Support Kathy Mifflin's Medical and Funeral Costs

Hey everyone!

My siblings and I are starting this fundraiser on behalf of our mom, Kathy Mifflin. Many of you who know Kathy know that she is a fighter to her core, she loves her family and will protect them at any cost. Which is why now that she is fighting to regain her strength and recover from this horrible medical journey, we’ve decided to start this gofundme to help ease the financial burden so her and my dad can focus on total healing.

To give a full backstory-

Mom noticed she was having shortness of breath on July 23rd and went to the hospital for further evaluation. In the ER they found she had fluid on her lungs and had double pneumonia as well. They decided to admit her for the night to keep her on oxygen and get her started on some antibiotics. During the work up they noticed some of her labs were off and (thank God) decided to do some more digging. They eventually found that she had 3 major blocked arteries and needed emergency triple bypass surgery.

They sent her via ambulance from Farmington, Missouri out to St. Louis, Missouri where they prepped her for surgery the next day. What’s shocking is she really had no symptoms leading up to this, other than the shortness of breath. None of us ever expected her to have major heart issues…the woman never even had as much as high blood pressure! It’s by the grace of God that they decided to look further into her diagnosis which is the only reason they found the heart blockage.

2 of her arteries were blocked by 90% and 1 artery was blocked at 100% which was the artery they call the “widow maker”. They took her back for what they thought would be a typical open heart surgery but it quickly turned into a complicated procedure that would cause my mom’s heart to stop twice on the table. The arteries weren’t working even after they were grafted and they couldn’t figure out why. We knew something was wrong when her number on the surgery board was ‘in progress’ way after her projected surgery time. After what felt like an eternity they came out and said as they were bringing her back from the OR she was tanking and was being rushed back to put her on ECMO. It was the only option to save her life.

The doctor decided to do a Hail Mary and try placing a stent in the artery and, against all odds, it worked. They told us that we were thick in the woods and mom was incredibly critical (I believe the words they used was “sickest patient in the hospital) and they weren’t even sure she’d make it through the night but we kept our spirits as high as we could and we prayed. We reached out to everyone we knew to pray, send good vibes, we needed it all.

After a few days of being on ECMO she was stable enough to go back into the OR, yet again, and have an Impella heart pump placed. This would help take some strain off of her heart while she was on ECMO so her body could start to heal internally. During this time she had a ton of bleeding going on, unstable labs and was generally not doing so well. But our family kept the faith. That’s what mom would want us to do.

A week went by and mom was slowly improving every day. As the doctors grew more hopeful in her outcome, so did we. She was at least still alive and that was enough for now. We stayed by her bedside talking to her, telling jokes, playing her favorite music and creating a happy environment while she slept.

It’s been about a month now and the progress mom has made has been outstanding. She still has a HUGE uphill battle to regain any sort of normalcy but at least she has a shot at it now. She is almost weaned off her trach and the ventilator and she spends a lot of her days sitting up in the chair!

We’re looking at a few more days in ICU and then hopefully moving down to the PCU where she will focus on some rehabilitation before fully moving to the rehab unit where she will likely stay for a few weeks to a few months.

I think we’re finally “out of the woods” but we are nowhere near the end. After a very rough estimate- 4 surgeries, 7 days on ECMO and 3 weeks in the ICU (plus the many MANY units of blood she received along with all of the critical care she needed) it’s looking like this stint of the hospital stay will be closer to $1M and this doesn’t factor in any rehab or after care costs.

If you want to donate to mom’s cause you can do so via this gofundme or you can reach out to donate directly. All funds raised will go directly to mom’s medical care.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. I’ve been in medical care for the majority of my working career and I’ve spent time working on the very unit mom is in right now and I must say, it’s terrifying being on the other side of the bed. All we want is for mom to regain the life she once had and anything donated will surely help her be able to do just that.

If you are unable to financially donate but want to show support I’m sure she would love some encouragement via cards, Facebook, texts etc. She has no idea we started this campaign but I know this will bless her tremendously.

Thanks so much for reading! We will continue to post updates here as mom’s journey progresses.