Celebrate The Life Of Parker Coats

Update: 

Parker passed on July 2nd at 7:41am. He fought so hard over the last month. We cherish all of the prayers and support that we have been given. We love Parker more than anything ask for further support in these trying times. Any donations for his funeral costs are appreciated. We will update again with his funeral arrangements once we know more. 

Hi, My name is Malaina Coats. My sister, Paige Ayers and I are starting this go fund me for our parents who are experiencing a nightmare no parent should go through.

On Thursday June 6th around 7:25, our 15 year old brother, Parker, was found in cardiac arrest in his bedroom. Once EMS arrived, they continued compressions and other measures to start his heart. Parker was taken to Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin. Once they were able to get his heart started, they made the decision to life flight him to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. They were able to stabilize him, although he was and is still in very critical condition. Over the next week, his team in the PICU focused on stabilizing him further while also looking for causes. They still do not know what caused it. After several days of ups and downs, they decided to start him on a PLEX treatment to “clean” his blood of any excess fluid and antibodies. They are looking into his genetics to see if there is an underlying issue that may have caused all of this. They are also concerned about some autoimmune diseases that he may be suffering from. His heart function has improved from a 14 when he first arrived to 48 now. A normal person’s heart functions at around 55, so he has made great strides with his heart. They have found two blood clots in his left leg, one in his right arm, and one in his neck. They were unable to put him on heparin at first because of continuing bleeding in his lungs. They decided on Monday to place him on Veno-venous ECMO, which is a lung bypass, to allow his lungs time to rest and heal as they were not getting better with time. This has allowed him to be on heparin to prevent any further blood clots.

Thank you for everyone’s thoughts, prayers, love and support for Parker and our family. Our parents are both taking time off from work to be at Parker’s bedside. He has good insurance, but we do not know what to expect in terms of medical bills for something like this. If you have and want to give, it is greatly appreciated. #ParkerStrong

Update: Parker has been on ECMO for two weeks now. These weeks have felt like a roller coaster, which many doctors have said is common when it comes to children in the ICU. His heart function is almost at a normal level, but he is still in very critical condition due to the state of his lungs. He had pneumothoraces in both lungs. They put in multiple chest tubes to drain any excess air and fluid. The chest tubes have been successful in getting out blood and air. Now, his pneumothoraces are almost gone and his lungs have expanded. However, his lungs are still extremely sick. His team is not sure why his lungs are not healing. Also, we still do not know exactly what neurological damage Parker has. They want to wean him off of his paralytic and sedation medications to attempt to see where his brain is at. When he wakes up he tends to cough some, which causes more problems in his lungs. They are giving a lidocaine treatment to try and reduce the coughing. Hopefully, it works. We still appreciate any donation immensely. We also ask that you keep Parker and our family in your thoughts. We still have hope that he can get better. He is fighting so hard and he has so many people in his corner.