Medical Expenses for the Salmon Family

Thank you for checking out this GoFundMe page for the Salmon Family. This page is for my family members, Tina & Corey Salmon, who have recently been experiencing increasing medical expenses due to health issues that Corey has been facing throughout the summer. I have taken a recent Facebook status from Tina that gives a brief summary as to what has been going on...please see below.

"To say that this summer has been difficult is an understatement. I haven’t put anything on here up to now because there has just been so much, but we need some extra support, positive thoughts and all the prayers possible right now. Corey Salmon has been through it. Most of you know that Corey has been living with End Stage Renal Disease for almost five years. For the last four and a half years, he has been doing peritoneal dialysis at home using a machine overnight while he slept. Things with that were mainly okay but had their ups and downs. Just before the pandemic hit, he had a rough patch and decided to stop working and go on disability.

We made it through Covid and even though he was high risk, we all stayed healthy. But back in April, a lot of things started to happen. He suddenly became anemic, had to have several blood transfusions, began to suffer from very low blood pressure making it hard to move around, and his kidney function began to decline even further. He was taken off of peritoneal dialysis and switched to in-center hemodialysis, which his body did not adjust well to. In mid-May, I noticed a wound on the bottom of his right foot.

We immediately went to his diabetic podiatrist. From that point, we were watching it closely. However, infection set in. He spent six days in the hospital fighting that before being released. I’m writing this from Sentara Princess Anne hospital on day 20 of the current hospital stay. After treating and doing everything possible over the summer, the podiatrist made it clear that Corey would lose half of his right foot to prevent further infection. Two surgeries were done on 8/5 and 8/9. So far, the foot is doing okay, but there are some concerns about the left foot that developed some similar issues during the original hospital stay in Chesapeake General.

We are still here now because of some additional issues that have cropped up. His dialysis fistula needed to be worked on and a tunnel catheter was put in his chest in order for dialysis to happen while the fistula heals. It’s really been one thing after another.

If you made it to the end of this crazy long post, I know you care for Corey, Noah and I and ask you to please pray for his recovery from all of this. He really needs to hear from people who know and love him right now. As you can imagine, all of this is not good for anyone mentally as well as physically. Please send him a message or if you want to send a card that would be great too. Message me and I’ll send you our address."

With Corey's inability to get around on his own and the multiple trips to the dialysis clinic required, there has been an increased transportation cost since the only way to transport Corey has been by ambulance. In addition, a wheelchair ramp has been installed at the front of the house to get Corey in and out of the home. The trips to the clinic alone costs the Salmon family over $1,200 a week in addition to monthly payments for the ramp costing over $200. Tina is also a history teacher at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, Virginia and will have to use all her paid time off from work to get Corey acclimated to being back home when that time comes.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this, and we appreciate anything you can contribute to help. I continue will to post updates here to keep everyone in the loop.