Marine Family In Need

Sgt. Kevin Jackson joined the Marine Corps in 2008. He attended boot camp at MCRD, San Diego, CA, where he earned the title of Platoon Honor Man for his company. He attended infantry training at Camp Pendleton. Immediately following graduation, Kevin deployed to Iraq. There he served as infantry at the Command Operations Center and continuously volunteered for assignments with the Lt. Col. Upon return from Iraq, his company deployed for operational training in Ukraine, named Operation Seabreeze. While assigned CONUS, he participated in Marine Week Boston and also led the Military Funeral Honors team. Kevin spent 4 years on Active Duty, 2 years Active Reserves, and 2 years inactive duty. Even after his uniformed service, Kevin is still serving. He leads the Toys for Tots program at the county and state level. He is actively serving in the Marine Corps League 707 and has held the top position of Commandant for the last 2 years.

Prior to April of 2024, Kevin had made numerous visits to the VA for sinus issues and finally got a referral to see a specialist where they determined he needed sinus surgery to remedy the issues. They set him up for this surgery in April of 2024. They did an MRI to map his surgery out and they found a 10mm lesion-like mass on his brain. It turned out to be a colloid cyst, and not knowing that at the time was absolutely terrifying.

Further analysis showed that the cyst was on his third ventricle of the brain and obstructing his spinal fluid flow. He was then given a referral to see a neurosurgeon. Because this discovery exceeded the scope of what the VA had approved for rhinitis/sinusitis procedure, a new claim was submitted for approval to have the cyst removed. The VA took 3 months for a follow-up MRI appointment – late July 2024. This MRI showed that the mass had grown 4mm more for a total size of 14mm. After another month and a half of the VA paperwork shuffle, Kevin was approved to see a neurosurgeon – 4 ½ months after discovering the “mass.”

Once Washington University Hospital got the referral, the team worked quickly. Kevin was seen the same day with a nurse practitioner, and we spoke with the neurosurgeon the next day. Surgery was recommended due to the size of the cyst, its growing activity, and that his side effects were getting more debilitating. Kevin was scheduled for surgery the following week.

On Oct. 30, 2024, Kevin had brain surgery, and the cyst was successfully removed. However, our world stopped when he did not wake up from his surgery. He was in a coma. They performed an emergency MRI which showed trauma to his thalamus in 3 different spots (two on the right side and one on the left) due to normal bleeding and swelling from the endoscope used during surgery.

After 2 months, Kevin is slowly coming back to us. During his very short “awake” windows, he is able to follow simple commands (squeeze my hand, wiggle your toes, thumbs up). He has also said around 15-20 words that we have been able to understand, though not consistently. Those words do make sense to the conversation that is going on with or around him. He has one eye he can open halfway and the other is starting to open too.

With the rarity of the colloid cyst and the even more rare trauma that occurred during surgery, the doctors don’t know the extent of lasting damage there will be. The closest thing they can compare it to is a thalamus stroke (but even that is just a guesstimate). In reality, only time will tell. With this type of brain trauma, his road to recovery will be a long one, 8 months to a year. Possibly longer. His progress will be measured in weeks and months, not in days. We will not know if he will ever be the exact same but are hopeful. Our four kids, ages 7, 4, 3, and 15 months, know that daddy is in the hospital with a “brain-ouchy,” and that he will be there for a much longer time than we originally planned.

With Kevin currently completely disabled, he requires around-the-clock care, has to be re-positioned every 2 hours, all things you can imagine; his wife Marie can’t be at his side enough, or work her full-time job and care for their 4 small children. They have received some donations and support from the Marine Corps League and VFW post 2593 thus far, and the VA currently has Kevin at 30% benefit, but it is not enough. Please consider donating to help support Kevin Jackson, Sergeant of Marines, and his family. Thank you very much.