On April 10th at about 1:30 am, Jr had gotten up to use the bathroom and had fallen. Luckily, he called Morgan after he fell from his cellphone for help. They quickly came to realize that he was unable to use the entire left side of his body. She immediately called 911, and he was taken by ambulance to St. Luke’s emergency room. He was initially worked up for a stroke, but upon imaging results, it was determined that he had a severe infection on the whole right side of his brain, called Subdural Empyema. Caused by Streptococcus intermedius. He was then taken in for emergency surgery with a neurosurgeon, where they removed the right half of his skull, which is still currently off and will remain off for at least a few months, and washed the infection off his brain and put in two drains to help drain whatever infection may still be lingering. When the surgery was over, he was taken for another CT scan and then brought to recovery where he was extubated. Eventually, he was brought up to his room, but the ICU doctor felt like due to his mental status and not waking up as much as they’d like him to, that he wasn’t going to be able to fully protect his airway and decided to re-intubate at his bedside. At this time, they also put in a central line where he can receive three of the IV antibiotics, Keppra to reduce the risk of seizures, propofol drip to keep him sedated, and fentanyl drip to help with the pain. And an OJ tube to give him other meds and tube feedings as they anticipate he will be intubated for a while yet due to upcoming surgeries and procedures. An ENT surgeon was consulted on his case and by looking at his imaging figured that the brain infection came from a sinus infection that Jr previously had and was being treated for, but the infection wasn’t responding to the antibiotics. Essentially, two weeks prior to all this, Jr had gone in for this sinus infection and had a head CT done at that time which showed that he had a bunch of polyps and gave him antibiotics and nasal spray and said to follow up in three months if symptoms didn’t resolve. If he still had the polyps, he would then need surgery to remove them. Well, within two weeks, the infection spread like wildfire and seeped through the back bone of his sinus cavity to his brain. The ENT surgeon at St. Luke’s said this only happens to about 0.2% of people and that he isn’t trained in the specific surgery that needs to be done, therefore decided Jr needed to be transferred to the UofM for more specialized care and to have this surgery on his sinuses. He was transferred April 11th at 7:30 am by air. Once arriving at the U, they had him complete another head CT scan. They also hooked him up to a continuous EEG monitor because they were questioning some seizure-like activity. Thankfully, the EEG hadn’t shown any seizures. The ENT surgeon at the U said that his surgery needed to be done by today or at the very least Saturday morning. So they held off on giving him any type of feeding due to going back into surgery. He went in for his sinus surgery at 9 pm and was done at about 1 am. They were able to clear the infection out of all of his sinuses and were able to drain them properly. Now we sit and wait to see how the surgeries along with antibiotics and drains treat the infection. Depending on how he does will determine when they want to start waking him up. So as of now, he is just recovering and letting his body get the much-needed rest it needs.

Long term, the doctor anticipates he will be here for a few months at least. He will need long-term IV antibiotics, possibly up to a year. His bone flap is staying at St. Luke’s in Duluth and will remain there until Jr is healthy again and ready for it to be put back on, at which point they will then send him back to St. Luke’s. We don’t know if he has movement back in his left side yet as he was never fully awake since his first initial surgery. To help offload some of the expenses on this long road to recovery, we have decided to set up this GoFundMe page. Morgan will have to take off work to be here with her husband and help take care of him until he is able to go back home, in which case they might need home care. Thank you in advanced for all your prayers, kind words, support and donations. We truly appreciate it all!

Jr after his first surgery at St. Luke’s

Jr before his second surgery at the U