Support Jim's Recovery Journey

We are hoping to raise a little bit of money to help my brother with medical bills from his very long and scary experience earlier this year. We appreciate any help you can provide!

Jim’s Story:

Jim is my younger brother and like siblings sometimes do, we grew apart over time and I had not seen him in a few years. He would send funny memes and videos through Facebook messenger to all of us but due to his partner at the time, we did not visit. We had no idea he was in trouble.

In late January, my mother received a frantic call from his then partner stating that he was being taking by ambulance to the hospital because he was having issues breathing. She was closest so she got the hospital first and found my brother in an awful state. He had gained a significant amount of weight and was no longer able to walk. He was complaining of swelling in his face and neck and a shortness of breath. Unfortunately the hospital he was originally sent to did not have the facilities to treat him so they transferred him to UPMC Presbyterian which was about an hour away from their home.

On arrival to UPMC Presby, they put him into a medically induced coma and began running tests. My mother and I were together when they told us that he had an active Necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh-eating bacteria disease that was destroying the tissue in his face. They said that we needed immediate surgery to begin removing the dead tissue and bacteria. They advised that due to the location and how close it was to his airway, that they would possibly have to give him a tracheostomy that could be permanent, meaning he may not be able to eat/talk normally again. Despite this, we asked them to do everything they could to save his life.

We all waited for hours to hear the outcome. He made it through the first surgery ok but was not out of the woods yet. They had to keep him in the medically induced coma for several weeks and perform a number of follow up surgeries to remove all of the infected tissue. He remained in the ICU for 7 weeks, a large portion of that time under sedation. When he was removed from sedation, he was unable to talk due to the trach and the wound. He communicated with us using the sign alphabet and hand squeezes. He eventually progressed enough that he was able to be moved out of the ICU into a regular room but still remained in the hospital until April. This took a toll financially on our mother as it was an hour drive each way but she knew she needed to be there to advocate for him.

Since this all began, Jim has worked so hard to get his life back and regain his health. They were able to remove the trach and clear the infection completely through the surgeries and antibiotics. He has now lost over 200 pounds and through physical therapy has started to walk again. We cannot express how proud we are of him and are so happy to have him back in our lives. It feels like our family is complete again!

Jim is still unable to work and my mom has taken on his caregiver role. They are working hard to get him back on track so he can begin looking for work when he is better but the medical bills and credit card debt has piled up in the meantime. We have always been a family that works for everything but these have been a trying few months and we could use the help.

Thank you!