Please help Jess and her family during this difficult time.

Jess is 26 years old, a mom to a beautiful 15-month-old girl, and currently fighting her way back to health after a medical emergency that could’ve ended differently.

What was supposed to be a routine gallbladder removal turned into a nightmare.

Just four days after surgery, she was suddenly in the worst pain she had ever experienced. She couldn’t breathe properly. She couldn’t walk. She could barely speak. She was screaming and begging for help, praying for the pain to stop. An ambulance rushed her back to the hospital, where doctors quickly realized something was very wrong.

Her heart rate was dangerously high.

After hours of tests, monitoring, and waiting for answers, she was finally taken into surgery. That’s when they discovered the truth: the surgical clips that were supposed to seal where her gallbladder had been had failed. Bile was leaking throughout her abdomen, poisoning her body from the inside.

She needed extensive surgery to wash out the infection. They flushed her abdomen with litres of fluid and placed a drain. If that wasn’t enough, She later needed a third procedure at Health Sciences Centre, where a tube was placed internally to fully seal the leak and to help her body heal.

She still has more medical care ahead of her before this is truly over as she’s back in the hospital with more mystery complications.

Her body has been through more than we ever imagined was possible, and healing while trying to be present for her little girl has been one of the hardest things she’s ever done.

She was denied Employment Insurance due to being short the minimum 600 hours worked between claims by 7 hours. The only time she has claimed EI was for her maturity leave which she returned from in September. She has been working since she was 14 and has only claimed EI the one time.

Her fiancé is doing everything he can, working to keep them afloat, but missing work to care for her and their daughter, combined with rising living costs, has put their family under serious financial strain.

We are asking for help to cover:
• mortgage costs/ basic living expenses
• Groceries and household needs
• Transportation to ongoing medical appointments
• Recovery-related costs while she’s unable to work

If you’re able to donate, share, or even just send love and prayers, it truly means the world to us. Every bit of support helps lift a weight off their shoulders during one of the most difficult chapters of their lives. Thank you for taking the time to read her/their story and for helping their family get through this.

Posted by: Noah Peterson

Organized by: Carmel and David Pahl