Helping Dylan & Ronda

Hi, my name is Tanein, and I'm fundraising on behalf of my mom, Ronda, and brother, Dylan.

Family is vital to me, as it is for most. I'm looking to raise money in hopes to cover my brother's prescription costs and my mother, being a small business owner, having to close her doors to care for him during hospitalization and ultimately making very little income to cover her expenses like: housing and business rent, food, gas, etc.

 

My brother has always been an oddball that we all love and cherish. You could say he's a homebody as he deals with severe anxiety and Asperger's Syndrome. My mother is his sole caregiver tending to his daily needs, which have recently become more numerous and time-consuming.

 

Early February, Dylan was acting out of character and quite forgetful. I had seen my mom the afternoon of Feb 5, and not long after that, my brother had fallen face-forward in a Shoppers drug mart and had a grand mal seizure and was foaming at the mouth. When paramedics arrived, they wouldn't take him to the hospital because Dylan is an adult and said he didn't want to go. My mom tried to plea with them that he's autistic and unaware that he even just suffered from a seizure; they did nothing.

 

An ambulance was called Feb 5 at 10pm following another seizure, and Dylan was released at 4am as his blood work was normal and it was "ok" to pick him up. The ambulance was called again at 5:06am after two more consecutive seizures. He was sent home immediately because my brother insisted he wanted to leave and the hospital would not keep him under the Mental Health Act. By 6am, an additional two seizures took place; 911 argued an ambulance had already been dispatched when in fact, they had already sent him home. In those two episodes, my mother had police remove him forcefully from our home; when coming out of his seizures, he's freaked out, agitated, and flailing. At last, he was admitted during that final trip to the ER because he suffered three attacks while in Maple Ridge Hospital, and they couldn't ignore it any longer. Over 14 hours following the initial incident, Dylan suffered from approximately one dozen grand mal attacks, in time resulting in loss of speech and motor skills. This negligence caused extraordinary measures to be taken, my brother had to be intubated, spend a day and a half on life support and 12 days in ICU. With inferior care given by most hospital staff, I may add.

 

My mother, Ronda, being his primary caretaker, took it upon herself to cancel/reschedule dozens of clients throughout Dylan's hospitalization due to the lack of care he received in hospital. She stayed at his bedside, hours on end, making sure he was comfortable, fed, and able to sleep. My mom runs her own small business and works 9am to 7pm 5-7 days/week. Since my brother's hospitalization, she had to cut down to two hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening to care for my brother during the day.

 

In one instance, later in his stay, they had removed all tubes/Iv's and heart monitor and taken him off seizure medication for the day. Luckily my mother was present to make sure he ate, as we didn't want to re-intubate, and in that time, he suffered from another seizure. Ronda herself had to alert medical staff of this, seeing as he wasn't hooked up to any monitors and no one would have even known if she wasn't there. Miraculously, this seizure triggered something, and my brother started speaking again (6 days no speech). Coincidentally, the neurologist had said Dylan not talking, eating, or listening to medical staff was "behavioral"... *insert eye roll*.

 

Dylan is currently on new seizure medication, and antibiotics for ongoing infections brought home from the hospital. Most surprisingly, he also has short-term memory loss resulting from numerous seizures. My dear mother is home to help him every step of the way, challenging his memory and asking questions. He seems to have lost somewhere between 5-10 years of some of his memories. Despite this, he is in good spirit and sleeping on an air mattress in the living room to avoid stair usage for the time being. My mother is able to start working more, but some prescriptions aren't being covered and costing hundreds of dollars out of pocket.

 

To my family, friends, friends of friends, or anyone else, I humbly ask for help on behalf of my family in a time of need. Whether it be a donation, a prayer, or good vibes, anything is appreciated.

Thank you :)

 

 

 

 

Fun fact: A psychiatrist at the hospital asked my family permission to write a paper on Dylan to better educate medical staff on cases such as his, compared to other patients who have no one to advocate their background information and unfortunately slip through the cracks.