Shelly Whitebear's Final Wishes

Hello, my name is Kelly Barr Hughes. My Aunt Shelly passed away on Wednesday, September 13th, after two years of dealing with serious health issues.

What started as sudden tripping and falling, soon became loss of appetite, losing weight, and concern. Kim Herr, her husband, began taking time away from work to care for Shelly. However with no answers being found and her health declining, he became more and more her full time caregiver. More recently she stated struggling with her short-term memory on top of everything else. She was diagnosed a few months ago with early stage dementia. Two weeks ago, she stopped eating. She had lost a lot of weight and Kim took her to the hospital and thru discovered a bowel blockage and infection in her colon. She was put in the hospital on bed rest with IVs in an attempt to rest her intestines. She was not able to have surgery because her weight was so low and there was some internal bleeding for which they could not find the source.

By this part Monday, she had gone into cardiac arrest twice. She was brought back to life at the hospital and remained in a comatose state. After a CAT scan, it was found that her liver had been lacerated during CPR and was the source of internal blood loss. The choice was made to take her off of the machines because she would not have survived a surgery or transfer to another hospital. She passed away twelve hours after she was taken off of life support.

Kim and the family wish to cremate her and bury her at our family's cemetery plot in Wisconsin. This fundraiser is to help allay some of these costs as the family finds itself financially strained with medical and end-of-life expenses. Every dollar helps, every share counts, and we appreciate all kind thoughts toward our family as we put the pieces back together following this tragic and heartbreaking loss. Shelly was a caring Daughter, Sister, Aunt, Mother, Great Aunt, Grandmother, and Friend to all that met her, please help her be at peace and join her parents in the family's chosen final resting place. If you wish to send direct condolences: Kim Herr, 16 Red Cedar Parc, O'Fallon, MO 63368. https://www.newcomerstlouis.com/Obituary/268300/Shelly-Whitebear/St%20Peters-MO

Thank you for your kind words as we grieve the passing of this great woman.