Marty Wallace Medical Expenses
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Fundraising for Marty Wallace:
This GoFundMe is for Marty Wallace's medical expenses and has been set up by her family: Dave (husband), Whitney and Hailey (daughters). Marty Wallace is a school guidance counselor at Clarke Johnsen Junior High School and has worked at other schools in the Tooele County School District for many years. She and her husband are also members of the Batesville Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Erda, Utah.
What Happened?
Dave and Marty were traveling from their home in Erda, Utah, to visit their youngest daughter, Hailey, in Maine. Their first flight was from Salt Lake City to Atlanta, Georgia. Marty had a headache for a few days prior but took some Tylenol and didn't complain much about it. Aboard the plane, she started to feel sick, and both Marty and Dave thought maybe she had eaten something that wasn't agreeing with her. By the time the plane landed in Georgia, Marty's condition had severely worsened. She was removed from the plane by paramedics and taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Within a short time, doctors determined she had experienced an intracranial cerebral hemorrhage and had a large amount of blood covering and pressing on her brain. During triage, she lost consciousness, was intubated, and put on a ventilator. The doctors performed a surgical procedure to stop the bleeding and release the pressure in her brain via an EVD (External Ventricular Drain). After the procedure, she was admitted to the Grady Memorial Hospital's Marcus Stroke and Neuroscience ICU (July 21, 2022) in Georgia, where she remains as of writing this (August 6, 2022).
In the days following her admission, both Marty's daughters (Hailey and Whitney) have flown out to Georgia to support and help care for Marty with their father, Dave.
Improvements!
The past 2+ weeks have been filled with attentive and fantastic care from the doctors and nurses at Grady Memorial Hospital. Encouraging improvements include:
- Marty was given an aggressive treatment of tPA, through the drain in her brain, to help dissolve the blood that had clotted and blocked the ventricles in her brain. She has responded positively to those treatments, and nearly all ventricles are now unblocked!
- Marty received a tracheostomy procedure on 8/2/2022, making the ventilator a lot more comfortable for her to use and reversible in the future if she re-learns to breathe independently!
- Marty received a PEG line procedure on 8/2/2022, which means her feeding tube goes straight to her stomach and no longer goes up her nose and down her throat, which is much more comfortable for her and is reversible in the future if she re-learns how to swallow and eat on her own!
- Marty is able to open and close her eyes; sometimes she follows commands, like being asked to open or close her eyes!
- Marty is able to wiggle her toes, stretch her feet, slightly move her shoulders, and do huge, nose-crinkling yawns that move her entire face! These are considered basic body responses but are exciting to see nonetheless!
- Marty was able to have the EVD (brain drain) removed on 8/5/2022 after showing stabilized pressure in her brain for multiple days!
- Marty has already started some ventilator therapy and is well on her way to breathing on her own, we believe!
- Marty's "neuro tests" (aka the tests for evaluating regained consciousness) have not yet improved, but doctors are hopeful and say it is a slow recovery to get there (anywhere from 3, 6, 9+ months, we're told).
Next Steps
The next step is finding the right LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) facility for Marty to be transferred to. LTACs specialize in therapy and rehabilitation that would start with helping Marty breathe independently without needing the ventilator and hopefully regaining consciousness. The biggest hurdle our family faces right now is that Marty is located in Georgia. If she remains in Georgia, she will be placed in an LTAC facility in Georgia. We have an option to "airbus" Marty back to Utah, but the medical flight company requires a total payment upfront (around $25,000.00). However, they have agreed to submit the claim to insurance after services have been rendered, which may or may not be partially covered and may require a lengthy appeals process.
What We Need
It goes without saying that our family wants Marty back in Utah - in general, so that she is closer to us and her extended support system, and also for whatever lengthy rehabilitation is in Marty's future. There are already two facilities in Utah ready to accept Marty as long as we can get her transported from Georgia to Utah.
Goals
The primary goals for this GoFundMe are:
- Help raise funds for Marty to be transported from Georgia back to Utah via airbus/med flight
- Help support the many hospital expenses already incurred at the ICU and those to come
- Help support the family's emergency travel expenses, helping them get to Marty in Georgia and get Marty home to Utah
Thank you for visiting! Any donations, positive thoughts, well-wishes, prayers, etc. are very much appreciated. We will continue to keep this page updated through Marty's recovery.
Much love,
The Wallaces
Co-organizers (2)
Whitney Wallace
Organizer
Tooele, UT
David Wallace
Beneficiary
Hailey Wallace
Co-organizer