Support Cegan's Journey to Recovery

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, we almost lost our then 24-year old son Cegan (pronounced “Kee-gan”) from necrotizing pancreatitis. After an urgent flight 150 miles south to St Peter’s Health Partners in Albany, NY and 3 weeks of being displaced, our world turned upside down. Dealing with incredibly limited visiting hours, with God’s blessings, he recovered. He did leave with what is called a pancreatic pseudocyst, a large collection of fluid attached to the pancreas. Eighteen months later, a second-opinion physician told us the pseudocyst had resorbed and went away. Cegan was told to go home and live his best life.

Cegan turned his life to helping others in crisis situations. Working for a behavioral health organization as a Crisis Interventionist, Cegan has helped multitudes of people through terrible personal and mental health crisis situations. He also works at a local school system as a crisis counselor, providing guidance and support to kids that are facing serious family and social struggles during a very sensitive and emotional time in their lives.

Six weeks ago, Cegan had a week of severe abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. It ended up being a bout with two viruses confirmed by lab work, but in the process, a CT was performed and they determined that his pseudocyst did indeed exist and was intact. He made an appointment with his original pancreatic physician in Albany, which wouldn’t be for another month.

Three weeks ago, Cegan’s worst nightmare came back. While at school, he started experiencing serious bleeding while going to the bathroom. After evaluation at our local hospital, and being flown to another nearby, better equipped hospital, they determined that his splenic artery had hemorrhaged, which can happen due to untreated pseudocysts. The bleed was stopped by interventional radiology, and he was driven by ambulance 5 hours away to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He could not be flown because of weather. Our family followed the ambulance, where we have been ever since. Cegan has had three drains put in to drain his pseudocyst and two other new pockets of fluid, and he underwent a debridement procedure of the pseudocyst to remove necrosis. During that procedure, he suffered cardiac arrest, endured chest compressions to resuscitate him and another emergent interventional radiology procedure to stop another new bleed. Once stabilized and confirmed no additional bleeding, they brought him to SICU where he remained on a ventilator, fortunately only until the next morning. At this point, his vitals are stable, and he is being monitored very closely for potential damage to his kidneys. He has a long road ahead.

Our family is doing everything we can to support him, but we are very concerned about his future. Crisis Interventionists like Cegan make such a significant difference to others, but they do not command a large salary. Cegan is resolved to get back to helping others, but he could really use financial help for future medical bills and to bridge him through this terrible setback. Cegan has a very hard time accepting money from others. He has a heart of gold and cares more about the impact this is having on his family and others than anything else. We are setting up this GoFundMe on his behalf, and know that any help will be paid forward by him 10-fold when he goes back to doing what God meant for him to do in life.

All funding will go directly to Cegan outside of the small GoFundMe fee. Cegan will want to directly thank anyone who helps him once he has recovered. If you feel comfortable sharing an email address that he can respond to, he would sincerely appreciate that, but anonymity is certainly respected as well.

With deepest gratitude, we thank you for your prayers and any assistance you might be able to provide Cegan.