Help and hope for dad

Hi, If you know me, you know I don't like asking for help for anything. Through my own health challenges, I've never asked for a thing. I hate asking for help. But, this isn't about me. This is about dad. And for my dad, I would go to the ends of the Earth and back.

For the past month, things have been a roller-coaster ride of events. It started with an accident landing dad in the ER, intubated on life support, and then flown out to the Chapel Hill burn center with burns to his face, arms, and chest. We were extremely lucky that no other damage was done. After spending several days there receiving excellent care, we were able to get him home with a nurse coming to his home for daily wound care. After a couple days, dad started having extreme swelling in his arm and chest and was evaluated by the home nurse and transported to the ER for a blood clot exam. He was evaluated and they decided the swelling was due to the burns on the muscle and back home he went.

Fast forward 3 days to March 6 and dad wakes up and can barely catch his breath. EMS arrives and takes dad to the hospital where he is evaluated and diagnosed with covid pneumonia. He spends 9 days in the hospital in RR receiving care. On March 15th, after appealing the decision with the hospital in RR to discharge him, they discharge him anyway and he is transported to Signature Health for physical therapy rehab.

This is where things went south. Quickly. His health declined rapidly, which is a story for another day but thanks a lot Signature (insert eyeroll), and on Saturday, March 18th, my brothers and I decided he had to get out of there ASAP. He was no longer able to talk, open his eyes, sit up, eat, drink, take meds, go to the bathroom. Nada. Once EMS arrived and took him to the hospital, his blood pressure was 50/39. For the next 7 hours, we watch it hover from 45/31 to 61/37 to finally 107/71 with the max dose of blood pressure meds that could be given. Dad was in kidney failure, septic with covid pneumonia, and barely hanging on. Around 1am, we were finally given a bed assignment at another facility and the helicopter arrived and dad was transported to an ICU unit.

Since arriving at ICU in Tarboro, they have been able to get his blood pressure stable. We are still not out of the woods by a long stretch because we will now be dealing with the effects of the kidney failure and pneumonia. We have a very long road ahead of us to get him well and then eventually walking again.

What we're asking for help for, is the funds to allow family to build a ramp for dad to get out of his house as well as to be able to purchase him a mobility scooter. His hospital bills are mounting and will continue and he will likely be in a rehab facility out of town once he is able. His insurance will only pay for 14 days, so after that, I will be paying $200 a day out of my own pocket. The family is exhausting themselves and we see no end in sight. My dad is one of the most important people in the world to me and if by setting my pride aside and doing this for him will give him some glimmer of hope, then I'm happy to do so.

I understand times are hard. We all feel it. If all you can offer is prayer, that is perfectly okay. Most days, that's what we're living on and we welcome all. Thanks for reading and this is your reminder to advocate for your loved ones.