Support for Jim Peters
Donation protected
On Wednesday, October 7th, Jim was having difficulty breathing. After calling the Covid hotline the morning of October 8, 2020, the nurse on the line was concerned about his oxygen level potentially being low, so they were sent directly to the ER.
Julie was not allowed in with Jim so she stuck around for about an hour and then went home. She talked to Jim a while later and he was doing okay, stating they were running a bunch of tests.
Around noon that same day, she received a phone call stating that Jim was not reacting to a high dose of medication they were giving him and they were going to have to intubate him. Shortly after that, she received another call stating they were going to air-lift him to Rochester. He has been in the ICU at Mayo-St. Mary's Hospital since.
After several tests, (including two Covid tests that came back negative) it was found that Jim did/does have pneumonia (Julie said he had been having issues for almost a month, not realizing it was pneumonia, so it was not something that just happened). They also found that his heart is enlarged and one of his heart ventricles is only pumping out at 24% rather than the 65% it should be pumping.
On Saturday night, Jim's blood pressure dropped and they could not get it back up so they asked Julie for permission to put a central line in his neck so they could add another medication to help bring it back up. They also did more tests at that time.
Sunday, October 11th a medical team replaced the line from the previous night and put a "Swan-Line" in his neck. A Swan-Line monitors the hearts function,
blood flow and pressures in and around the heart. They also ran more tests!
As of today, October 12th, Jim remains on life support, in Rochester. The good news is he woke up long enough this morning to wiggle his toes and squeeze some hands. He again had to be sedated as his body "wasn't happy with that" as he is hooked up to many tubes and connections. He is off his blood pressure medication for now and they put him on an Ace inhibitor for his heart. He still has a breathing tube but had a short time of breathing on his own before the machine kicked in again.
There are firm visiting rules and visiting hours set at Mayo. Julie is the only person allowed to be in with Jim so she makes the drive to Rochester each day. The good and bad news is that Julie was recently let go at work as her position was eliminated. Good because it allows her to not miss work while she makes the daily trip to Rochester but bad because she is unable to even look for work with this going on. While Jim does have insurance, the medical bills will start coming in and the daily trips to Rochester are an unplanned expense on the family budget.
Julie was not allowed in with Jim so she stuck around for about an hour and then went home. She talked to Jim a while later and he was doing okay, stating they were running a bunch of tests.
Around noon that same day, she received a phone call stating that Jim was not reacting to a high dose of medication they were giving him and they were going to have to intubate him. Shortly after that, she received another call stating they were going to air-lift him to Rochester. He has been in the ICU at Mayo-St. Mary's Hospital since.
After several tests, (including two Covid tests that came back negative) it was found that Jim did/does have pneumonia (Julie said he had been having issues for almost a month, not realizing it was pneumonia, so it was not something that just happened). They also found that his heart is enlarged and one of his heart ventricles is only pumping out at 24% rather than the 65% it should be pumping.
On Saturday night, Jim's blood pressure dropped and they could not get it back up so they asked Julie for permission to put a central line in his neck so they could add another medication to help bring it back up. They also did more tests at that time.
Sunday, October 11th a medical team replaced the line from the previous night and put a "Swan-Line" in his neck. A Swan-Line monitors the hearts function,
blood flow and pressures in and around the heart. They also ran more tests!
As of today, October 12th, Jim remains on life support, in Rochester. The good news is he woke up long enough this morning to wiggle his toes and squeeze some hands. He again had to be sedated as his body "wasn't happy with that" as he is hooked up to many tubes and connections. He is off his blood pressure medication for now and they put him on an Ace inhibitor for his heart. He still has a breathing tube but had a short time of breathing on his own before the machine kicked in again.
There are firm visiting rules and visiting hours set at Mayo. Julie is the only person allowed to be in with Jim so she makes the drive to Rochester each day. The good and bad news is that Julie was recently let go at work as her position was eliminated. Good because it allows her to not miss work while she makes the daily trip to Rochester but bad because she is unable to even look for work with this going on. While Jim does have insurance, the medical bills will start coming in and the daily trips to Rochester are an unplanned expense on the family budget.
Organizer and beneficiary
Gary Tollefson
Organizer
St. Peter, MN
Juliette Peters
Beneficiary