Covering Kim Batchelor's medical expenses

Hi, my name is Michael Barron and I am doing a fundraiser for Kim Batchelor. Since my first posts, Kim has been having ups and downs but has been improving slowly over the long term. Sasha is starting to prepare for her return Home. There are going to be some long-term needs. She is going to need a lift chair, a hospital bed with rails, a transfer shower chair, modifying entrance to the home, bathrooms modified so Kim can use them, a walker and railing throughout the home, PT for months to come, follow up appointments, medications, and hospital supplies Plus their two income family is going down to one for the foreseeable future. These are things that we thought of very quickly. I am sure there will be more expenses that will pop up in the future. Please help.

(The actual beginning of Kims story)

For those who don't know here is some background. Kim is very sick. Sasha(Kim's Wife) and Kim had a vacation last week to celebrate their honeymoon and Kim got sick the second she got on the cruise ship. She remained sick the entire trip until I picked them both up at the airport. We rushed Kim to the hospital where she went emergency surgery.

The Dr's found out that She has a perforated bowel and a big infection. There’s stool, fluid, infection, and air all in her abdominal cavity. Her heart rate is high and her blood pressure is very low. She’s was in more pain than I’ve ever seen her. 

The surgeon let me know that there was a hole in her sigmoid colon, but he doesn’t know if that was everything. Everything was very inflamed and angry and it was very hard to tell the difference in all the parts of the abdomen because of all the swelling and leaking. He did have to remove a small piece of her colon completely. 

They pulled almost 2 liters of fluid, puss, infection and feces from her abdominal cavity. 

Because of everything, he could not complete it laparoscopically, so she has a cut from right under her chest to right above her pubic bone. It’s a very large incision. 

Her body did not do well while in surgery. He said at first everything was going along fine and then suddenly her blood pressure went very very low and they had to bring it back up with medication. She is on a lot of medication. For the infection, to keep her blood pressure up, for pain, to help her rest, to help her breathe, etc. In the OR, her blood pressure bottomed out, code level, and she lost a lot of blood. She got 2 pints of blood and 2 pints of plasma products as well as other fluids and medications to bring her back.  

Updates from Today/ this evening:

Kim is still bleeding through her organs, kind of like water seeps through a towel. So this is causing her blood pressure to be very low. There is a possibility she is bleeding from somewhere else as well, we just don’t know yet.

Today she received another pint of blood while Sheryl & I were there and another pint of plasma. That brings her blood pint count up to 4 ( 2 in the OR and 2 since) and plasma pint count up to 5 or 6. She’s received countless bags of fluids as well. 

She’s still on meds to keep her blood pressure up and is not tolerating the dose being lowered.

She’s still on pain meds and meds to keep her sleeping and comfortable. 

She remains on heavy antibiotics to fight the infection, IV Tylenol for fever, etc.

That being said, with the medication right now, the nurse said she is doing pretty good, but she’s still critical. 

 

She does wake up if we rouse her, say her name, but she is sleeping harder today than she was sleeping this morning. We are happy to see her getting good rest so she can heal. She can open her eyes and follow us with them. She recognized Sheryl and me, was able so wiggle her toes for us and squeeze our hands. She also lets us know she’s hot or in pain. She has been running kinda hot.  

The nurse said she had to give her 6 bolus (extra) pain meds today. 

Her vitals have been more stable since they bumped the levophed back up.

Today, the surgeon’s goal is to take her back to the OR tomorrow morning. That is very dependent on how stable she stays tonight. If he doesn’t feel comfortable with how she’s doing he will put it off longer. We don’t know what time, but we will be back up here as early as possible. 

The outgoing nurse feels confident that she will get another pint of blood tonight to her prepare for surgery tomorrow. 

She is very sick and will be in ICU for a long time. She will be in the hospital for a very long time. It’s possible that she will never work again. There are a lot of unknowns right now.

Kim will remain in the hospital and is going to need multiple surgeries and lots of time to get better. She will not be able to work for the foreseeable future, but bills will continue to pile up. They would never ask but they really could use help for the short term and maybe the long term. I am trying to raise enough money to cover the mortgage and two car payments for a couple of months. Sasha cannot do it alone. These two people are awesome human beings. 

Signed

Michael Barron