My Stepdad's Long Road to Recovery

UPDATE: 3/22 He is home!!! He will continue on the feeding tube until further noice. Thank you for everyone’s support!

UPDATE: 3/21 They will be taking his last chest tube out tomorrow. He will hopefully be cleared to go home early next week. He will still have a feeding tube for several more weeks as he continues to heal. We are all extremely grateful for his recovery. We thank all who have donated thus far. Every little bit helps.

On Monday, 3/10, my stepdad was rushed to the nearest hospital. He was having severe chest pain and was having a hard time breathing. His blood pressure was 200/129, and they were unable to control his pain and keep his blood pressure down. They diagnosed him with pneumomediastinum. The hospital decided to transfer him to another hospital.

He was transferred to MMC and placed on a ventilator. The doctors said if he didn’t get to the hospital when he did, he would have died.

On 3/11, they suspected he had a tear in his stomach, so they performed emergency surgery, but they did not find a tear. The thoracic doctor did find air in his chest cavity and agreed that he does have a rare condition called pneumomediastinum.

On 3/11, they did another CT scan and decided to do the barium swallow test. They then had to drain all the contents of his stomach to prep for that test. They placed him back

on the ventilator to do the barium swallow in which they found a perforated esophagus.

On 3/12, He had surgery to place a stent and clean out his chest. As they were fixing the hole in the esophagus, they found a tiny hole in the stomach that they missed originally. He was in surgery for 6 hours. He has fluid around both lungs and has chest tubes on each side to drain the fluid. They also found an infection and placed him on antibiotics.

He is unable to eat or drink for 6 weeks until his esophagus heals.

On 3/13, they did another 2-hour surgery to place a feeding tube (J tube) into his stomach.

He is still in the ICU recovering. They will be taking out all of his chest tubes. He has a few more days in the hospital.

He has a long road to recovery, and because he’s out of work, it’s a huge financial burden. The bills keep coming in. Anything helps.