My name is Gordon Shell, Darrell “Dinger” Shell’s youngest brother. On behalf of myself, my family and Dinger, we are reaching out to Dinger’s friends to help with the long-term costs needed for Dinger’s medical care and housing.
On Thursday, June 16th, 2022, Dinger was leaving a job site in Birmingham, Michigan, when he suddenly felt the effects of a stroke; fortunately for Dinger and other Drivers, Dinger was able to pull over to a safe spot and call an ambulance for himself.
When the ambulance arrived, Dinger felt that the stroke had passed, and he told the medics that he felt fine, but they could clearly see he was not healthy, and they immediately drove him to Beaumont Royal Oak where he was admitted. Dinger was obviously confused and had lost portion of his vision to the small stroke that he suffered while driving so he was not able to call anyone on his cell phone nor could he even see the buttons on his cell phone.
Not until Friday Morning, June 17th, was Dinger able to contact his mother to notify her where he was. Dinger’s mom, Louise, contacted the rest of us immediately, and we rushed to the hospital to find Dinger sitting up in his hospital bed, being cared for by the fantastic nursing staff at Beaumont Royal Oak.
Even though Dinger was awake and alert, he was confused and seemed blind on his right side; he was speaking but was agitated and confused; he wanted to go home and be out of the hospital.
While I was with Dinger in the hospital, the physical therapy team came in to evaluate him to see if he would be able to leave the hospital within a few days. The team made Dinger climb out of bed and take a walk thru the hospital halls. I accompanied the team and Dinger as we walked thru the halls; he could walk but was veering to the left due to his vision. Dinger was able to climb and descend a small flight of practice stairs, but he was going to need some assistance to get back to “normal” in his home life.
After Dinger’s therapy walk, we returned to his room, at this time, he seemed even more confused; it was almost like talking to a 10-year-old Dinger, he was getting scared, and for the first time in my 52 years with him, I saw my big brother shed a tear that was not for his dogs but his own life.
By 4:30 pm that evening, Dinger was getting tired, and the nurses had given him a heavy pain med to help with the headache caused by the stroke. Dinger went to sleep at about 4:45 pm that Friday evening; I grabbed his hand and told him good night, I would see him in the morning, and we would see what we could do to get him out of there ASAP…………sadly, that was the last time that I saw my big brother Dinger as himself.
At approximately 6:30 pm that evening, the nurses came to Dinger's room to find him on all fours on the hospital floor, all of his IVs and heart sensors had been torn off; he was in an extreme state of confusion and was losing control of his body, he had to be immediate sedated and moved to ICU, he was suffering a major stroke on the rear of his brain accompanied by massive bleeding in the brain. The doctors and staff worked on him thru the night to stabilize him, and the family received a call at 8:00 am the morning of Saturday, June 18th, where we immediately rushed to his side to find him heavily sedated and strapped to the bed for his safety.
A drain had to be drilled into the top of Dinger’s head to release spinal fluid that could no longer drain down to his spine like a healthy brain would; all those channels had swollen shut, and without the drain, the pressure in his brain could be deadly. A constant push of pain meds and sedation were given to him to allow him to rest comfortably, hoping the swelling and brain bleed would subside.
MRI, CT and ultrasound tests showed what the Neurologist defined as a major “insult” to the brain, commonly known as a massive stroke. The portions of the brain that were affected would most likely cause permanent blindness, paralyzation and unknown speech and cognitive abilities, “only time will tell the extent”, the doctors and staff told us.
By the afternoon of Sunday June 19th, the swelling and bleeding had proved to be too much for Dinger, the surgeons needed to take him into emergency surgery to remove the back of his skull to give his brain room to swell; the surgery was a success but due to the surgery and Dinger’s condition he had to be placed on a ventilator and a feeding tube.
Dinger stayed on the Ventilator until Monday, June 27th; during that time, the doctors and the family would talk with him, we could ask him to open his eyes and squeeze our hands, but we could see that he was now completely blind. His left side was completely paralyzed, he could furrow his brow in pain and be given the best care possible, but we knew that Dinger would never want to live out his days on a vent being fed thru a tube.
On Monday, June 27th, the doctors removed the vent from Dinger; his mother held his hand and said, “Mom is here; I love you Darrell” and to our surprise, in a very weak breath, Dinger said, “I love you Mom” and continued to breathe on his own.
Since June 27th, Dinger has had the drain tube removed from his skull, IV’s have been removed, and most monitors have been removed; they have moved him to a private room where we get to visit him daily in hopes that we will see a glimpse of Dinger again. Dinger has opened his eyes and even said the light is too bright but he cannot focus or see at this time; he has also said his date of birth to the doctors, which gives us hope that his brain is putting together the pieces slowly, but as a family, we understand that if Dinger is to recover it will take a very long time and will require months, years or even a lifetime of long term care and assistance for him and us as a family.
If you know Dinger, you know that he was very independent, he was never one to punch a clock, he was a dreamer an entrepreneur and most of all a very hard worker. Dinger built his caulking and brick cleaning business into a successful business servicing some of the most prestigious builders in the Metro Detroit area with only himself and one part-time employee. Dinger never lived for status; he never bought or leased new cars, he was always happy to only accept what he could afford and enjoy, he was cautious to never live beyond his means, and at age 57 he has managed to carry little to no debt.
Dinger loves his family, friends and most of all, his dogs. While I have made my work with dogs very public thru fighting, fundraisers, movies, social media etc, Dinger’s love for dogs exceeds even mine! Dinger has never lived with no less than two dogs in his home; at one point, he had seven dogs to care for with an accidental litter of puppies that he adopted out and kept in touch with throughout their lives. Dinger currently has two beautiful dogs in his home that his mother has been caring for, along with her own dog, Penny. Dinger’s dogs are “Coop”, a beautiful, energetic coon hound and “Porsche” a sweet undersized lab/American bulldog/mutt mix. Dinger’s dogs are his babies, and you know if you ever spent time with him, they are the screen lock image on his phone, and he never stayed away from home longer than 8 hours because he had to get home to his dogs.
This Go Fund Me is put together and managed by Dinger’s family in hopes of covering some of the medical and long-term care that will be needed for Dinger and his babies.
While a fund of $100k seems like a lot, it will only cover one year of assisted living/nursing care for Dinger; the average cost for the care Dinger needs, not including future hospitalization, surgeries, etc., is on average $98K-$108K annually. While Dingers Family and I have worked hard in our careers, none of us can cover these expenses.
We are meeting with councilors in the field of long-term care to see what assistance we can get, but we must face the reality that we cannot do this on our own, so we have created this fund to share with Dinger’s friends and loved ones to help us help Dinger.
On behalf of the Shell family and Dinger, I thank you all from the deepest reaches of my heart for your support, prayers, and wishes thru this tragic event.
-Gordon Shell