THE MAN WITH 9 LIVES.
Meet my brother-in-law, Duwayne Olson. First, a little background...
Duwayne, age 65, and his wife Patty got married when Duwayne was 16 years old and have been married for 49 years. They have 10 kids, 34 grandkids, and 5 great-grandkids. They also brought up 4 of their grandkids, 2 of whom are special needs, since the kids were little.
(kids)
Grandkids
Duwayne has had a very challenging life, to say the least.
At the age of 18, Duwayne enlisted in the military, and within 2 years, his mother passed away, leaving 3 of his juvenile brothers still at home. He was given an honorable discharge to go home and take custody of them. At the time, he and Patty had 3 kids of their own, so by the time he was 20, he had a family of 8 to support.
When Duwayne was 25, he fell off a 30' high roof, dislocating 2 discs in his back. After this happened, he started developing psoriasis all over his body, which the doctors told him can sometimes happen after trauma. This has been difficult to keep under control for most of his life.
In 1996, at the age of 36, he had a heart attack, so they added 3 stents in his heart. The following year, he had quadruple bypass surgery and ended up with an infection in his body, where he lost all of his fingernails and toenails. After multiple home nurse visits to give him different IVs with antibiotics over the next few months, his nails finally grew back.
Soon after his heart attack, he was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, so it has been a lifelong battle of trying to keep his blood sugars under control. Between that and the stents in his legs and his heart problems, he developed poor circulation in his legs quickly.
In 2002, Duwayne had another heart attack.
Then came a major car accident in 2004, where he and his wife were T-boned by a drunk driver while they were driving down the interstate at night. The other car, which was driving 108 mph when they hit them, blew through a stop sign and hit their vehicle on the passenger side where Duwayne was sitting. Duwayne was wearing a seatbelt but was ejected and thrown half a football field from the car. When paramedics got there, they did not realize there was a passenger in the car, so they did not find him right away. They fully expected to find a dead body, but instead, he suffered from a traumatic brain injury, a broken wrist, a broken foot, and 2 fractured ribs.
"other car"
(what was left of their car)
It's been a long way back from the car accident, heart attacks, and diabetes while still bringing up his family. Then in 2009, they found he had 80% blockage in his carotid arteries, so he had bypass in both. After that, he was forced to retire due to health conditions.
Fast forward to 2019, due to poor circulation, he had an artery bypass in his leg to help with the blood flow. But Duwayne still lost his big toe the following year, which did heal really well.
In 2021, he was hospitalized for 7 days with cellulitis, where he lost part of his 2nd toe, which never healed well. So they admitted him to the nursing home, during which time they did not treat according to doctor's orders, and he lost the partial toe and the next one to it due to gangrene. He was confined to a wheelchair and spent 4 months in the nursing home.
At one point, he was taken in for a doctor's visit, who sent him to the hospital as it was still not healing. At that time, they found out he had sepsis and had no blood flow from the knee down, which is why his leg and foot would not heal. Due to the sepsis, they had no choice but to amputate below the knee as it was a live-or-die situation. He spent the next few months in the hospital and then transferred to a different nursing home for 9 months for therapy, healing, prosthetic, and mental health.
hematoma on his back due to fall
Since then, Duwayne has been home but is basically confined to his room as he lives in a 4-story home, with the exception of doctor's appointments, which are very difficult to get to. His other leg/foot is now swelling, and he has a very good chance of losing that one also due to the poor circulation.
Duwayne is in dire need of a handicapped van but is also hoping to get one that has hand controls so he can get out of the house and get some independence back and do little things like drive to the store if he would like to. His greatest wish is to be able to drive to Florida to visit his brother (my husband), who is homebound due to a heart attack, COPD, and on full-time oxygen before their time is up, as they are both living on borrowed time.
Cliff - Duwayne's brother he hasn't seen in 10 years.
Could you please donate to help make his greatest wish come true for both men?