Hi, my name is Millie, I’m one of Jay's nieces. I’m starting this GoFundMe on behalf of my uncle Jay and his three children in hopes of getting the support they need at this time.

As many of his close friends know, Jay was diagnosed with IgA Nephropathy, also known as Berger’s Disease, a genetic kidney condition. He was diagnosed around six years ago and ever since has been getting dialysis three times every week. He has struggled every day for so long with this illness, but earlier this month things unfortunately took a devastating turn for him and his family.

Before Jay was diagnosed with IgA Nephropathy, he worked as an airplane mechanic. Jay had a love for airplanes and always had many stories to tell from when he worked on them. He had many opportunities to fly all over the country helping fix Airtankers, Water Bombers, and Crop Dusters. He always loved getting to talk about what he loved most and especially enjoyed teaching his kids and anyone who would listen about them. Nothing made him happier than his kids, sisters, parents, and his love for airplanes. He was lucky enough to be able to do what he loved for work, but sadly when he was diagnosed with this kidney condition, he wasn’t able to work nearly as much, and that really took a toll on him.

Jay eventually moved closer to his siblings and parents a few years ago. Since he wasn’t able to work, he would spend his days going shopping with his sisters, helping his nieces and nephews work on their cars, going out to eat with his parents, having fires, going on drives, and anything else to keep him busy. Recently, Jay was able to get a job doing what he loved again, working on airplanes. He was only able to work just a few hours a week, but it was enough to keep him happy. He decided he wanted to move closer to his job to be able to more easily do what he loved.

While he was moving some boxes out to his truck for his move, he started to not feel well, so he sat down to take a minute. Unfortunately, that's when things got really scary and incredibly difficult for not only Jay but also his family. He suffered a cardiac arrest and had CPR performed on him for around 15 minutes. He was then transported to the ED via ambulance where he was put on a ventilator, admitted to the ICU, and put in a medically induced coma.

Jay remained in the ICU in a coma for almost a week, and during that time his close family celebrated his 50th birthday at the hospital with him. When he finally woke up on day five, the nurses were able to take him off the ventilator. Because of these huge steps he was making towards recovery, he was then moved to the progressive care unit (PCU) a few days later. While in the PCU, he got the opportunity to take a few assisted steps, listen to his favorite music, watch the helicopter take off and land many times, and spend lots of time with close family. During his stay in the PCU, he was making a good enough recovery that his doctors were able to perform one of many cardiac procedures he needed.

The first procedure he was able to get went extremely well, and everyone was hopeful for the next. He went in Friday morning to get his second procedure. During the second one, there were some complications, and due to the complications, the surgeons were unable to complete the procedure. The complications sadly made his condition much worse, and he ended up back in the ICU placed on a ventilator once again.

Because Jay was in the middle of moving out, his lease was ending at the end of July. Due to this and him no longer being able to move where he had planned, his sisters got a storage unit to have a place to put all of his belongings. His children and many close family members have taken many days of unpaid time off, traveled an extensive amount of miles, and done everything they can to be there for not only Jay but also his three kids. His family has recently started to receive many medical bills from his stay at the hospital. These bills are very expensive even after insurance.

His kids have asked for as much love and support as possible and have asked that if anyone is able, to help cover some of these extensive costs and any future costs to come.