Help David Quesada's Medical Expenses

Update 12/2022 - I want to thank everyone sincerely for your continued support and prayers as David continues down his long road of recovery and ongoing health challenges. I can’t believe its been a year already, and David still has a way to go with recovery and new health issues keep getting discovered. Some days are good days, where he can get out of bed and help with some house chores and take a walk around the block with me and the dog. On other days it’s a struggle for him to even get out of bed to use the restroom or eat anything. And still to this day, the doctor appointments, specialist visits & follow-ups, procedures, prescriptions, copays and expenses never seem to end.

Back when this all started, we thought it was just a persistent cough that wouldn't go away, and when it was brought up with doctors, it was dismissed as asthma trouble. Getting in to even see a doctor was difficult during this time - they all wanted to see a negative covid test result first. Except during this time, it was difficult to get these tests and took days to even get that negative test result, and the extreme social distancing at the time meant the only discussions with doctors took place either over the phone or in the parking lot. Even though every Covid test came back negative. A lot of miscommunications, scheduling mishaps and frustrations occurred over the next few weeks. Still, the symptoms persisted, never fully going away.

When the fatigue got so bad, he stayed in bed for several days, couldn't eat, started to spike fevers, and still getting the run-around from the medical professionals. Finally, after begging and pleading with them that it wasn't covid, but he really needed to see a doctor, they agreed to a "sick" visit in the office. Once he was finally in front of the doctor, he said he'd never seen David look that sick, and he should go straight to the ER. His blood pressure was very low, and the doctor thought he might be in kidney failure. That night, he landed in the ICU at Hoag. While in the ER, they discovered he was in septic shock with kidney and liver failure and discovered a small brain bleed. The next day while in the ICU, he suffered a flash pulmonary edema, which caused respiratory arrest – he stopped breathing and was intubated. He spent the next week undergoing multiple rounds of dialysis to get the kidneys working again, and strong antibiotics for the sepsis.

After 3 weeks in the hospital and a second flash edema, he was sent home with a long list of specialists and doctors to follow up within the next month. He was still very weak, couldn't walk more than a block at a time, and had lost his voice due to damage from being intubated. He was back to having extreme fatigue, and even a simple car ride to a park to go birding left him drained and needing a 2+ hour nap. During this time, I had to return to working in the office full time and was struggling to manage to schedule all the various follow-up visits right in the middle of the holiday season.

It was during one of the follow-up visits with a pulmonologist that first heard a heart murmur, which he didn’t have before all of this began, and ordered an echocardiogram “to be safe”. Over this next month. It took several more weeks to schedule the echo, and over that time he didn’t seem to be making much progress physically. The doctors just kept saying “give it time” but looking back, time was not his friend. During the echo exam, we were instructed to go back to the ER that same day. It looked like the streptococcus bacteria that had caused the sepsis had caused endocarditis within his heart!!!

Back at Hoag, they confirmed the endocarditis and it looked to be causing damage to his heart valves. He was immediately put on strong IV antibiotics, monitored for a few days and released with a long list of orders. For the next 6 weeks he received daily IV antibiotic infusions, weekly lab draws and weekly appointments with the ever-increasing list of doctors and specialists. By late February, it was looking like things were improving as he was getting more energy back and his test results were looking better.

After another trip to the ER and 3-days in the hospital, he is back on an extended course of strong antibiotics, and a lifelong diagnosis of endocarditis and heart valve damage. For the next 6 weeks he received daily IV antibiotic infusions, weekly lab draws and weekly appointments with the ever-increasing list of doctors and specialists. By late February, it was looking like things were improving as a repeated echo showed that the endocarditis was still there but did not appear to be growing or damaging the heart worse and would check again in a few months.

But he didn’t make it that long before ending back in the hospital again for the 3rd time in 4 months. Only a couple of weeks had passed since the cardiologist follow-up, and was having stomach pains, and spent all night bleeding out of places that generally are not talked about in polite conversation. When he started seeing stars and couldn’t walk more than a few steps without falling, I knew something was very wrong, and called an ambulance as he couldn’t make it to the car and was too heavy for me to carry him. He landed back in the ICU at Hoag, this time due to massive blood loss and required multiple transfusions of blood, plasma, and platelets. More scans and tests ensued, and they struggled to find the source of the bleeding. His heart condition wasn’t even on their radar until he complained of some minor chest pains. A repeat echo showed that the endocarditis was damaging the heart valves more than they originally thought and that they would need to be replaced via open-heart surgery.

Overall, this past year has been tough for both of us, and the next upcoming months are going to be just as difficult, if not more, with the surgery and his long (3 to 6+ months) recovery. Mentally, physically, and financially as the lists and needs keep growing. I have been fortunate enough to be able to maintain my full-time job (which allows us to keep the insurance) but it has taken its toll on it with the loss of some hours to visit him in the hospital, as well as the shop AlteredSails.com we ran together and providing for his needs as well as my own and for our two fur babies. I am going outside of my comfort zone here to ask for your help. Any assistance or support you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Please like and share and help us get David's heart those new valves and working again – his heart has a lot more life and love to give us all. God bless.