Help Mandie as Joe Fights for His Life

Where do I start. My name is Mandie, well Amanda, but my name isn't really important. What's important is the man in which I'm creating this for. Joseph Holcomb. Many of you, and maybe not any of you, know him as Joe. You may even know him from O'Reilly here in Fulton. On December 9th, 2024 at 1:30 a.m. Joe went in to cardiac arrest. I immediately started chest compressions while I screamed on the phone the most guteral sounds ever to escape me until Menters arrived to take over. After an hour, they were able to get him stable enough to transport him to Oswego and then eventually to Upstate hospital in Syracuse. He went into surgery as soon as he arrived there and had 2 blockages removed and a stint added in. For days he laid there, fighting to survive, and thankfully he has. Unfortunately though, he suffered from anoxic brain injury that affects the back of his brain. They know for sure it affects his eye sight, but are unsure of the extent of what the disabilities that he will have in the future. Currently, almost 13 days later and they feel he has a slim chance of pulling through since he still hasn't woken up cognitively. I was given the options the other day as to how to move forward from here. I can either send him to a facility 3 hrs away and wait and see what happens or I can start end of life care. I will choose the first option. Until I know 100% that there is no coming back from this, I will fight for him. Because I have always fought for him for the past 15 years, which I was lucky enough to celebrate with him the day before this all happened.

The reason I am making this page is because Joe was our main financial provider. And even though our lives have stopped, unfortunately the bills have not. My goal for this is to be able to pay off cards and accounts to lessen the amount of money coming out of our bank every month. That way when I start working I can concentrate on paying what I need to without worrying about things coming from the bank that I cannot get access to in time. It will also allow me to focus on making sure I have money to get back and forth from Fulton to Schenectady every week to be by his side to fight. I know it's a huge ask especially during the holidays and during a time when many people are having difficulty in their own lives figuring out how to make ends meet. I typically am someone who doesn't ask much if anything from anyone, so this definitely isn't easy for me to be doing. But I know that I cannot do this on my own. Joe and I have always tried our best to help others in any way we could with never wanting anything in return, because we understood what it was like to struggle trying to figure things out. With Joe being a vet, we really tried to live our lives by the motto "no man left behind" which we applied to every aspect in life, not just the battlefield.

So here I am asking, please help. Even if it's a dollar or just by sharing this to spread the word and bring attention to it. Anything you can do to help is all I ask. I truly appreciate everything everyone has done so far by reaching out to me, praying for us, and making sure I'm ok. I will never be able to gather enough words to be able to express how much everything has meant to me. Again, thank you for just taking time to read this.

Just wanted to add an update. Currently where we are at, Schenectady no longer is on the table. Instead we are looking at more of a long-term sub acute rehab. There are a couple closer to my current location, but they have limited space unfortunately, so he more than likely will have to go downstate in the NYC/Long Island region. If at any point he is able to come off of the ventilation machine, then those options could change again. I also wanted to take a moment and thank every one of you who have donated. Every penny counts and I truly appreciate all of it.

Update as of one month in: Joe is finally breathing on his own without a ventilator, which should change the distance in which we will have to go to support him. He is still in a vegetative state, but we are praying he is able to wake up cognitively soon. Anoxic brain injury is one of those injuries that can be hard to wake up from, but we haven't given up hope that it will happen before it's time to make a final decision. Again, thank you to all of you that have donated.