiary
Katherine French
Beneficiary