Rachel's final expenses and Emergency Safety net $

Hi my name is Dylan. The love of my life Rachel and I have had a very challenging year. During the pandemic we both lost our jobs and when the world started again we were no longer able to afford childcare for our 3 year old so we decided I would stay home and Rachel would go back to work full time. Our finances were tight but we had finally gotten to a place where I could begin to work again. Within two weeks into my new job, Rachel became sick with what at the time seemed like the flu. She stayed home for about a week and with no improvement in her condition we decided that she would need to be seen by a doctor. Within 5 hours from calling the doctor to make the appointment Rachels condition severely worsened to the point where she could not communicate with me or follow simple instructions and we called 911. Paramedics immediately brought her to the hospital where she was diagnosed immediately with severe COVID-19 and put into a medically induced coma where she remained for nearly 2 weeks. During that time neither I or our 3 daughters were unable to speak with her or see her as she had been put into a 20 day quarantine only to hear bits and pieces of new information about her condition as I did my best to keep our home and our girls lives from spinning out of control. About a week after she was admitted I finally was informed of her diagnosis: she had a severe septic emboli infection in two valves of her heart along with the advanced covid and pneumonia. The septic vegetation in her heart had caused a leak in her tricuspid valve and a severe infection in her mitral valve. Due to the location of the infection every time her heart beat little pieces of infection spread throughout her body further weakening her condition. She was in critical condition and would require two full valve replacements as well as a draining of fluid in her lungs. On Wednesday October 5th she underwent open heart surgery at the University of Minnesota. Which was performed successfully and without complication. Through all of this our children nor I have been able to see or speak with her once. Even with the great success of the surgery she has a massive recovery road ahead of her and as we have no family for thousands of miles in any direction and I will need to be home to care for her as well as our 3 year old and our older girls (14,17) and home we need help. We have mounting medical bills as well as housing and utilities that we need to recover. We are attempting to enlist all government resources (financial aide, state assistance etc) but unfortunately those channels have long and uncertain wait times that our family especially our girls need now. When Rachel is healed enough to relocate ourselves closer to our family our support network won't be so far out of reach and Rachel, myself and our girls can thrive. Please help the heart of our family heal. Thank you for any support you can share.

**Update 2/09/24**

At 10:15 am on February 6th 2024 the love of my life , the mother to our daughters and my best friend bravely and quietly left our world after a 1.5 year battle that she fought with everything she had. Every time she had a surgery or procedure she would beat the doctors prognosis and be back to her room by the h next morning stronger and a little more optimistic and ready to keep fighting. This was never supposed to happen. In the last two weeks every worst case scenario that could happen did. Nobody should ever have to see someone they love go through what Rachel went through in her last days and weeks. It was nothing short of torturous.

I'm so ashamed that almost two years after this started we are so deeply in need of support that the only way I can take custody of Rachel's body or have her cremated let alone answer my phone for any of the other past due bills.It was a 24/7 battle to keep Rachel's health up so she could fight her strongest. We bet all our savings on the great bet that Rachel was going to beat this thing and in 6-mo to a year we could settle our debts and we were going to move as close to family as possible. We just needed to get through her last valve transplant and they would put her new pacemaker in and no more surgery just healing. I know Rachel was so scared of this outcome and I never could have imagined what the worst case scenario erasing the person you love most right in front of your eyes so quickly that you can't find closure really and somehow still so slowly that at times it feels inhumanly cruel. Please if you can help us find our way out of this nightmare while honoring Rachel.

I loved Rachel from the end of world to the next, and with every moment of our shared life together .

I'm lucky enough to have 3 incredible girls that I get to see Rachels amazing qualities in every day.

Thank you again everyone for your prayers, thoughts and donations .