Michael's Life w/Rasmussen Syndrome

On June 20 the family went down to Isle of Palms for vacation and to take their 8 month old son to the beach for the very first time. Two days later on June 22, after waking up from a nap, Michael began to have a seizure. Paramedics were called and they took him to MUSC. Upon his arrival, the doctors immediately started to intubate him and put him into a coma. Their fear was that he was having continuous seizures and his body could not rest so they needed to "reset" him so to speak. His was admitted into the ICU for the night. The next day he was woken up and moved to a regular room to continue on his way to recovery. The doctors were even going to discharge him on Wednesday until Jessica mentioned to them that his brain function still wasn't back to normal. On Thursday, Michael had another seizure so the doctors decided to keep him in the hospital in order to try and figure the right dosage and combination of meds for him. Starting that Friday night, Michael began to decline. He was sleeping more, experience more confusion, and starting showing signs of a blood clot which was confirmed by a ct scan. He was moved to a step up unit so he could be more closely monitored. Again, Michael started to progress for a couple days. He was talking more and feeding himself. Then he started to decline again. A MRI showed his brain was swelling and he was still having uncontrollable seizures. Early on Friday, July 3, they moved him back to the NeuroICU and reintubated him and placed him back into a coma. This time they wanted to give him at least 48 hrs to completely rest his body and help the brain swelling to go down. Again, he was progressing well until Sunday. His lung partially collapsed so they had to start him on an oxygen treatment through his vent. Now here we are almost a week later and Michael is still in a coma and still on a ventilator. The doctors have discussed with Jessica about doing a trach in order to make him more comfortable because he is still not breathing efficiently enough on his own. They are not able to take him off the sedation meds until he either gets the trach or starts breathing better on his own.
As of right now, the doctors are still unclear about what is causing all of the seizures. They did find a small lesion on the left side of his brain that they originally thought could be the cause but now aren't so sure that it isn't just inflammation. Unfortunately we are left with a bunch of questions and very little answers. We have already been told that once Michael is medically stable enough to be discharged, he will have to go to a rehab facility for an undisclosed amount of time to help him get back to normal. we are keeping our fingers crossed and with your prayers hoping Michael will over come all of these issues.
Michael Kirkland is my nieces husband Jessica Shealy Kirkland. They have been married for 2 years but together for almost 11. They have a 9month old son, Colton, and 3 weenie dogs, Leroy, Deuce, and Carlos that are anxiously awaiting their daddy to come home.
Michaels Medical Bills are sky rocketing and it would be great if our friends, family and the good neighbors of our community could help feel the need to help Michael and Jessica with their medical bills and the cost of traveling back and forth on less than one income. So with this thought in mind, can we count on you for your support in helping Michael and his family.

Thanks for Your HELP!
Judy W. Shealy
Michael and Jessica's Aunt and (Memaw)
43 minutes ago