Help My Father Recover From Hemorrhagic Stroke

My Father, My Savior, always guides me in my difficult times

Hi Everyone,

My name is Sheetal Uppal. I am the daughter of an amazing, affectionate, and fun-loving father, Ashok Kumar Uppal, who recently suffered an acute brain bleed (intracranial hemorrhage). I am creating this GoFundMe Page to manage his medical expenses related to his hospitalization, surgeries, and long-term care facility.

Background

When the USA lifted the COVID-related international travel restrictions, I was excited that my parents could finally travel to the USA for the first time. It had been more than 4 years since I met my parents, and this trip was very special to my parents because they were finally going to meet their first 15-months old grandson. Before traveling, my parents got their full-body checkups done in Delhi and were medically fit to travel internationally. They arrived in Rockville, Maryland, USA on April 27th 2022, and we were having a good time together as a family.

Unfortunately, on the evening of May 15th my father began experiencing nausea, vomiting, and dizziness symptoms which soon turned into loss of muscle control and periods of unconsciousness. We immediately called 911 and my father was rushed to the emergency department of Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland for diagnosis. At the hospital emergency waiting line, he was showing altered mental status (unaware of his surroundings and thinking he was in Delhi, India) so the doctors suspected brain injury. They immediately decided to perform an emergency CT scan. Unfortunately, the CT scan showed that my father had suffered from a major hemorrhagic stroke, a massive hematoma in the left cerebellum, surrounding edema involving the cerebellum and brainstem, and extensive intraventricular hemorrhage. At that point, we knew our lives would never be the same again. The darkest period of our lives started from this moment and continues today as my father is still in a very critical state.

This sudden unfortunate incident has caused enormous mental stress to me, my husband, my brother and sister (who are back in India), immediate family members, and especially my mother. My mother is in complete shock seeing him in this painful condition. She is keeping herself strong, though, never missing a single hospital visit and always talking with him about the beautiful times they spent together and making plans with him for their future. She has complete faith in God that he will fight this battle like a warrior as he always does. She is also keeping our and my sibling hopes high that my father will be with us at home and we will again have a happy time together.

I request you to please include in your prayers his complete recovery, Thanks.

Hospital Course

05/15: After CT Scan confirmed the hemorrhage, my father was immediately transferred to the ICU room, intubated, and his vitals were under critical observation. The neurosurgeon team decided to perform an external ventricular drain (EVD; a temporary catheter that drains blood and CSF from the ventricles to a bedside collection system to mitigate intracranial pressure (ICP)).

05/16: EVD placed at 1:10 AM. My father was still very unstable and his ICP was not high. He was draining bloody fluid and his blood pressure was undergoing wide swings from lows of 80 to over 170. So, the neurosurgeon team decided to repeat the CT exam. The result showed no change in the cerebellar bleed and significant cerebellar swelling. He remained on the ventilator and awaited neurosurgical evaluation to see if he needs a surgical intervention for the cerebellar bleed. The neurosurgeon team decided to perform a Decompressive hemicraniectomy (a surgical procedure in which part of the skull is removed to allow the brain to swell without being squeezed), only surgery to save his life. The surgery took around 2 hours and thankfully, my father survived this major brain surgery with minimal blood loss. With the surgery done, now we waited anxiously for him to gain consciousness.

05/21: EVD clamped as his ICP was in the range. My father opened his eyes for the first time after the surgery and was able to follow our commands. He was moving his right upper, left and right lower extremities on pain stimuli, which greatly relieved us.

05/22: passed his first ventilator weaning trials however he was making significant secretions in his lungs. He developed ventilator-associated pneumonia. Antibiotics course was started. After developing pneumonia, he failed subsequent weaning trials.

05/25-06/01: Doctors suggested my father needs to be on a ventilator for the long term so a Tracheostomy surgery (inserting a tube into the neck for ventilator-assisted breathing) was performed on 05/27. He was on sedatives and pain medications which were stopped the following day so that he can gain consciousness. We were waiting eagerly for him to open his eyes again, however, he slipped back into coma. We were talking with him passively, playing his favorite songs, and showing him his video with his grandson (doing everything on our end to try to wake him up).

06/02: His basic metabolic panel test result showed an abnormally high level of blood urea nitrogen indicating bladder obstruction and kidney failure which likely promoted his comatose state. Started diuretics to increase urine excretion to reduce toxin accumulation in the blood.

06/07: Doctors suggested placing a peg tube for long-term feeding support and a surgery was performed for gastrostomy tube placement into the stomach for feeding.

06/08-06/13: After treatment for bladder obstruction, his kidney function slowly returned to normal with blood urea nitrogen and creatinine falling back to normal range. At this time, my father came out from the comatose state and moved into a vegetative state in which he was showing minimal flicker movements on the right extremities and was opening his eyes spontaneously but not responding to any commands.

06/14: His vitals were stable so the ICU doctors decided to transfer my father from ICU to IMC (Intermediate care unit).

06/15-06/17: His neurological status was stable, has spontaneous movement in the right-hand arm and leg, and spontaneously opens his eyes. He also did well on his ventilator weaning trial on 06/16 but failed the one on 06/17 likely as he had a fever that day.

06/18: My father appeared more alert, opening his eyes when his name was called. But he had developed fever, mild pneumonia, and a urinary tract infection (likely because he is on a foley catheter to help with urine). Antibiotic course was started again.

06/19: opening his eyes when his name was called but seems tired as fever and infection continues.

Financial Needs

My parents have traveler’s insurance with decent coverage. But case manager informed us that the current total cost already exceeds what his travel insurance can cover. He has been in the hospital (ICU followed by IMC) for more than a month, and it is still unclear how long he will stay in the IMC unit. Doctors have mentioned that his recovery will be very slow and needs proper care and timely therapy as the initial few months after stroke are very important to regain body movements. Hospital also recommended we look for long-term care facilities. We are expecting a significant amount of hospital bills, medical expenses, and doctor’s fees which we cannot cover with the family funds and from my father’s savings alone (my father does not have an income as he is retired). Our goal is to raise at least $350,000 to cover his medical expenses (hospital charges, medicines, surgeries, multiple CT scans and X-rays, and several other routine daily tests such as CBC, glucose monitoring etc.), and doctor’s fees. We request everyone to please contribute and be a part of his recovery journey. We, as a family, express our deep gratitude for your help.

The family will continue to post recovery updates as we receive them from the hospital. I appreciate your support in sharing and donating to his fundraiser. Please continue to share my father’s GoFundMe information so that we can try to reach the goal amount. Please share on all your social media!

If you have any questions regarding his recovery, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you and bless

Sheetal