John Kennedy Sr (funeral & medical)
Donation protected
January 4, 2018….
It has been almost 2 months since my daddy passed away and our family has never felt such hurt before. While we have been blessed to see the love and support of many, we are deeply hurt by the empty promises of so many who said they would donate funds, provide meals, and do laborious tasks like help fix our van or clean up debris from the hurricane. Our handicap van was recently broken down for 10 days and left Sabrina (26 year old, wheelchair bound) stuck at the house and unable to enjoy her life. Though the issue is fixed now, there are tons of other issues that keep piling up and a new van is needed badly! It doesn’t have to be brand new or luxurious, we are a frugal family and have never been picky. The money from this account has been used to pay the mortgage to keep my family in their home but as the pennies run out, the possibility of a foreclosure grows more and more. My mom went back to work a week after he passed and has been working insane shifts to help supplement the loss of my father’s income but sadly, it’s barely enough to take care of groceries and utilities. If you cannot donate, please share this. Share it anywhere you can! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! To those who have provided a meal, sent presents for the kids during Christmas, donated your time or money to our family, or have just called to check in on us, we appreciate you all more than ever!!!!
November 26, 2017...
Our family has been blessed with the support and love of so many during this tragic time but we need all of our friends, old and new, to continue to help see our family through the upcoming months. This holiday season has proven more difficult than anything and our worlds are flipped upside down. At the moment we are working diligently to get the family into a new home, most likely a modular home, which has proven very tedious as finding land is not easy in an area that has plenty of jobs. The home that they are in now is far too much for mom to afford each month and will most likely end up being foreclosed on. We have official news that dad only had a very very small life insurance policy through work and all of the places (social security, veterans affairs, and insurance) that we have check into for benefits and supplemental income have been denied. If we can reach the 25k goal, we will have enough to pay cash for a small piece of land and may even have enough for a down payment on the modular home. In the meantime our family is pinching every penny and accepting meal donations from our local friends and church. While dad was alive he made too much money to get help with the twins (John jr and Sabrina) and their medical needs that come with cerebral palsy and now that he’s gone we are finding that government assistance is impossible still. A new handicap van is still in dire need, we’re trying so hard to make this one last but it’s falling apart more and more each day. Please, please share this will everyone and if you cannot donate, please pray! We love all of you who have supported us and we know dad is proud!
November 6, 2017...
It is with the heaviest of hearts that I reach out to all of you and ask for your support, financially and emotionally as my Daddy has passed. Many of you know that my younger brother and sister have Cerebral Palsy and my dad has devoted his life to "busting ass" (as he would always say) to provide for them and my mom and I. Everything....EVERYTHING he did was for his family. He had a rough life and unfortunately, his death was very rough as well and the stress that comes with losing a loved one has now grown ten fold because of our financial worries and struggles. As you'll see below, his last two days of life were spent in ICU and he had no health insurance. I will update as those bills come in. My family will need a new handicap van, have to move, and supplement his income. If you cannot donate, please share, and please pray.
On November 5, 2017 at 2am my dad had a massive heart attack. My mom just so happened to be up with him, watching tv, and she immediately noticed him "kick back" into his chair and he was unresponsive. Along with a heart attack he had a seizure that lasted about 10-15 minutes. Mom called 911 and little John and her started CPR and the medics continued CPR and such until about 3:15am and they finally got a slight pulse. He is on a breathing machine, unconscious, and just had heart surgery. His arteries were all severely clogged and he now has two stents in his heart. He is dealing with severe internal bleeding (possibly from CPR) and the doctors can't figure out where from. He has an air bubble under his rib that should not be there and he was just seen by a specialist who placed him on clotting medicine to hopefully fix the bleeding and right now that is our biggest hope.
Update: 11/5/17 3pm
My dad has no pulse from the hips down. 2 different blood pressure meds to maintain his BP artificially. Plus the breathing machines and stents and balloons. The dr said there is always more that could go wrong so I'm trying to stay positive.
Update: 11/6/17 7am
They were able to give him a medicine that helped to raise his heart rate. For the past hour he has held around 114/64 (normally 120/80) and his heart rate is at 96 ish. There are 3 big issues:
1. Platelets. His platelets are down and he is not clotting so the internal bleeding is not able to stop. He has stopped bleeding significantly but his lungs still produce a good amount of blood when the ventilator (breathing tubes) was reduced, the blood was still coming up.
2. His heart. He needs his heart to strengthen so they can take the balloon stent out of his pelvic area. This balloon is preventing him from having a CT done which is preventing him from having the internal bleeding found like I said above.
3. Oxygen. Since the machine is breathing for him, he is at 100% pure oxygen and if he stays on that for too long he will experience more problems with his kidney and liver and because the medicines they are giving him are slowly deteriorating those organs, he needs to fix problems one and two so they can begin to focus on possible surgery.
He still has no pulse from his legs on down and a double amputation is very likely if they cannot restore the blood to the legs. This has been for about 18 hrs. Right now they can't restore the blood because that would require a blood thinner and his blood is already not clotting (again. Those damn platelets) as it should.
The nurse said they were able to lift him to do another X-ray and his stats didn't plummet so she was very very excited...she wanted to do jumping jacks. They are slowly taking him off of one of his medicines to see how it works and hopefully will follow suit with many more.
Update: 11/6/17 9am
Great news! They have let his heart beat enough along side the balloon stent that it is strong enough to beat on its own and he can have the balloon removed. Our next goal is to do a CT so we can pin point the internal bleeding and check brain functions. It may not be til later, if possible, but that's our hope. His legs still have no pulse and we are waiting for labs to tell us about the oxygen levels and platelets.
Update: 11/6/17 11am
They will not be doing a CT. He became too unstable to move. We are just waiting.
Update: 11/6/17 1pm
After doing an EEG (trying to find a wave in his brain) they saw no movement in his brain and a neurologist is doing a study to verify brain death. They are doing a CT now of his head before they can announce brain dead. Let's pray there is something to focus positive on from it. If he is pronounced brain dead, there is nothing more to do and we will take him off of machines and be with him as he passes peacefully and surrounded by the ones he loves.
Update: 11/6/17 2:45pm
The doctors announced brain death at 2:22pm. We have begun to set up arrangements to be in the room with him as they take him off of life support and he passes peacefully.
Update: 11/6/17 4:30pm
His heart stopped at 4:23pm.
When leaving the hospital, the van wouldn't start. There was a dead battery and it is falling apart. Dad planned on taking a week off and fixing it as much as he could instead of spending his vacation time like he should have.
It has been almost 2 months since my daddy passed away and our family has never felt such hurt before. While we have been blessed to see the love and support of many, we are deeply hurt by the empty promises of so many who said they would donate funds, provide meals, and do laborious tasks like help fix our van or clean up debris from the hurricane. Our handicap van was recently broken down for 10 days and left Sabrina (26 year old, wheelchair bound) stuck at the house and unable to enjoy her life. Though the issue is fixed now, there are tons of other issues that keep piling up and a new van is needed badly! It doesn’t have to be brand new or luxurious, we are a frugal family and have never been picky. The money from this account has been used to pay the mortgage to keep my family in their home but as the pennies run out, the possibility of a foreclosure grows more and more. My mom went back to work a week after he passed and has been working insane shifts to help supplement the loss of my father’s income but sadly, it’s barely enough to take care of groceries and utilities. If you cannot donate, please share this. Share it anywhere you can! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! To those who have provided a meal, sent presents for the kids during Christmas, donated your time or money to our family, or have just called to check in on us, we appreciate you all more than ever!!!!
November 26, 2017...
Our family has been blessed with the support and love of so many during this tragic time but we need all of our friends, old and new, to continue to help see our family through the upcoming months. This holiday season has proven more difficult than anything and our worlds are flipped upside down. At the moment we are working diligently to get the family into a new home, most likely a modular home, which has proven very tedious as finding land is not easy in an area that has plenty of jobs. The home that they are in now is far too much for mom to afford each month and will most likely end up being foreclosed on. We have official news that dad only had a very very small life insurance policy through work and all of the places (social security, veterans affairs, and insurance) that we have check into for benefits and supplemental income have been denied. If we can reach the 25k goal, we will have enough to pay cash for a small piece of land and may even have enough for a down payment on the modular home. In the meantime our family is pinching every penny and accepting meal donations from our local friends and church. While dad was alive he made too much money to get help with the twins (John jr and Sabrina) and their medical needs that come with cerebral palsy and now that he’s gone we are finding that government assistance is impossible still. A new handicap van is still in dire need, we’re trying so hard to make this one last but it’s falling apart more and more each day. Please, please share this will everyone and if you cannot donate, please pray! We love all of you who have supported us and we know dad is proud!
November 6, 2017...
It is with the heaviest of hearts that I reach out to all of you and ask for your support, financially and emotionally as my Daddy has passed. Many of you know that my younger brother and sister have Cerebral Palsy and my dad has devoted his life to "busting ass" (as he would always say) to provide for them and my mom and I. Everything....EVERYTHING he did was for his family. He had a rough life and unfortunately, his death was very rough as well and the stress that comes with losing a loved one has now grown ten fold because of our financial worries and struggles. As you'll see below, his last two days of life were spent in ICU and he had no health insurance. I will update as those bills come in. My family will need a new handicap van, have to move, and supplement his income. If you cannot donate, please share, and please pray.
On November 5, 2017 at 2am my dad had a massive heart attack. My mom just so happened to be up with him, watching tv, and she immediately noticed him "kick back" into his chair and he was unresponsive. Along with a heart attack he had a seizure that lasted about 10-15 minutes. Mom called 911 and little John and her started CPR and the medics continued CPR and such until about 3:15am and they finally got a slight pulse. He is on a breathing machine, unconscious, and just had heart surgery. His arteries were all severely clogged and he now has two stents in his heart. He is dealing with severe internal bleeding (possibly from CPR) and the doctors can't figure out where from. He has an air bubble under his rib that should not be there and he was just seen by a specialist who placed him on clotting medicine to hopefully fix the bleeding and right now that is our biggest hope.
Update: 11/5/17 3pm
My dad has no pulse from the hips down. 2 different blood pressure meds to maintain his BP artificially. Plus the breathing machines and stents and balloons. The dr said there is always more that could go wrong so I'm trying to stay positive.
Update: 11/6/17 7am
They were able to give him a medicine that helped to raise his heart rate. For the past hour he has held around 114/64 (normally 120/80) and his heart rate is at 96 ish. There are 3 big issues:
1. Platelets. His platelets are down and he is not clotting so the internal bleeding is not able to stop. He has stopped bleeding significantly but his lungs still produce a good amount of blood when the ventilator (breathing tubes) was reduced, the blood was still coming up.
2. His heart. He needs his heart to strengthen so they can take the balloon stent out of his pelvic area. This balloon is preventing him from having a CT done which is preventing him from having the internal bleeding found like I said above.
3. Oxygen. Since the machine is breathing for him, he is at 100% pure oxygen and if he stays on that for too long he will experience more problems with his kidney and liver and because the medicines they are giving him are slowly deteriorating those organs, he needs to fix problems one and two so they can begin to focus on possible surgery.
He still has no pulse from his legs on down and a double amputation is very likely if they cannot restore the blood to the legs. This has been for about 18 hrs. Right now they can't restore the blood because that would require a blood thinner and his blood is already not clotting (again. Those damn platelets) as it should.
The nurse said they were able to lift him to do another X-ray and his stats didn't plummet so she was very very excited...she wanted to do jumping jacks. They are slowly taking him off of one of his medicines to see how it works and hopefully will follow suit with many more.
Update: 11/6/17 9am
Great news! They have let his heart beat enough along side the balloon stent that it is strong enough to beat on its own and he can have the balloon removed. Our next goal is to do a CT so we can pin point the internal bleeding and check brain functions. It may not be til later, if possible, but that's our hope. His legs still have no pulse and we are waiting for labs to tell us about the oxygen levels and platelets.
Update: 11/6/17 11am
They will not be doing a CT. He became too unstable to move. We are just waiting.
Update: 11/6/17 1pm
After doing an EEG (trying to find a wave in his brain) they saw no movement in his brain and a neurologist is doing a study to verify brain death. They are doing a CT now of his head before they can announce brain dead. Let's pray there is something to focus positive on from it. If he is pronounced brain dead, there is nothing more to do and we will take him off of machines and be with him as he passes peacefully and surrounded by the ones he loves.
Update: 11/6/17 2:45pm
The doctors announced brain death at 2:22pm. We have begun to set up arrangements to be in the room with him as they take him off of life support and he passes peacefully.
Update: 11/6/17 4:30pm
His heart stopped at 4:23pm.
When leaving the hospital, the van wouldn't start. There was a dead battery and it is falling apart. Dad planned on taking a week off and fixing it as much as he could instead of spending his vacation time like he should have.
Organizer
Rachael Conner
Organizer
Ladson, SC
