Finn & Patsy Benefit Fund

As many of you may know, Finn and Patsy were headed south on a dream vacation, with all their doctor’s permission, to go Elk Hunting in New Mexico. Just as they nearing their destination the vacation went horribly bad as Finn was having extremely severe abdominal pain.

Finn was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital an hour away in a small-town bordering New Mexico and Arizona. From their Finn was next airlifted to Phoenix where an emergency surgery was done in the middle of the night on a perforated bowel. Then again, while there, he was airlifted from Phoenix to Scottsdale for additional tests and the potential of yet an additional surgery. Essentially, they were feeling trapped 2,000 miles away from home.

This is when Patsy made the decision to get Finn home. Patsy got the entire medical team, both in Arizona and Wisconsin, on-board with this mission. In order to get Finn home Patsy had to secure a private [uninsured] medical charter to fly Finn directly from Scottsdale to Arbor Vitae where he was met by ambulance to bring him to our new Marshfield Hospital – Minocqua where another surgery was performed the next day on an additional tear in the bowel.

While going through all these surgeries and transfers Finn was unable to continue his oral chemo treatments, which he was taking for stage 4 metastatic renal aka kidney cancer diagnosed Nov 2021, because the chemo would not allow the incisions to heal from the surgeries. He also suffered some other complications which further weakened him and cancer was then able to spread to other internal vital organs.

What was to be perhaps their “make a wish” like vacation turned into a nightmare. In total, Finn spent 16 days in 3 different hospitals within Arizona. And then he spent an additional 6 days in our hospital in

Minocqua. Patsy remained by Finn’s side 24 x 7 in the hospitals in AZ and WI and now they are finally home together along with the care of in-home hospice.

The physical, emotional and financial toll on Finn and Pasty has been immense. Fortunately, they have good insurance yet, as we also know, not everything is ever covered and it adds up quick. The private medical charter alone was over $35,000 which was not covered by insurance. Plus, then there are all the other uninsured incidental and associated expenses with this journey. This has been a two-year plus battle and we ask that you do what you can do to help lessen the burden.

Finn and Patsy can use all of our prayers, love and support. It is in their behalf we created this Go Fund Me page as a means to help. When you read this, we ask that you make a donation today through this Go Fund Me Page or by mailing a check to “The Niemi Family”c/o Incredible Bank, 8590 US 51 North, Minocqua, WI  54548.

Thank you.