UPDATE: My sweet Nick lost his battle this morning. He touched every life who crossed his path. He was an organ donor and in his passing, he will continue to touch lives.Anything is appreciated to help cover his final expenses.

This is my fiancé, Nick. He has suffered from PAH (pulmonary arterial hypertension) for quite a few years. In October of 2024, he began retaining fluid, and his condition was worsening. He was in and out of the hospital for most of the month. In November, we took him in because he was at a point where he could not even walk from the bathroom to the living room without having to take a break. During this time in the hospital, they discovered that Nick had a hole in his heart. Finally, on December 3rd, a decision was made to repair that hole, which caused a whole new set of problems. Things went very bad during the surgery, and he was placed on life support. He was life-flighted to St. Louis because his condition was so bad there was nothing that could be done in Springfield. Nick was on life support for 12 days when the decision was made by specialists to take him off of life support. We were told that he did not have a very good chance of survival at this point. We prayed very hard, and on the day of his extubation, everyone was prepared to just make him comfortable until he passed. Through a miracle, he made it through the extubation, and his condition started to improve. He suffered from ICU delirium, battles with keeping his oxygen levels up, his blood pressure up, and draining fluid off of his body. In the process of diuresis, his kidneys began to fail. A month after his extubation, Nick finally started to come back to his old self mentally, but his health continued to decline. He has been in the hospital for 4 months now. He needs a heart and lung transplant, and his kidneys have failed completely. He is currently on 12 liters of oxygen and goes through dialysis daily. Everything that can be done has been done. He is on a special medicine to help his lungs and heart pump as normally as they can to keep him alive. We were told that Nick needs a heart and lung transplant, but he is not a candidate because he is too sick to survive that sort of surgery. No outside dialysis can be done until he can tolerate being on 5 liters of oxygen or less. Our goal is working on getting his oxygen needs down so that he can come home. There are several obstacles that we face once we get him home that we need help with. Several things need to be done around the home to make it more accessible for him. Nick's medicine is very expensive, and we have a grant that is helping pay for some things, but we have other expenses that are going to be popping up due to his illness. What Nick has is terminal, and we want to have him home with us so we can enjoy our time that we have left. We don't know how much time that is. In the process of all of this happening, Nick lost his job. Anyone who knows Nick knows that he is the most giving, loving man. He would give the shirt off his back to help anyone. He had to give up on a dream of owning his own business that he loved because his health wouldn't allow him to see it through. Through all of this, Nick has maintained a hopeful outlook on his future. Any help is much appreciated, as we are trying to get him back home to live as comfortably as possible while we hope for a miracle that somehow his condition will improve. We have already seen how much everyone loves Nick, and we thank every single person for your thoughts and prayers!