Hi, my name is Abby and I am fundraising for my brother Jason Rich.

On January 31st my brother was taken by ambulance to the hospital. His breathing was shallow, he was unresponsive, and he was in

a-fib. My brother is a diabetic and they were worried he would go into a diabetic coma. His blood sugar was very high.

A couple weeks before this he was diagnosed with MS. He had been limping for over a year and it took six months to finally get a diagnosis. There was a cancellation for steroid infusion so he took it and there was no time to go over all the options for treatment.

For five days straight he went and received his infusions. Only after all of this happened did we learn that the steroids can increase his blood sugar, which had a detrimental effect on his body. As the week went on he was getting more and more tired and no appetite, which we thought was a side effect. He was not checking his blood sugar level and by Friday I noticed he seemed dehydrated so we were making sure he was having fluids. By Sunday he could barely walk and was getting sicker and on Monday morning his body began to shut down completely.

I called the hospital after he arrived and they needed to intubate him. He spent almost a week on the ventilator in the ICU. He went into DKA. His blood sugar was at 800, which the doctors said 400 is extremely high, and his blood pressure was extremely low.

As the days went on I kept being told they almost lost him a few times and even had to have his heart shocked because of the meds and the danger he was in. He was maxed out on blood pressure medications and his kidneys were starting to fail.

Because of the incredible care he was being given and his own willingness to fight his blood pressure stabilized, and kidneys healed. His blood sugar is a work in progress but improving.

We were not allowed to see him for 2 1/2 weeks and was finally able to get him his phone after he was off the ventilator. We tried to talk as much as we could to let him know we were all here and all of his friends and our friends were praying for him.

36 days after the incident it looks like he will be able to come home!!!

He is getting stronger every day, but walking is still hard. The goal is to get him to be able to walk from the bed to the bathroom without using a walker, just using a cane.

When he does get discharged he will come stay with us until he is strong enough to go back to his home. The plan is to have a home health nurse come a couple times a week to work with him. Jeff will also help him with his physical therapy.

He is currently on medical leave, which he doesn’t get paid, but is hoping to get back to working after he is discharged. The goal is for him to work from home until he is strong enough to drive again. He has worked for McCormick ambulance for 30 years. He wants to get back to work so badly and even started talking about it the day he got off the ventilator.

With those 36 days in the hospital, his bills are beginning to pile up.

He is getting stronger and stronger every day, and seems to have a new look at life. For those who know my brother he has never been much of a talker, now he will talk for hours straight. It’s so incredible.

He is the most incredible brother, uncle, brother in law, and godfather. He has always been generous and puts everyone before himself. I am hoping we can all help him this time.