Ann went to ER in Mountain Home, Arkansas, on 1/4/25 with a terrible cough and flu symptoms. She was quickly diagnosed with bad pneumonia. A short while later, her body began to show signs of organ failure due to her low oxygen dilution in her blood with her advanced lung damage due to pneumonia. It appeared that Ann was going into liver and kidney failure, so the hospital took swift action by putting her on a ventilator to increase her body's chances to distribute oxygen properly. Sadly, her body was not improving so an emergency transfer team from the ECMO unit at Baptist Health of Little Rock came to transfer her 3 hours away from home. At the critical care ECMO unit, she was sedated, on a ventilator, and put on dialysis. Ann was sedated for 8 days before they were able to start waking her up. She is in the early stages of recovery and she is beginning to wake up. They were able to remove the lung ECMO 1/14/25 and her ventilator 1/15/15, so we expect her to be able to communicate soon.

Without the life support that is ECMO, we wouldn’t have Ann with us and she has a long road ahead her. Please join us on this journey to wrap some love and support around her husband, George, and their boys Hunter, Colton, and Landen.

Our sister, Angie, flew out to be with George, Ann's husband, for the initial week that she was in the hospital. We are faced with renting hotels because we do not have any contacts in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the immediate future is a bit uncertain. Her sisters, Angie and Wendy, are located in Los Angeles. Ann and George's boys (Hunter, Colton, and Landen) are located in Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. Ann needs constant supervision and we expect her to be in the hospital for several months. The financial burden of trying to keep George close to the hospital is overwhelming in addition to the loss of Ann's income. Mountain Home is approximately a 3 hour drive from Little Rock, so the prospect of driving everyday is too hard. We are researching longer term housing and would like her kids to be able to fly out to visit her. The funds will be used to address the immediate financial burden of housing and give some relief to George to deal with the unexpected expenses.