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This is Calvin. He is a beautiful, brilliant, generous and kind 20-year-old, who is a Mechanical Engineering student at UCF.
Despite having never been ill in his entire life — no allergies and vaccinated for everything — Calvin is now fighting for his life.
Over Christmas break, Cal began not feeling well. On January 4th, he went to Bayfront after asking his mom, an ER nurse, what to do as he had been coughing for 14 straight hours. He was diagnosed with the flu and pneumonia in the right lung. On January 6th, he called again saying that he was having extreme difficulty breathing. His dad rushed him back to the Bayfront ER. Later that afternoon, he was intubated in full ARDS and helicoptered to Tampa General Hospital, where he is now on ECMO with a cavitary MRSA pneumonia and bacteremia. In English, he is super sick and on two forms of life support. His lungs are so full of illness, there is almost no room for air. Apparently, this is an insanely rare possibility with the flu.
Despite having never been ill in his entire life — no allergies and vaccinated for everything — Calvin is now fighting for his life.
Over Christmas break, Cal began not feeling well. On January 4th, he went to Bayfront after asking his mom, an ER nurse, what to do as he had been coughing for 14 straight hours. He was diagnosed with the flu and pneumonia in the right lung. On January 6th, he called again saying that he was having extreme difficulty breathing. His dad rushed him back to the Bayfront ER. Later that afternoon, he was intubated in full ARDS and helicoptered to Tampa General Hospital, where he is now on ECMO with a cavitary MRSA pneumonia and bacteremia. In English, he is super sick and on two forms of life support. His lungs are so full of illness, there is almost no room for air. Apparently, this is an insanely rare possibility with the flu.
As expected, this nearly eight-week journey has presented both good days and bad days. While Calvin was making huge improvements, he had a major setback February 21st after he had a thoracotomy (a surgical procedure to access the lungs) and began losing tons of blood from surgery. He had to go back to the OR that night for an emergency surgery to attempt to stop the bleeding and received nine units of blood with plasma and platelets.
Since the thoracotomy, Calvin has had little improvement, and attempts to wean him off ECMO have been unsuccessful. The doctors are now relentlessly pushing for a double lung transplant, which will only give him a life expectancy of roughly five years.
Even though Cal's mom is a healthcare hero, she too is at a loss of how to help her son. The goal of this fundraiser is to send love and light and to assist Calvin and his family with living expenses and medical bills, as the hospital's finance department informed the family last week that his bill is now up to $4 MILLION. Any amount you can donate would be considered a blessing and a tremendous help to the family. Thank you for sending healing thoughts our way.
Since the thoracotomy, Calvin has had little improvement, and attempts to wean him off ECMO have been unsuccessful. The doctors are now relentlessly pushing for a double lung transplant, which will only give him a life expectancy of roughly five years.
Even though Cal's mom is a healthcare hero, she too is at a loss of how to help her son. The goal of this fundraiser is to send love and light and to assist Calvin and his family with living expenses and medical bills, as the hospital's finance department informed the family last week that his bill is now up to $4 MILLION. Any amount you can donate would be considered a blessing and a tremendous help to the family. Thank you for sending healing thoughts our way.
Organizer and beneficiary
Stephanie Portilia
Beneficiary