Hello. My name is Alyssa Allen. I am the mom/auntie to Caden Douglas Allen-Hoggard. Our family has had significant tragedy. We lost our sweet 22-year-old Caden, on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, while family was holding his hands as he took his last breath and went to be with God.

Caden Douglas Allen-Hoggard 06-08-2002 to 09-10-2024 RIP Sweet Soul

Caden’s Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, September 28 at 10 AM.

At Arizona Community Church (ACC), 9325 S Rural Rd, Tempe 85284

Reception to follow at ACC G2 directly after the service.

ACC is directly across from Corona Del Sol Highschool.

We have received several requests to help with funds for his service and so we have started this GoFundMe page. We would like his friends and family to be able to celebrate his life together and any funds received will go directly to expenses. After expenses are paid, all donations will go to our selected charity (BAM).

We have also received requests to donate directly to a charity in his name. We have selected a charity that Rande and I have already been working with this year, to help youth in our community. Be a Mushroom Foundation (B.A.M.). The B.A.M. foundation focuses on education, counseling, coaching, and preparation of young people. B.A.M. is committed to helping young people grow where they are planted, regardless of their environment. Here is the direct website to B.A.M, a 501(c 3) Domestic Nonprofit Corporation. Beamushroom.com. Also, if your company uses the Benevity platform for giving (like my company does) and can match your donation, please donate there for maximum benefit towards “Caden’s Cause” under “Be a Mushroom Foundation” and the “Projects” tab. We will be working on a single cause in Caden’s name to help young people in our community.

If you want to donate directly BAM, so no fees will be taken out. Please reach out to Alyssa and she will provide you the direct PayPal link for giving to charity for BAM.

Caden would love to have his final party be a nice one! We have asked guests to wear something nice to his party, not all black, something that makes you smile would for sure make him smile. When planning this Celebration of Life, we really wanted Caden to look down and see his friends and family having a good time. We wanted to reunite old friends and family together for this celebration. We will have lots of pictures, videos, stories, and a light lunch will be served, while enjoying each other’s company and sharing about Caden.

Katriel & I will be making a slide show. Please email any pictures you have of Caden to Alyssa or Katriel. He was loved by so many! Always smiling! Such an adventurous and funny guy!

For more information on Caden’s medical emergency and passing, see below.

Caden was not feeling good on Thursday August 29 and went to the hospital. For the most part, all his vitals/organs looked but he was dehydrated. He got fluids and he was released. This was most likely, the start of greater infections in his body. Friday morning August 30, he was out doing yard work/pool work (emptying out the very bottom of the pool because it had been drained) and came inside because he was showing signs of too much heat/dehydration and needed to cool down. He sat down on the couch, lost consciousness, started seizing, and his roommates called 911. He was rushed to Chandler Regional and did not wake up from there. He was in ICU for 12 days with necrotizing pneumonia and 2 extremely rare forms of fungal infections that they don’t see in healthy individuals ("Invasive Aspergillosis Niger" and "Invasive Aspergillus Nidulans"). It was determined that Caden’s frequent sinus infections had caused problems with his Mastoid bones, and he developed Mastioditis. He became septic and multisystem organ failure within less than 24 hours of being admitted by ambulance. His body was in DIC status, which means that he was internally bleeding, but also improperly clotting at the same time. He was too critically ill for any transplant or surgery. He had at least 21 different blood transfusions in his first nine days. With Caden’s blood levels being very high, like his ammonia, he started to suffer from strokes and brain damage. Caden was on full life support, and he was unresponsive the entire 12 days, except for his pupils that would respond to light but very sluggishly. On 9/9, Monday afternoon, as a family, we determined that Caden would not have wanted this for his life. It was determined he had confirmed significant brain damage, complete unresponsiveness, continued permanent multi system organ failure, still the necrotizing pneumonia, and the fungal infections (they alone are fatal) and so he was taken off life support. Caden lived on his own for 25 hours and passed peacefully with family by his side holding on to him.

Caden was a medical mystery and will always be for exactly what happened. Why was he seeming pretty ok on Thursday 8/29 and his body was basically shutting down on Friday 8/30? His body was sepsis with multi-infections and just couldn’t recover. God is the only one who knows all the details.

Please continue to pray for us. Thank you for loving our family! BIG thanks goes out to our friends/family/pastors that have been with us during these last few weeks. We have also felt the presence of God surrounding us IMMENSELY during these past few weeks. WOW - HE is powerful!

With love from Rande, Alyssa, Katriel, and family.