It is with a heavy heart that I share with you the passing of my brother-in-law Derrick Billy Potts on the evening of Wednesday, September 22nd from COVID complications. He was only 47.

 

Derrick leaves behind his wife, Tiesa, and their three young boys ages 12, 14 and 15 at home. In fact, Derrick had a total of 12 children: Ashlei, Junior, Cameron, Kayla, MaKayla, Jaida, Brenden, Tyler, Taryn -- all adults -- in addition to his aforementioned youngest sons: Kolten, Qorrie, and Codie.

 

After meeting with the doctor yesterday, my sister Tiesa was asked to make the gut-wrenching decision to "pull the plug" -- a decision no one should ever have to make. With all of his kids at the hospital: Tiesa, their daughter Jaida, and their oldest son Junior went into the ICU room and sat with him until he took his last breath.

 

Derrick was a great father to my nephews--he wore the badge with honor! Every Father's Day, I would text him and tell him as such and his response was always "I am honored to be their father!" He has always been such a huge presence in their lives, so this loss is absolutely devastating to my nephews.

 

WHAT HAPPENED?

 

My sister Tiesa and one of my nephews had tested positive for COVID at the beginning of September. Derrick quarantined from Tiesa, but took care of my nephews. My nephews didn't have many symptoms and recovered after only a day or two with headaches.

 

On the evening of Friday, September 10th, Derrick came home after a day of fishing and wrestling and laughing with his boys. He cooked up the fish he had caught and ate dinner with his boys. He felt a sudden tiredness come over him and he decided to lay down. On Saturday morning, Derrick was incredibly sick. By Sunday, he was coughing non-stop and having trouble catching his breath between coughing fits. Tiesa came out to help him and realized she couldn't help him get up to get him into the car to take him to the hospital, so she called the ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, they immediately put him on oxygen as his levels were at 82 (anything below 89 is serious).

 

Once Derrick was at the hospital, he tested positive for COVID and they realized that his blood sugar levels were over 300 and his A1C was at just above a six (6.5 is diabetic). They had him on an oxygen nasal cannula which kept his levels up, but the levels would drop drastically if he removed it. He was doing much better in the hospital on Oxygen, but as the week went on he declined and even began to fight the Oxygen tubing and other leads including a feeding tube and sedated him to prevent him from pulling them out -- something common in COVID patients.

Additionally, Derrick developed ARDS COVID (acute respiratory destress syndrome) pneumonia covid. This renders only a 5%-9% survival in any covid patients. 

 

Tiesa and my 15-year-old nephew were able to Video Chat with Derrick on Saturday (Sept. 18). He wasn't able to open his eyes, but he managed to repeat "I love you" to them. As you can imagine, this was incredibly difficult for my nephew who just sat there, frozen, seeing his daddy in this state.

 

The nurses and doctors all knew my nephews and my sister by name because Derrick kept talking about them. The nurses said that Derrick would mumble in his sleep and sedated state: "I love my boys," "I love my wife," "I just want to go home," etc. He was praying constantly.

 

On Sunday (Sept. 19) morning, Derrick coded for 20 minutes and then another code before they were able to stabilize him. They intubated him and started five different blood pressure medications in order to get his BP within a normal range. Derrick's kidneys were significantly injured when he coded and began to shut down. The doctors decided to put Derrick in a Therapeutic Hypothermic state in order to cool him down his body and give his organs a break. On Monday (Sept. 20), Derrick's status was mostly unchanged excepting the fact that he had no urine output and little movement/brain activity since coding. Additionally, they discovered a cancerous mass on his thyroid --as if there wasn't enough to contend with. The doctors decided to begin the process of warming him back up at midnight on Tuesday in order to see how his organs would react. This morning (Sept. 22), Tiesa met with the doctor and was told that Derrick's organs had shut down and he had no brain activity -- he was being kept alive by the machines.

 

At 6:30pm, Derrick took his final breaths with Tiesa by his side.

 

THIS FAMILY NEEDS OUR HELP!

 

Derrick was the sole bread winner. He was a truck driver and had recently begun working toward starting his own trucking company. Since he has been home taking care of the family and then got sick himself, there has been no income -- and there will be no income for some time until Tiesa is able to find a job.

 

HOUSING DISCRIMINATION

 

The family had recently moved to an entirely new town and my nephews began attending an entirely new school. Tiesa was able to find a rental while Derrick was out on the road. I need to preface the following by stating that Derrick is a black man, and my nieces and nephews are mixed (my sister Tiesa and I are members of the Potawatomi Nation). Derrick came back into town off the road and was out in the front yard with the kids. The landlord came to the house, saw Derrick and the kids in the yard and turned around and left. The landlord then filed the same day for a 5-day eviction notice stating the reasoning being that he didn't want their two dogs at the home (my sister had them approved through the landlord when she signed the rental agreement). The courts then served my little nephews while my sister and Derrick were sick in bed with COVID. They were unable to vacate due to Derrick going into the hospital, so the landlord is taking them to court. The landlord stated to my sister that their "situation isn't [his] problem". They are supposed to appear in court on September 29th and required to be out of the house by September 30th. Derrick and Tiesa had signed a lease on another rental just days before Derrick fell extremely ill. Based on some additional actions made by the landlord, it is clear that racism is the sole factor at play. This has been a constant occurrence for them and it is exhausting.

 

Not only are they dealing with this incredible loss and the burial expenses, but they are facing a move and now homelessness all within the week.

 

WHAT IS NEEDED?

 

 

Please consider giving any amount you feel that you can spare: $5 to $5,000! Every little bit adds up and helps us get them closer to meeting their needs!

 

VENMO 

 

GoFundMe takes a percentage and it takes some time to transfer funds. They have an immediate need for $2700 by the 24th in order to get moved into a new rental, please consider sending a donation via Venmo @Tiesa_Carlock so we can have this situation managed for them.

 

Let's help this family through this devastating and traumatic time! Thank you!

 

#CarlockFamily

#COVIDkillsDads

Here is the rental agreement breakdown. This is a screenshot that Derrick took on his phone of the email communications with the new landlord: