Support for My Brother’s Health Crisis

Update:

3/19 8:30 am

Jorge had another seizure and is hospitalized again. 3/20 3:40pm Hasn’t regained consciousness yet.

It started on Sunday 3/16 with tremors, trembling, and a loss of appetite. By Monday 3/17, his symptoms had worsened, so we decided to bring him in early rather than waiting until he became immobile and needing EMS again.

This time around we brought him in to UT Southwestern in Dallas, which has a highly regarded neurology team and is a Level 4 epilepsy center—the highest designation by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. We feel Texas Harris didn’t take his condition seriously enough, but we’re hopeful he’ll get the care he needs here.

When we arrived, they noted he was showing pre-seizure symptoms despite being on his medication. His blood pressure was high, but his other vitals were stable. Given his condition, they didn’t feel comfortable releasing him and decided to keep him for monitoring as his symptoms continued to worsen.

This morning (3/19) at 8 AM, while getting him up for a shower, he had another bad seizure. Thankfully he was already at the hospital and they were able to witness it and get him to ICU immediately. This seizure occurred despite him being on seizure medication through IV at the hospital. This time, he couldn’t breathe on his own and was choking on his saliva, so they had to intubate him.

Original:

On Thursday, 2/27, my dog alerted me that something was wrong in my brother's room. I walked in and found him convulsing and seizing face down on the bed, struggling to breathe. At the time, I didn’t know what was going on since he’s never had a seizure, and no one in our family has a history. I thought he was overdosing. I was terrified.

EMS and fire showed up, he was rushed to the ER. They ran all kinds of tests and found nothing. Drug, diabetes, all the normal seizure triggers were negative. Since his seizure went on for way longer than normal, he got admitted to NEURO ICU. He was completely unconscious after the seizures. It took him a little over a day to open his eyes, but he still wasn’t responsive or alert. We thought he had brain damage due to how long he seized. But he slowly started getting better. They didn’t find out what the cause was as so many things can trigger seizures.

He was discharged on Sunday, 3/2, even though he was still not able to walk on his own, but they saw he was alert and able to eat and talk, so they thought he was better. After he was discharged, instead of seeing improvement, we saw a decline in his recovery. By Tuesday, 3/4, he was awake but was unable to get up, move, or make any sort of movement with his body that required any bit of strength, or even talk without his voice trembling. We called EMS and fire to check his vitals and to help us get him downstairs and to the hospital. When they got there, he had another horrible seizure, despite the fact that he was on strong seizure medication. This time the seizure was worse, and he was in pain and bit his tongue, which put him completely out. The kids saw everything both times, so they’re shaken up. So from Tuesday, 3/4, at 6 pm, he didn’t wake up until Friday, 3/7, at 2 pm. Even after he opened his eyes, he still was unable to talk or walk or move too much other than his hands and arms or even eat. He had a feeding tube in at this point. They think it’s an autoimmune disease that’s causing inflammation but are not sure since we’re waiting on so many tests still. He wasn’t completely alert until Sunday, 3/9. He was finally discharged on 3/11. He won’t be able to drive for 3 months (against the law after having a seizure), and due to him being on strong seizure medication and still needing assistance with some things, my mom is at home taking care of him. We all were out of work during all of this. He’s a healthy person, fit, eats healthy, no prior health issues, and a good person with a good heart. So we are struggling to understand why this happened.

This fund isn’t a matter of life or death but something came along that we were not prepared for and anything helps. Especially for my brother and mom who won’t be able to return to work for a while. Hospital bills and follow-up appointments with him having no insurance are the main reason. There is no goal; I just typed what the website recommended.