Jesse Kirkham - Medical Emergency Support

Hello friends. We are the Kirkham family. We are requesting your support for a medical emergency.

Jesse and his wife, Nancy, moved to Huatulco, Mexico five years ago where they are full time volunteers supporting the peaching work of the English congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

On Friday, September 22nd, Jesse began experiencing abdominal pain. Over the course of the weekend his pain worsened to the point Jesse sought medical attention on Monday, September 25th. After spending 13 hours at the hospital and having many tests run, including ultrasounds, the doctors were not able to confirm the source of his pain. At the time he did not have typical symptoms for appendicitis. They released Jesse that night with medication to treat abdominal pain.

As Tuesday passed and Wednesday came his pain and severe discomfort had not subsided, but had become much worse. It was then decided to take Jesse back to the hospital in the late night of Wednesday, September 27th.

The doctors were concerned something serious was going on. They decided to call in a surgeon for a second opinion. In the meantime they put together an emergency surgical team to be ready on standby.

After a consultation with the surgeon, they concluded it was his appendix that was in distress. They quickly prepped Jesse for immediate surgery.

What was thought to be a routine appendectomy turned out to be a VERY complicated surgery. After the initial incision was made, they discovered that Jesse was an unusual case where his appendix was not located in the normal area. His appendix was in a different area of his abdomen and it had already ruptured.

The surgeon had to create a large incision in Jesse in order to reach the location of the appendix and to perform a critical cleanup job. After 2 hours, Jesse was sewn up and moved into recovery.

Over the next couple of days, it became apparent that a complicated surgery was going to result in a very complicated recovery.

On the morning of Wednesday, October 4th, Jesse's incision had to be reopened in order to aid the doctors and nursing staff to clean and drain his infected abdomen. Since then he has had a constant infection and fever, which has caused other complications.  Currently the surgical incision remains open as they wait for infections to clear before they close him back up again.

By that evening, due to the infection and weakening of the stomach muscle layer, Jesse started to bleed profusely from unprotected blood vessels. This required emergency surgery once again. His surgeon was quickly able to locate and contain the bleeding.

On Friday, October 6th, Jesse again experienced bleeding from weakened blood vessels and another emergency surgery was performed to locate and stop the bleeding and to suture up any other possible blood vessels that could fail.

The result has left Jesse with a low hemoglobin count and he is now confined to total bed rest at the hospital.

Efforts are being made by the surgeon, a haematologist and the medical team to boost Jesse's red blood cells, while still trying to control his infection and fever.

Jesse is currently still in the hospital and medical expenses have been mounting considerably. Added to that, this medical emergency has impacted Jesse's ability to earn an income and provide for his family.

While Jesse and Nancy's spiritual and physical needs are being looked after by their wonderful, local congregation, we are asking our friends to please consider helping us cover the medical expenses already incurred, currently happening and to aid with recovery when he is finally released to home care. There are also expenses being incurred because in Mexico, some medications and nursing supplies are not provided by the hospital but are to be purchased by the family. 

Any financial support provided will be greatly appreciated and used to support Jesse's recovery and to get his and Nancy's life back on track to continue serving in Mexico.

Times like this remind us of the words in Proverbs 17:17;

"A true friend shows love at all times

And is a brother who is born for times of distress."

We thank you for assisting our family during this time of distress.

All our love,

The Kirkham Family