Help with Don's treatment and recovery!

Hi, my name is Amanda and I am fundraising on behalf of my parents Don and Debbie Eller. On July 29th, Don was airlifted to Mission Hospital in Asheville because he was having a cardiac episode. After about a week of monitoring and testing, it was determined he would need open heart surgery. During surgery, he had a triple bypass, a valve replacement, and some clearing of his aorta. Later that evening, he experienced some internal bleeding and they had to take him back into surgery to fix a stitch in his heart. For the past 5 days, he has been in Cardiac ICU being closely monitored. The medical team has removed the ventilator heart pump and he has started the long road to recovery - meeting with physical therapists, occupational therapists, and even speech therapists in addition to his cardiology team.

Many of you have asked how you can help, and this is the best way that you can immediately help. While insurance will cover most of the medical costs, there are plenty of other things they will need that insurance will not cover. Because of Covid restrictions, Debbie had to drive 2 hours between home and Asheville for a few days. She is currently staying closer to the hospital, but the trip back and forth can become  costly, and once they come home there will be a need to make that trip for follow up appointments. Before Don comes home, they will need to build a ramp into the house (he will not be able to go up and down the steps for a while) and put railing in the shower. They have been in Asheville for almost 3 weeks, so they will need to replinish most of their groceries, and do so in accordance with new dietary guidelines. At this point, we do not know when he will be released from the hospital, but we are trying to take care of as many of these needs as we can right now.

We have all been so grateful for your prayers and offers of help. Every little bit that you would be willing or able to contribute will help our family help Don transition home in the safest way possible. We appreciate any support that you would be willing to give.