My childhood best friends father,John Perez an elder, pioneer and LDC maintenance trainer has experienced a life altering medical emergency.

On September 16th, John unexpectedly ended up in the emergency room with extreme abdominal pain.  After a cat scan, doctors saw a large mass in the large intestine which was suspected to be colon cancer.   After additional diagnostic tests it was determined he had a severely impacted blockage in the sigmoid section of his Colon.  He was told he needed surgery immediately to remove that section of his colon due to large amount of diverticulitis pockets.

On September 20th, John underwent an abdominal surgery which was expected to last 2 hours, but ended up being 6 hours long due to complications. His abdomen was extremely distended, his colon was inflamed and there were tears near the appendix side of his large intestines that were at risk of bursting. If burst, it could have been fatal. They removed a foot of his colon,repaired the tears and they created a stoma for a colostomy bag.

As he was healing from this surgery he experienced complications with the stoma as its placement was too close to the wound causing infection and it retracted.  

So a second surgery was necessary on October 1st to relocate the stoma to a upper area of the abdomen.  

Due to build up of scar tissue from the initial surgery and adhesions to the small intestine a portion of the small intestines was also removed during the second surgery that was nearly 7 hours.

John has been in the hospital for 3 weeks now and will have a long recovery ahead of him.   

He will likely need VNA home visits for the next 4 months to change out his wound dressing 3 times a week till his wound heals.

He will also need PT to help him build up his strength and help him become more mobile again.  

John will be unable to work for a minimum of another 4-6months. Then he will need another extensive surgery in approximately 6 months to re-attach his colon which is expected to be a complicated surgery.

I’ve put this go fund me together to assist him and Iritza who is also a regular pioneer, our goal is to remove any financial burden they will have for their living and medical expenses during John’s recovery. Their daughter Zenara and her husband Jalen have been assisting as much as possible but just recently had a baby and their son Demarco is serving at bethel.

Thank you so much for your love and support for them and their family during this critical time.