Hello, our names are Brad and Cody Hildebrand. Our mother is Lovey Zasitko. We are setting up this Go-Fund Me page for our dear brother/son Jared who needs help with medical costs. Jared is a survivor of the pandemic. He suffered from COVID-19 virus and was admitted to Health Science Centre on June 13, 2021. He also has diabetes in which he takes insulin to control. When COVID -19 attacked his lungs and body, his blood sugars skyrocketed and he fell into diabetic coma. Thankfully, the ambulance was called. He was in very critical condition and was placed on a ventilator which took care of his breathing in the Intensive Care Unit. He is only 34 years old and the virus had taken over his body. The intensive care unit was very crowded and so he was moved to another unit. No visitors were allowed. Our first visits were through zoom – and the nurse would say, “he will hear you but he will not remember the visit because he needs to be sedated to be on full ventilation.” What an emotional time, for our family. So many tears, so many prayers, and so much energy was sent to Jared so he would make it through this critical time and did not become another statistic of death from COVID-19. During these months it was like being on a treacherous roller coaster, taking one step forward and climbing the peak and another challenge would hit compromising his body and his possible survival, the roller coaster was upside down! During this hospital stay he had many lung infections and had to go through having a scope being put into the lungs to wash out infection and the very sticky mucus that COVID-19 creates. This was done twice and each time we would pray he would make it through the procedure knowing how sick he was from this horrible virus. His heart only works 20-30% which makes him weak. He also had blood clots invade one lung and his arm. His kidneys failed and this was a time where we were also very worried about possible death. It was so tough on Jared, and some how he kept fighting. Jared did also suffer from addiction and had been to treatment centres over the past year- and so the one positive is that induced coma and ventilation he did detox. What a hell of a way to detox…. For three months he was on a machine and had been tube fed through a tube in his nose going to his stomach. He had a tracheostomy inserted finally when it became real that he had to be weaned off the ventilator. Finally, at the beginning of October 2021 – 4 months later, the ventilator was moved out of his hospital room. Although he can breathe without a machine, he has extreme fatigue, shortness of breath and still has one chest tube from his lung. Over the course of this long hospitalization Jared muscles have wasted and basically has needed to relearn to walk. The emotional, and psychological toll of this journey has also left Jared with post traumatic syndrome – extreme anxiety of whether he was going to make it out alive and yet extreme fatigue and depression when after fighting another challenge would arise.

We are celebrating his survival and know how important it is to never lose hope for your loved ones, but now there will still be hurdles to cross. This Go- Fund Me page has been set up for support of Jared’s medical devised and home set up. The health care staff and doctors are preparing Jared to be discharged home in October and he has many medical requirements. He will need to have appointments weekly with the lung/thoracic clinic. He will need a wheelchair and walker to get around and much rehabilitation. He also needs to keep his diabetes well under control and he does not have any other health insurance to supplement these costs.

If you are able to make a donation to assist Jared, please follow the prompts on this page. We truly appreciate your generosity and support. We hope you will also share this story with as many other people in your networks to help build awareness of how serious COVID -19 can be and the long-term effects. Jared and our family thank you from the bottom of our hearts.