My name is Christy. I am very close with Haley Turner. She is an 18-year-old girl who has been fighting for her life for 5 days. Haley developed acute appendicitis on 1/21/26 and had an uneventful surgery to remove her appendix that evening. The appendix was perforated, so she stayed the night for antibiotics. She went to take a shower in the morning of 1/22, and cardiac arrested in the shower! CPR, shocks, everything… she was put on a ventilator and brought to the ICU, where she continued to develop deadly rhythms requiring multiple shocks. A healthy girl with no medical problems? Multiple medications, antibiotics for sepsis, anti-arrhythmics. Blood pressure support… she made it through the night by the grace of God… a few shocks to bring her back from these deadly rhythms, but everyone still scratched their heads! WHY??? Dad had a cardiac issue when he was in his 20s… they looked into this more on 1/23 and honed in on the cardiac meds… they thought maybe they could try to wake her up (Saturday) afternoon, however, when they tried she arrested and had to be sedated and reintubated. Our hearts were broken. They kept the room quiet and tried to let her heart heal. She did ok overnight, and on Sunday, 1/25 they decided to try again. She woke up! She was awake, and horrified to hear what she had been through! She didn’t remember any of it! She talked about being hungry for steak and chocolate-covered pretzels! She got to visit with her long-time boyfriend, mom, dad, and Hannah. Just when we thought things were looking up, she arrested again and had to go back on the ventilator and be sedated… everyone was so discouraged! But we understood her heart needed to rest. By Sunday evening her heart had stopped multiple times requiring countless shocks, and they decided she needed to be transferred to RGH. She was brought over by ambulance with multiple healthcare providers by her side. She had to be shocked on the transport over, and when she arrived at RGH she was so critically ill that she had to be brought to the O.R. and started on ECMO (extracorporeal membranous oxygenation), which is one of the scariest things you can see, but a life-saving measure. She was kept on ECMO overnight and Monday morning she was taken to the O.R. to try to figure out how they could fix her heart. She was in the operating room for most of the day with several doctors and finally after about 9 hours, there was a glimmer of hope when a doctor came out and said that they thought they found the needle in a haystack! We all celebrated and were optimistic that she just might make it through this! The doctors plan to put a cardiac defibrillator in her chest in the next few days… they told us if this doesn’t work she will need a heart transplant! It’s so scary! She was left on ECMO and ventilator for about 24 hours, and late this afternoon, they took her back to the operating room to remove ECMO. She did ok! And we are hoping she comes off the ventilator soon!
I will keep updating everyone on behalf of the Turner family. But in the meantime, we need your help! Haley will have months of medical bills and mom and dad will have so much missed work time between caring for her and taking her to appointments, let alone copays and deductibles!
To complicate things, Haley’s dad has been out of work for more than a month due to his own health problems! He has been in and out of the hospital for heart issues and procedures, and he has exhausted his sick time and family savings.
Please consider donating to this loving family in need! They will be crippled with medical expenses between dad and Haley this coming year and could use your support and loving words!