Helping Kenny, Ashley, and The Kids

Kenny has been a member of Midwest Operating Engineers Local 150 for over 12 years. He has been married for 8 years to a special education school teacher. They have 6 children, ages 10, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 18 months. He has always put others before himself. For years he asked his wife to buy a snow mobile. She always said no. Finally after years of being told no, his wife conceded to his wish. On Saturday, February 10, 2018, Kenny was involved in a life threatening snow mobile accident. He thought he had just bruised a few ribs. He came home and went to sleep. In the morning his wife insisted on going to the ER as he looked very grey and pale. Kenny refused and drove the family to a local restaurant for breakfast. It wasn’t until the family returned from breakfast that Kenny agreed to go to the Emergency Room. After multiple CT scans the ER doctor informed Kenny and his wife that he had blood pooling in his abdomen and needed immediate surgery or he would die. Within the hour Kenny was in surgery that lasted over three hours. The surgeon reported that he had internal bleeding, lacerated bowel, and a 21 cm tear through the mesentery that was 1 cm away from tearing his aortic vein. The surgeon reported had that happened he would have died in the snow. Kenny lost a liter of blood in his abdomen and another liter during surgery. He had 6 inches of his bowel removed as well as a mesenteric vein repair. The surgeon said that he would have died had we waited to bring him in. Kenny was in the ICU for 5 days where his hemoglobin levels continued to drop and pneumonia began to set in. He still remains in the hospital and his doctors are reporting a 2-3 month recovery time. In Kenny’s 12 years of being a member of MOE Local 150 he has never called in sick. He believes in putting other first. His road to recovery will be long and difficult. Kenny has to learn he won’t be able to do things that used to be easy for him. He will have to learn he has limits. Not being able to provide for his family will be the most difficult part of Kenny’s recovery.  So now, it’s our turn to help out some people that have always been there to help us.  Let’s return the love by helping with the financial strain that these things put on a family.  Every little bit helps, big or small. Thank you for your contributions.