Medical expenses

On Wednesday, March 1st, our family received news that no husband, parent, or sibling wants to hear about someone they love. Kaila had a life threatening and potentially life altering subarachnoid hemorrhage - a leaking blood vessel behind her left eye. Essentially, she had a stroke.

Kaila was at work when the vision in her left eye went out - she was dizzy, had a headache, and fell while throwing up. Her coworkers called 911 and they ambulanced her to Bryan West. It was at the ER that the severity of her condition was discovered. They admitted her to the ICU and scheduled a surgery for Thursday to coil the leaking blood vessel. However, while waiting for surgery, her mental condition changed rapidly so they had to put a drain in ASAP to help alleviate the pressure in her cranium. At this point, we did not know the outcome or the overall effects this would have on her life. The next morning, Thursday, she was scheduled for a surgery that was supposed to take 2-3 hours but ended up between 7-8 hours because they couldn’t coil the vessel due to the coil occluding the vessel. The neurologist instead had to stent it. This was successful but means she will need to be on blood thinners 2 months post surgery and aspirin for life.

The first 4 days after surgery were very hard for Kaila. She struggled with severe headaches because of the spasms happening where they repaired the vessel, frustrations due to impacts on her short-term memory, speech sometimes not making sense, and word recall for certain things. She was also very sleep deprived because they kept waking her every hour.

The neurologist is very pleased with Kaila’s progress and she continues to improve. Her motor skills have not been impacted. Her short-term memory and speech continue to improve but she is still working on short- term memories and making sense when she talks. She still struggles with headaches and gets overstimulated and worn out quickly. She still has the drain in her head to continue to alleviate cranium pressure but they hope to remove that in the next few days as she continues to heal.

While it is still too early to know the extent of the long-term effects this will have on her, we are pleased with how she is progressing. She is not out of the woods and has some hurdles to continue to overcome. We also don’t know how much longer she will have to stay in the hospital. We do know she will need some outside memory rehab.

First and foremost, we are forever grateful to the staff at Centerpointe for their speedy intervention in calling 911. They did not hesitate for a moment and because of that we are lucky we are where we are today. Her prognosis and outcome would not have been so positive. Thank you also to the staff at Bryan West for their speedy intervention and for taking such good care of her because again her prognosis and outcome would not have been so positive.

Some final thank yous, to our warrior mom. She has been diligently overseeing Kaila’s care and has been with her every step of the way. She has always said she knows too much. In this instance it was a curse seeing your child in this situation and blessing to have someone so knowledgeable in Kaila’s corner. Our dad who has been visiting and keep Kaila company. Renee for watching Asa and Landen. Anton for supporting Kaila where it is needed and managing all the things with the kids and house without her.

Kaila is only 31 years old with a husband and 2 young boys at home that love and need her. She has already expressed a desire to get back to work and how expensive this is going to be. Even with insurance, she had an ambulance ride, an ER trip, scans in the ER, 2+ plus weeks in the ICU, 8 hour brain surgery, countless doctors, meds, and more scans. This doesn’t even cover what is going to happen once she is released and the toll this will take on her mental health.

Kaila and Anton help so many people and would drop anything to give a hand. We would like to do the same for their family. We want her sole FOCUS to get better so that she can be around and be healthy for her family that she loves and that loves her so much.

We appreciate any and all donations from the bottom of our hearts. I will continue to update as we move forward.

Thank you again!

The Koerner and Achen Families