Main fundraiser photo

Kristen Swensen's Medical Expenses

Donation protected
Kristen Leigh Swensen, along with being a former pre-kindergarten teacher and a receptionist at Luxury Auto Mall, is a member of the Sioux Falls Skyforce dance team. Before the Skyforce game on February 24, 2015, Kristen suffered a grand mal seizure, which lasted for about 15 minutes. EMT's arrived and believed Kristen was stable but on the way to the emergency room Kristen started seizing again. Once in intensive care, doctors noticed that Kristen was in a constant state of seizure activity known as status. Kristen was given many different sedatives and anti-seizure medications but nothing seemed to calm her seizure activity. Doctors tried many different methods to reduce Kristen's seizure activity ranging from putting Kristen in a controlled state of hypothermia to plasmapheresis. After just over a week in intensive care things seemed to be getting better for Kristen until the early morning of March 5.

Just after midnight on March 5, Kristen's vitals and blood tests indicated that there was a major problem. Tests, cat scans, and MRI's were done to assess what exactly was going on. At first, doctors believed, from the blood tests, that Kristen may have had a heart attack but more tests came back negative. Then, after a scan of Kristen's midsection, doctors discovered a major blockage in her bowel. Emergency exploratory surgery was needed to assess the damage but Kristen's husband was told, from what the scan had showed, to prepare for the worst.

During the emergency exploratory surgery, surgeons had to make an incision from her sternum to her pelvic bone and found that Kristen's bowel was twisted. Surgeons found significant tissue damage done to her small intestine, which required a large portion of her small intestine to be removed. 

To date, Kristen is recovering in intensive care but is still unconscious from her seizure on February 24. Kristen will need to have many more surgeries to correct her small intestine and to close the incision made from the emergency exploratory surgery. Kristen will then have a long road ahead with physical therapy.
Donate

Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 9 yrs
Donate

Organizer

Craig Swensen
Organizer
Sioux Falls, SD

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.