My name is Cara Smith and I'm asking if you could help my best friend, Krista Olson. On Feb 24, she underwent surgery to have a simple knee replacement. By March 17, she was back in surgery as she had contracted Staph, which turned into MRSA. The surgeons did what they call a washout, and she was sent to Sturgis on swing bed status for 6 weeks of IV antibiotics. She was sent home on May 5, supposedly with a clean bill of health, but by May 19, she was again full of infection. They tried using a wound vac and oral antibiotics, which did more harm than good as the wound vac leaked onto the skin, causing the skin to bubble and burn from the poisonous infection. Her original surgeon referred her to a specialist who was very concerned with this injured skin, causing a prolonged wait before any kind of surgical intervention because of the condition the skin was in. His fear was it would not heal properly due to having 3 surgeries in the original incision and having compromised skin on top of that. So, on June 18, she had another washout surgery, but this time they took out the artificial knee and replaced it with an antibiotic spacer. Again, she was sent to Sturgis for 6 weeks of IV antibiotics, but 2 weeks in, she had another infection explosion that got her sent back to her surgeon in Rapid. The surgical team decided to go back in, and once they got in there, they found much more infection than they thought possible and ended up replacing the first antibiotic spacer with a larger one accompanied by 4 steel rods to keep her from bending the knee. She is still not out of the woods as she will still need the knee replacement hardware put in after having 2 knee aspirations that are MRSA-free before they can proceed.

I am asking for any little thing you could help her out with as she has not worked since Feb 22 and her expenses are adding up. She has insurance, but rent, car payments, and car insurance have exhausted the little savings she had.

Donations can be sent to: 590 Spruce St #103, Rapid City, SD 57701

Or sent to the account set up specifically for any donations:

Routing #125109006

Account #10954139691

Thank you for taking the time to read this and also for any donations you may have given.

Cara Smith