As most of you may know, Kim has lived her life defying medical odds that have been stacked against her. At 16 years old, she had a massive stroke and her family was told she would never be able to walk again. She proved them wrong and not only learned to walk again but became fully independent. Fast forward a few years and Kim fell walking into work one morning and shattered her patella. After many unsuccessful attempts, including failed surgeries, to heal her leg and a very long and frustrating journey, (all while carrying their second child (Connor) in the process) she had her leg amputated. She learned her independence (& to walk) again in an all new way with what her boys call her ‘robot’ leg. Kim not only learned that independence again, but also continued holding down her household, taking care of her 2 (young) boys, plus giving all her fur babies the attention they deserve (she even rescued another dog through that time period) when her husband was deployed.
Unfortunately, as they were traveling back to Wisconsin last September 2021 to see family Kim felt a snap in her limb and wasn't able to walk. That was her last time walking. Once they returned to Colorado, they met with the Orthopedic team at University of Colorado. The plan was to do another surgery on her limb to fix the snap so she could wear her prosthetic and get back to living her life. She was scheduled to go in October 2021 but due to COVID, had to wait. She finally had surgery December 31st 2021. During this surgery, they removed an inch from her limb and put more muscles around her limb. Weeks after surgery, Kim knew her limb wasn't fixed and couldn't wear her prosthetic. The Orthopedic team could do nothing more and referred them to a new surgeon that specializes in limb restoration in May 2022. After meeting with the new surgeon, they were confident she was in the right hands to fix her limb and to get back to walking and living her life. After delays in scheduling surgery, she was finally schedule for surgery on June 27th, 2022. The limb restoration surgeon said surgery went well and he feels confident he removed her pain so she could get back to wearing a prosthetic and walking.
The day after surgery she was nauseous and complaining of stomach pain. With the amount of pain medications she was on, her bowels shut down and the doctors thought that this was the cause of the pain. Her stomach started to become distended and on June 30th, 2022 the doctors put a tube in her nose down to her stomach to help with the distended stomach and pump out what was in her stomach. On July 1st, 2022 she had an X-ray done of her abdomen and they found something wasn't right. She then had a CT scan done of her abdomen and doctor's said there was air in her abdomen. Upon finding this, she was rushed into emergency surgery. She was in surgery for 3 hours and the surgeon found a 7 cm tear in her stomach with all the infectious contents filling up her abdomen. The surgeon said that her gastric perforation was one of the worst ones he has ever seen. She was then placed on life support to recover meaning she was put on a ventilator, intubated, and sedated. As of mid July, she has been through 9 surgeries and continues each day to fight for her life.
All Kim has ever wanted was to give her family a life they deserve and not have their entire lives centered around her medical care. Her journey is FAR from over. Her family has been told to anticipate this being a long process, and it will be. We are talking months to possibly more in the hospital. If you are able to help her family out during this difficult time, it would be most certainly be appreciated.