Donate for Sarah Whitesel's Medical Journey

Hi, I’m Elijah Whitesel. Sarah Whitesel and I have 5 daughters, and I’m not sure how to explain the amount of trauma my family has experienced in the last week.

On Monday (7/15) afternoon, I left the house for 10 minutes. When I returned home, Eme ran up to me and said that “mom was shaking, I don’t think she’s okay”. I followed Eme to her mom. Sarah was in bed, her face was gray and cold, she wasn’t breathing, and had no pulse. I immediately began CPR, while Lucy called 911. The girls ran out the front door and flagged the ambulance down to get them inside as fast as possible. First responders arrived in about 7 minutes. Sarah was defibrillated multiple times and got a pulse back. She’s currently on a ventilator in the ICU. We now know that Sarah went into an irregular heart rhythm called Torsades and that led to cardiac arrest. This was likely due to an electrolyte imbalance, stress, and some family history of heart disease at a young age. More testing still has to be done to determine the condition of her heart and any underlying issues. There are many positive results so far. She was awake, breathing on her own, and talking (confused) on Wednesday. Due to complications she was placed back on the ventilator and sedation on Friday. A lot is uncertain as far as what recovery looks like.

There’s a long road ahead, and my family, friends, and community have already been a tremendous support. I’ve never been great about asking for help, but I’ll be frank, I need prayers and money. I’ve created a GoFundMe. Funds will go towards large medical costs, childcare, possible lost income, etc. If you feel led, the help would be very much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has already provided support, offers of support, prayers, and shoulders to cry on.

Much love, Elijah