Hello everyone. 

Unfortunately Don became very ill within the last few weeks. On March 14, 2020, Don landed in the intensive care unit at a local San Diego hospital after an initial diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia. His status quickly deteriorated throughout the night and eventually went into something called ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome). His critical situation necessitated Don to be intubated, placed on a ventilator and be placed in medically induced coma. Other advanced therapies were immediately applied by the doctors to save Don’s life – including putting him in rotoprone bed (which rotates him on his stomach to help his lungs oxygenate), be placed on a continuous flow of nitrous oxide to help his lungs oxygenate, and putting a total of 7 IV drips to keep him sedated and to keep his blood pressure up. Throughout all these, he remained in critical condition, his blood oxygen levels remained dangerously low and his highest recorded temperature was 106.7F. It is hard to describe to people who are not in the medical field how sick he was. We eventually learned that Don had tested positive for COVID-19 and it was responsible for his ARDS.  

After two grueling weeks, Don began to improve – slowly but surely. He requires less and less support from the ventilator and came off all the drips for his blood pressure. He is now at a point where we are confident in his recovery. Unfortunately, we don’t know what the long term damage to his lungs will be as only time will tell. As of today (April 02, 2020), Don remains in the ICU, highly sedated and still on a ventilator but showing improvements with his oxygenation level and other laboratory results. With the limited information the world has with COVID19 mechanism and treatment, we are approximating that Don will have a long hospital course ahead of him. Because of this, we are asking for financial support for Don at this time to lessen the financial burden to him and his parents during Don’s recovery. His sister and family are all doing their part to help out financially, but Don will likely be out of work for the foreseeable future and will need all the help he can get. 

For anyone who knows Don knows what an awesome person he is. He’s bright, full of life and always looking for an adventure. He always has a positive and optimistic outlook on life and I want to do everything in my power to ensure a full recovery.  Don is a computer scientist, photographer and an aspiring RN who was weeks away from applying to nursing school. He has so much to offer the world and we need to make sure he’s able to share his gifts with everyone. Anything that can be donated would be appreciated and will go directly to his family. 

Much love to everyone, 

Andrew Princiotta