Support David Hunns family deal with long term illness

Help Emma, Colby and Elizabeth care for David, a Public servant and loving family

man!

Two years of doing it on their own has caused a need for help from caring friends. For

the past two years, David Hunn has been experiencing neurological issues. He was

diagnosed with neuropathy and, more frighteningly, with frontotemporal dementia. He

has been hospitalized five times since his symptoms began and, recently, had to spend

100 days at a skilled nursing facility after a fall. He has come dangerously close to

death with pneumonia and managed to get through, but was released from the skilled

nursing facility, not because he was in any shape to go home, but because Medicare

only covers 100 days and he has used those up. Upon returning home, he was struck

with COVID and a bacterial infection which put him back, once again, in the hospital.

David must now be confined to a wheelchair and requires round the clock care. This

puts Elizabeth in a very challenging position. The house is not ADA equipped, and

Elizabeth is caring for their 10 year old twins, Colby and Emma, in addition to Davids

overwhelming needs.

The families immediate needs are great, and on-going needs difficult to determine.

Elizabeth needs to retain her job and career, take care of the children, and somehow

manage round the clock care for David. In order to do this, she will need to renovate the

house, making it ADA accessible and installing items for David’s safety, and hire in

home help for the hours she needs to be at work both for general care and also for

physical therapy. She will need equipment such as a medical bed and wheelchair

immediately.

David’s condition means the rest of his life he will need assistance, and the breadth of

care he will need is going to increase over time. Frontotemporal dementia is a cruel

disease, it manifests differently in different people, there is no cure, and it is

progressive. Elizabeth is already managing with personality changes as this disease

slowly takes away the man she loves, the father to her children.

For those of you who don’t know David and his story, he devoted his life to serving the

community as an Engineer Paramedic. He served for Marin County Fire for 30 years.

He knew from childhood he was destined to help people. After watching an entire

hillside burn in his neighborhood in Terra Linda, he was so frightened that he wanted to

make sure no one else needed to be afraid like that. This compassion never left him. A

former colleague of Davids said “He was always wanting to help those in need. His

attention to detail was evident in his patient care. He is very compassionate and very

smart. He was always the first to the rig and checked out the ambulance well before his

shift started. He was well respected in the medical field by other medics and hospital

personnel.”

David and Elizabeth met at a Hands-Only CPR training class. Elizabeth was a volunteer

firefighter at the time. Some of his colleagues noticed that they talked nonstop for

almost two hours. As Elizabeth says “having been married to him for 12 years, I realize

now how special that was. He isn’t what you call, a talker.”

Perhaps one of the most heartbreaking parts of this horrible situation is the loss of a

devoted father to his young children. David used to delight in going on family vacations

to Tahoe or Monterey, relishing the experience of his children’s excitement. He used to

walk the twins to the playground daily, now passing that playground is a reminder of all

the family has already lost as he will likely never see it again.

Any donations received will be used 100% for these house modifications and for the

care David so desperately needs. Elizabeth and the kids are grateful for any help you

may be able to give, and thanks this community for the support. She will be posting

updates as much as she has the energy for, to let Davids community know how they are

faring.