It is with very heavy hearts that we are writing this message on behalf of our sister, brother and nephew. Jeramy and Kelli have been together for 8 years and recently moved to Texas for Jeramy to pursue a career as a crane operator in a nuclear power plant. He has only been working at this job for 3 weeks and they just got settled into a place. Kelli stopped doing her hair career so they could start this journey with Jeramy being the sole provider for their family while Kelli was staying at home and home schooling Odin.  Finances are going to become a concern very fast with no income until he can recover. 

He went to work on Friday not feeling great but thought nothing more of it and made it almost the whole day. He told Kelli he was feeling bad like he had food poisoning or something wasn’t right. Saturday he started getting sicker and the man who is NEVER sick decided to go to the ER. That is when the unthinkable situation that they are facing right now came about. He was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs and admitted. Saturday he was in the ICU and being intubated. He kept getting worse instead of better and was transferred 2 hours away from where they live. Monday was another day of tests and more tests. The physicians finally told Kelli Tuesday that he has a condition called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Our entire family has been shaken by this sudden illness. We had never heard of ARDS so we started researching. We learned that ARDS is a rapidly progressive lung disease. The main complication of this disease is the leakage of fluid into the tiny air sacs in the lungs. This restricts the lungs ability to properly process oxygen. According to the American Lung Association, this is a rare condition with only about 200,000 cases each year in the US. There is currently no cure, and people diagnosed with this are usually already in critical condition at the hospital.

He has developed an infection in his blood stream from the pneumonia and is fighting for his life. He is currently sedated on day 4 and not feeling any pain and on a ventilator to hope his lungs and blood infection start to heal from the antibiotics. He has a long way to go and we know the last thing Kelli and Odin need to be worrying about is the income that Jeramy was providing for their family. They are 10 hours away from all their friends and family and need any support you can offer to help with traveling to and from hospital or staying in Houston while he gets stronger. Any amount you can help with is appreciated and we thank you in advance.

The doctors told Kelli today (2/16) that he needs alot of rest and they have to wait until Monday to see if he is able to breathe without the ventilators assistance.
Please continue to pray for all 3 of them continuously! Thanks, Kara, Kristin and Kylie.