Hi, my name is Grace Soto. My family and I are facing a very complicated medical situation with my father. He is currently in Mexico and hospitalized. He is 70 years old and is disabled. While staying in Mexico on a temporary vacation, he started to have issues with his gallbladder. He was advised he needed surgery right away since he was in a lot of pain. He was admitted to a public hospital in Mexico City where he got his surgery performed. After possibly 5 days, he was discharged. Two days later, we were informed he was having a high fever, and he fainted and fell on the ground. He was rushed to the hospital again and was admitted for an infection in his incision and developed pneumonia. He started to get anxious and wanted to get out of the hospital; he would take off his IV and his catheter. He had to be held to the hospital bed to prevent him from doing this again and hurting himself.

This behavior was very strange, and he started to get disoriented and unable to identify friends who were with him. When my siblings and I immediately knew he was back at the hospital in that condition, my two siblings flew to Mexico City to support our father.

His disorientation changed into hallucinations. He was diagnosed with vascular dementia due to the history of strokes. He has been in the hospital for 8 days now, still with pneumonia, getting oxygen, and having hallucinations, unable to speak properly. The last time he said anything apart from things that wouldn’t make sense was that he was seeing black.

My siblings and I have been terrified about his medical condition right now, which has declined drastically.

We are trying to get him back home to Omaha for further medical assistance and dementia evaluation from specialists.

Every hour counts, and we don’t see him getting any better even though his doctor says his pneumonia is getting better, but his dementia (hallucinations) isn’t.

We have been waiting for his pneumonia to go away to bring him back on a commercial flight and get him into the hospital to be treated here with his doctors who know his medical history.

The past days, I’ve been cracking my head to think of options on how we can help him. I feel powerless being in another country and unable to help him and be there with him. My siblings have been going each day to visit and get more information since they cannot stay with him in the room where other patients are.

They are also feeling powerless because they have limited time to be there since we all reside here in Omaha.

I decided to open this GoFundMe to get him back home through medical repatriation.

He does not have health insurance abroad or travel insurance. I have quoted services for an air ambulance, and the costs are very high.

I’ve been praying for strength and for my father to get through this!

I don’t know how this will turn out but I guess this is a way in doing something.

We are unclear of his medical situation.If his pneumonia resolves we can possibly bring him home ourselves, but at this point we don’t see that will happen soon.

If the goal is not met and we can’t use medical repatriation, it would be used for his medical expenses in Mexico and/or in Omaha. Additionally any expenses we may have to continue to support him out of the country.

This is new to us. I hope I’m doing things right.

We need him home. We need him to feel supported, loved, and safe.

Thank you all.