Nick Galante‘s Pancreas Surgery in Minnesota

Aloha friends and family,

In Oct 2018 our dad Nick Galante was medivac’d to Oahu for severe stomach pains. The doctors at Pali Momi diagnosed our dad with Chronic Pancreatitis. They found a stricture in his common bile duct and a mass at the top of his pancreas blocking bile from draining correctly. Within the last 2 years since the diagnose he has had about a dozen stents put in to keep the bile duct from shutting. He is in constant pain 24/7 and has to constantly take pain meds just to complete daily task. When the stents fail and the duct closes it causes the bile to flow back into his body and essentially “poison” him. This has led to sepsis poisoning in the past where he gets sever chills, fever, and vomiting. The most latest incident was on 8/12 at 3AM when the medics were called to our house because of his extreme chills and fever. He was transported to Wilcox where more test were done and soon they will medivac him to Oahu to get another stent put in.

We see that this is not a great long term plan and we started looking at other options. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota is one of the top pancreatic facilities in the US. The procedure that he will have done is called a whipple procedure which will take off the top part of his pancreas, the top of his small intestine, and the bile duct. All organs will be reattached to allow food to digest correctly. Because all of his biopsy’s came back negative for cancer the doctors recommend this procedure would be the best route.

Because we live on Kaua’i flights to Minnesota are very expensive and finding a comfortable place for him to stay for a week or two after the surgery to recover. Our mom will be going with him which means she will be out of work for 2+ weeks, plus having to quarantine when she returns home from Minnesota. My mom is planning to be out of work for nearly 5-6 weeks or more which puts a strain on our parents financial obligations.

Those who know my dad know that he is a sweet man who will go out of his way to help anybody. This has been a stressful few years for our whole family and we are hoping this surgery takes away some or most of our dads pain.

We are looking for donations to help with flights for our mom and dad, accommodations, and to help pay bills while my mom is out of work.

We truly appreciate anything you can donate!
If you are unable to donate please feel free to share this fundraiser.

God Bless!