Help Mike Kellner with Essential Medical Needs

Hiya Folks,

My name is Macee Kellner. I am trying to gather funds to help my parents pay for a long list of medical equipment, care, and supplies.

I’ll give you a small sniper of who they are before I get into the nitty gritty of why we are trying to raise money.

My father is Mike Kellner. Currently he resides in Southwestern, Kansas. He grew up in Oklahoma, working on his grandparents farm, raising cattle, hunting, fishing, participating in 4-H and FFA. Both of his parents were teachers.

His wife, my mom, Lorraine is also a teacher, teaching High School English, as well as some college credit English courses offered to several high schools via ITV.

His misfortune starts early this year. When getting an MRI to check on some shoulder pain, they found that the space in the center of the vertebrae in his neck had closed some making the space for his spine small enough that his spinal cord was touching in three places. After a couple of weeks of consideration they decided to provide with the suggested surgery to carve out more space for his spinal cord and fuse the vertebrae in his neck to stabilize and protect his spinal cord. March 1, 2024 the surgery was performed and it was a success. He made it to two different appointments with the doctors and appeared to be recovering well. Monday March 20, 2024, he collapsed in their living room. Upon arrival to the hospital they discovered his lungs were filled with blood clots, Saddle PEs, the worst pulmonary embolism you could have. After being transferred to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita KS, they decided to treat with an aggressive blood thinner that they wouldn’t have used this close to having surgery to save his life. This did leave to a bleed at the original surgery sight. Unfortunately while waiting several hours to get an MRI, the hematoma, blood clot, had flattened his spinal cord leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. After the surgery to remove the bleed on the spine, he suffered another complication. His bowels had become impacted with fecal material and perforated. This caused sepsis in his abdominal cavity and bowels and 2/3 of the bowels had to be removed. This also caused his kidneys to fail and his blood pressure tanked. He had to be on just about every medication to keep your blood pressure up (pressers) that he could be. We eventually were able to get some dialysis going and his kidneys recovered. Upon reopening his site to check the bowel, they found what was left to be healthier than expected and and an oestemy was put in so his body could pass waist out the front of his abdomen, to be collected in a bag. His breather struggled and he had to be on a ventilator quite a bit. Near the end of his 31 day stay they had to preform a tracheotomy to allow him to use a ventilator better. During this stay he also acquired a couple of pretty nasty bed sores.

Luckily he was accepted in the care of the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, NE. The bed sores were so bad that they have had to go much more slowly on adding time to his wheelchair usage. This prolonged his stay at Madonna. He was able to get off of the ventilator and now breaths on his own, albeit with a week cough ability. He is still paralyzed from the upper chest down, having no used of his hands, arms, Legs Etc. he does have use of his shoulders, his neck, and head. Some of his biceps is returning, but to be clear, we do not expect him to regain anything more than what he has.

We are incredibly grateful to have him with us and incredibly grateful to Madonna for aiding in his recovery and in figuring out how to make the most of this next stage in his life.

But, this also leads us to a long list of medical equipment, care, and supplies that we are seeking help in paying for.

First and foremost, he needs an electric wheelchair with specialized parts so that he can drive it with a joystick he moves with his chin. Although this is a medical necessity, Blue Croas and Blue Sheild in the state of Kansas will only cover they total of a regular wheelchair, leaving us to fund the rest.

Secondly we need a medical bed with some specialized features to help with the complications of paralysis.

Thirdly, we need a lift to transfer him from his wheelchair into bed and back this also need slings that hold him while he is being transferred.

He will not be able to sit long enough to make the six hour drive home from Madonna, so a specialized transport will have to be used. This trip would cost around $7,000.00 and doesn’t appear to be covered under any insurance.

He will require care for the rest of his life. We are thrilled to have a community that has provided us with a small excels t care team. These caregivers need to be paid, and while we have a small sum of money set aside for it, this will be a constant expense for the rest of his life.

He also requires a slew of medical items for his daily care that will be an added monthly expense. He need waterless soaps for bedside bathing, gloves for nurses, bandages for the bedsores still healing, bags and specialized supplies for his oestemy bag and catheter, wipes etc.

Due to his week cough capacity he will need to have a cough assist machine and we’ll as tools to clean out his nose to prevent any respiratory issues.

We have created one accessible entry to the home; however, that one is not protected from the extreme sides of Kansas weather which can range from very hot to very cold. Also we live in the windiest area of the country where straight-line winds can do as much damage as a tornado. Creating this entry could require moving a door or getting a specialized wheelchair lift either of which could be costly. they also need to fix the exit from their bedroom to be accessible in case of emergencies.

We are also working on equipping the house with voice activated tools to make him as independent as possible. This includes putting a device on the doors so he can open them, shut, and lock them.

There is no public accessible transportation in our county, so they will have to get a new vehicle equipped to handle his wheelchair. They do have a vehicle to trade in, but these vehicles are much more expensive due to their specialized parts and could be a large expense. The vehicle they plan to trade in was also hit in the parking lot at Madonna, which May lower the trade in value and cause the payments to be higher than originally anticipated.

The medical items like the lift, wheelchair, and bed will need repairs, replacement parts, and possibly even complete replacement in the future. My hope is to start a small fund for this that can be put into a high yield savings account so they are not out of luck if insurance gives them as hard of a time as it is now.

We do not have a definitive answer on how much, if any, of these costs insurance would help

with. As it stands today, it appears we will be left to fund a rather large part of it.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Even if you can’t donate everything, we appreciate it if you can share it on to someone who can. Even small donations of $5 can go a tremendous way when we all come together. Thank you again for your love and support.