Juan Antonio Escalante (Anthony) A. K. A Chango

Dolores Escalante is organizing this fundraiser.

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My husband is my everything, and I would do everything all over again. He has been sick for a very long time, and in years past, he got sicker. It first started with his legs hurting him like he had bad cramps in them all day. That was caused by the neuropathy that he got due to diabetes. Then his bones started breaking: first his knee, then he shattered his ankle, then his other knee, and then he broke his hip on Father's Day and had to get a bar put in his hip. During all this, he was still dealing with diabetes, neuropathy, and a calcium deficiency since he was lactose intolerant. It was hard for him to eat or drink anything dairy. Due to his diabetes, he got a cut on his toe, and it got really infected, and they had to amputate that toe. They gave him some antibiotics so it wouldn't get infected, but he was allergic to the antibiotic they put him on, which caused him to have kidney failure and had to be put on dialysis. After 3 weeks in the hospital, he came home, going to dialysis 3 days a week. By the grace of God, he was able to get off dialysis in 4 months. My husband was going through all this while dealing with liver problems also.
So on January 2nd at 2:00 in the morning, he fell because he could not feel his legs. He wanted me to call the ambulance to take him to the hospital. I knew then he was in a lot of pain; that's the only time he wants me to call the ambulance or when he really doesn't feel good. He was in the hospital on the 2nd, and on the 3rd, they wanted to do an MRI. When they did that, since he is claustrophobic, he aspirated. Whatever came up went back down and went into his lungs, causing him to get pneumonia. The first week he was in the hospital, they had him sedated and in a medically induced coma, and he had to get intubated. My husband is now connected to all these tubes, and the one in his mouth to help him breathe. They worked on him, and he came through. He sat up, and he communicated with us, and he told us that he loved us. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks, 22 days, trying to save his life, but with no working organs because everything was failing: his kidneys again, he was at the last stages of a working liver, and now his lungs. He fought for his life, but I knew he was very, very tired, and he was not getting any better. In fact, it seemed like he would take 2 steps forward and five steps back. He was getting a little worse with the pneumonia. With all the antibiotics he was on, nothing was going away due to not having any platelets that help your immune system. Now I had to make the hardest, most devastating decision of my husband's life. Since he could communicate, I asked him if he was ready to be taken off life support, and he shook his head and told me yes. I told him how much I love him and how much I'm dying inside, and if I could change anything for him, I would. We had a family meeting and decided that on Wednesday the 22nd, if he was in the same condition, I would take him off life support. My husband was taken off about 11:40-11:45 a.m., and all of the family went in the room with him to assure him that everybody loved him and that it's okay to go because even though he was disabled in life, he tried to take care of anybody he could, especially his mother and me. It took him less than 15 minutes to take his last breath.
I am asking for help to do things for my husband that he wanted done since this happened so quickly I had no time to save. Since I took care of my husband full-time but only got paid through IHSS (In-Home Supportive Services) for 3 hours, that was our only income. I was trying to get disability for him; the first time he got denied, and the second time, when he had his phone appointment, he was in the hospital. I'm also asking for help because the next month is coming up, and I need to pay bills, so whatever anybody can donate, I will greatly appreciate it. I thank you in advance, and God bless you all.

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