Will (Joey) Durr's Final Wishes

Dear friends,

I am creating this Go Fund Me account on behalf of my young cousin, Will (Joey) Durr and family for final expenses and upcoming funeral costs.

Joey is a very bright and intelligent young man, only 18 years of age, with so many hopes and dreams he may never get to see through.  Unfortunately, he has been battling with severe obesity (currently around 550lbs) and the struggle has become too much for his body to handle.  He’s been confined to the hospital since early January and the Dr’s are giving little hope.  With Joey being so young, he was not a candidate for any of the weight loss surgeries; and now his body cannot handle such surgery.

I am asking my family and friends to please lift my cousin Joey up in your prayers.  In the following update from his Mom, Joey’s organs are beginning to shut down and causing toxins in his body.  At this time it is in God’s hands as to the length of time Joey stays with us – Dr’s estimate 2 weeks.  His Mother and Father (my aunt and uncle) do not have any burial plans in place and it will be a struggle to carry out Joey’s final wishes to be buried next to one of his grandparents. We would greatly appreciate any donations to help carry out Joey’s final wishes.  100% of the donations will be given to Joey’s parents.

His mother sadly writes:

“I'm here to be the bearer of terrible news. Joey’s condition is going down extremely rapidly since my last post. I can't even think of where or how to start to explain what's going on because so many things have gone wrong all at once. Here goes. His Nephrologists had more labs drawn all Monday night for his kidney functions, his liver functions, his heart enzymes, and pulmonary stats. He was in pain because of the Cellulitis skin infection and his lower back. He wasn't stable enough to get his pain pill all night. As a matter of fact the nurses usually give him his bed baths every night but he was too instable to handle the ordeal. His breathing had become slightly more labored and he would stop breathing at times and the nurse wound come in to make him wake up to breathe until his O2 sats came back to normal range. At about 3AM the nurse came to inform me to not give him any food or drinks after 4AM that there was an NPO order placed on him because he was to have an ultrasound on his liver, kidneys, and groin in the morning. Now, about this time the physical therapist nurses came in and put a specifically designed chair in his room so that he could sit up for 1-2 hrs. two times a day as per his drs. orders. Shortly thereafter My sister in law Loretta & my brother in law Kenny came to visit. Joey was put into the chair and he was in and out of sleeping but had a good demeanor about things because he had company. He was hallucinating randomly as normal and we were joking with him playing along with his delusional realities. Loretta & Kenny were saying there goodbye's when his Nephrology Dr. came in the room and looked like he was not the bearer of good news. He then explained to us that Joey's body functions overnight had gotten exceptionally worse. He said his creatinine levels were at a whopping 3.8 when they should be 1.0. His kidneys had gone down to about 15% functions and his liver was producing ammonia at a rapid rate. He said that he was very sorry but Joey’s conditions were causing his body to shut down and the only thing he can do to try and slow down the ultimately fatal outcome was to do a dialysis treatment on Wednesday to clean out his blood and hope that his heart and lungs can tolerate it. He also said that this is all that anyone could do because he was rapidly declining. I left for a few to walk our guests out. On my arrival to the room, the radiology techs were there doing more testing. Meanwhile his cardiologist came and said there was pretty much nothing else they can do at this point because Joey had gone into Ischemic Atrial fibrillation a few times in the past few nights and may more likely than not be unable to handle the Dialysis treatment on Wednesday because his heart had started to weaken rapidly and his enzymes had increased rapidly over the past few days. She said that he was terminal unless they could get a lot of the fluid off of him quickly to relieve the stress on his lungs and heart. She also said the reason the kidneys , liver , lungs and general bodily functions were getting so bad is from his Pulmonary Hypertension being so bad it was starving their tissues from oxygen and her prognosis was also not in the favor of Joey making it too much more time. As a way to help his heart and organs to get oxygen they also put him on a Bi- pap machine at night by. I asked t to give me an idea of the time we have if the heart can't take the dialysis cleansing treatment on Wednesday and she replied that if she were to guess at most - two weeks. She said Joey’s body had become over run with toxicity resulting from the organs shutting down and she wished us the best and was sorry there was nothing more they could do. Well then I just went into a robotic mode with my only directive to be finding out Joey's final wishes. He stated that he understood what was happening and said that he was not worried but always thought that dying would hurt and that at least he was not. He asked for me to let people know and invite them here if they are able but if not ask for calls or Facebook response's or messages to him. I discussed the necessary things I thought I needed to know to carry them out. There shortly after that the Drs. Strolled in one by one. Infectious disease, Primary care, Pulmonary Specialist & they all wanted to run more tests but mostly they all came to the same conclusion and told me that they were going to send a nurse by to speak with us from the in house Hospice type program called the Palliative program and they are sorry that they have no other solutions to save him. The only change came from the pulmonary specialist. She put him on a Bi-Pap machine for the night to help steady his vitals. They all also told us that they would do everything they could to keep him comfortable, relaxed, and maintain his needs. Also, they said that if and when it happens his blood will get so toxic that he would eventually become more and more out of it and then peacefully go home in his sleep. Then about that time my Best friend Tabitha Perrin, her brother Wayne J Perrin Joey's good friend, and her son Javonte came to visit and offer me and Joey moral support to handle the news. The Palliative care team as well as the chaplain came to visit and talk to us about Joey's final religious choices and needs. They explained that they are there for us as well as for Willie Durr, & Norman Durr as we transitioned through this process. So now it’s just lots of prayers, lots of good wishes and thoughts and some forever good byes. His day was as good as it could be. He had his friends Ivan Darrensbourg , Dixie McCarty, Michael J. Glissman Jr.,Shyan Stalley, Taylor White, Lisa White, and her twin daughters come by throughout the day. We laughed as if nothing was wrong. Joey who is normally in and out of lucidity here lately pretty much stayed in the moments they shared today and he even cracked a few jokes. So now we are just praying for his body, heart, and mind to be comforted by Jesus's promise to his believers, that He is the salvation and only through him shall you enter the gates of heaven. My son is such a special part of this world, but what my prayers offers me is the comfort knowing he's going to be able to get to be free from this world's pains, and evils to only be embraced by our father and our most holy savior Jesus Christ. I have only one message to parents who's got children. Make every moment count. Love them harder, they deserve it, kiss them sweeter, and hold on to them as hard as you can. But remember if you need to let them go make sure that they can get closure and peace knowing they are going to be able to be with you again in in Gods kingdom..
If anyone knows of any charities that may be able to help us with his final wishes to be buried with his grandma Mary Folse in Columbia, MS or his pawpaw Norman Folse Jr. in old Metairie, LA. We have no burial plans as of now because of our lack of income.”

 
Thanking you in advance for your prayers, compassion and generosity. 

Heartbroken,
Jessica C.