<div>We're asking for a little help. Let me start from the beginning. Russ hadn’t been feeling well for several days, but he was determined on December 17th that he was going to make it to our son’s senior year winter mini singer performance one way or another. We got to the high school, and within 30 mins he could hardly sit up. His brother decided it was a good idea to get him up to the ER, where he had an elevated blood sugar, and they determined he had DKA (Diabetic ketoacidosis). He was extremely sick. They transferred him to Jennie Ed, where they tried to get his blood sugars under control. The 3 days he was there, they never got the blood sugars below 320, and still in a coma state of mind, he started having excruciating pain in his right arm and shoulder. They did X-rays, found NOTHING, and discharged him home. At this point, his whole right side of his body was basically paralyzed. I tried telling them he wasn’t ready to be discharged. Hell, Russ even asked them not to send him home. Anyways, we got him home, unable to get blood sugars under 360. The insulin they prescribed wasn’t touching his blood sugar.

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<div>Moving onto Christmas Day, we wake up and he’s feeling so terrible he can’t even sit and watch the boys open gifts. He’s in excruciating pain, his blood sugar sitting at 440. We gave him his insulin, rechecked sugar an hour later, 500+. His glucose machine wouldn’t even register it. It said HI. We gave him more insulin, it was 488 40 minutes later. At this point, he’s in a coma state still. His mom and I decide to call 911. They get here, test blood sugar, 478. They take him to the ER, they keep him overnight here in Red Oak. They run a bunch of labs because of his pain in his shoulder and having difficulty breathing. His white blood count was AWFUL, along with a ton of other critical levels. They say he’s needing a higher level of care, so we’re transferring him.

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<div>Transferred to Methodist in Omaha, where they determine he’s got a blood infection and blood clots throughout his entire body. Extremely concerning is the one in his major heart valve! Also, at this point, he is losing his vision in the right eye, determined the cause of that is 10+ blood clots on the brain, causing him to have several mini-strokes. They take him in for a CT to have an abscess drained behind his shoulder. He comes out of that procedure, and 30-40 minutes after he got back to his room, his nurse went in to check his blood sugar before he ate. He had goosebumps. The nurse asked if he was okay or if he was cold. He said, 'I’m freezing,' then he started shaking like seizures. His temp spiked, his heart rate went from 110 to 260, blood pressure dropped to 60/20, his hands and legs turned purple, then he lost his heartbeat. They called in all critical staffing, got his heart going, and transferred him to ICU at Methodist. He is stable at this point, so yesterday he went in for another surgery to have that entire shoulder cleaned out as it’s a huge infection site. He’s in A LOT of pain! His entire body is covered with blood infection and a ton of blood clots throughout the body!

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<div><strong>They are thinking he will need open heart surgery, but he’s extremely high risk for that and will most likely be transferred to the University of Nebraska Med.</strong> If you can tell, the medical bills are racking up, and going back and forth from Red Oak to Omaha daily is taking a ton of gas. <strong>So we are asking if you could help us in any way possible, we would greatly appreciate it!</strong> Updates will be provided as I get them!

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donna rascon

Anonymous

Patti Allen

Jill Antweiler

Linda Blackburn

Miranda Meier

Trevor McAlpin

Tracy Vannausdle

Tammi L Redd

barbara echternach

Stephanie Miller

Marcus Stoddard

Adam Drake

JODONN SHAVER

Leah Armstrong

Stand by Russ while he takes on many medical issues

Stand by Russ while he takes on many medical issues

Still $2,835 to go. Help us build momentum.