Hello,

My name is Sam Meszaros, and I’m creating this fundraiser campaign on behalf of my aunt, Patty Borden, who recently had some very scary and unexpected medical emergencies and is in need of a little help at this time.

For those who don’t know, my aunt Patty has been in and out of the hospital since May 26th. On that day she visited the emergency room thinking she was experiencing a diverticulitis flare up, which ended up being worse than that. One of the diverticula opened up and created a 3cm abscess in her intestines, resulting in her having a hospital stay to drain the infected fluid and to receive IV fluids to treat the infection. She was later discharged on May 30th with medication to keep the infection in check.

On June 5th she made another trip to the hospital to have the drain repositioned because the abscess was not draining properly. A short time later on June 15th she was transported by ambulance to the ER again experiencing excruciating pain in both her abdomen and in her back on the right side (more on this later…). This resulted in another brief hospital stay.

One June 17th Patty returned home, but after a nap she woke up in so much pain that she could hardly move, and needed to be brought back immediately to the ER by my mom and was readmitted to the hospital that same day.

Due to negligible oversight and misdiagnoses over the course of these multiple hospital visits, she ended up needing emergency surgery on June 18th to repair a perforation in her bowel, which caused her to develop sepsis. She currently has a temporary colostomy bag. While performing the surgery, they found that her intestines had also adhered to her bladder. When trying to separate them, a tear resulted, causing her to need stitches in her bladder.

In addition to this emergency procedure, hospital staff finally looked into what was causing her back pain, and found that she had 500 ml of fluid in her right lung, and more fluid around her liver and under her diaphragm.

In total, my aunt had to have three separate drains put in, two of which needed constant repositioning to drain properly (which has been very uncomfortable for her).

On July 9th, Patty was finally released to rehab, where she spent 11 days before finally being able to return home on July 20th.

She still has one drain left to be removed. In about three months or so she will be reevaluated and hopefully will be able to have surgery to remove the colostomy bag and reconnect her bowels. This will result in more unpaid time off of work and additional medical bills (she has yet to receive the bills from her most recent stays).

Patty is waiting for her short term disability to activate while paperwork is being resolved and will be going back to work the second week of August, but with the extent of the treatment she needed she anticipates that she will run out of funds by the end of August.

For those who know my Aunt Patty, she is a very hard worker who takes pride in being self-sufficient, so it’s saying a lot for her to reach out for support. She also wanted me to share that she is very grateful for her family who has supported her during this difficult time, especially her sister (Tammy).

If you have the ability to help monetarily (every little bit counts!) and/or by sharing her fundraiser with those you know, we would all be very grateful. These funds will be used to help pay off medical bills and to provide basic needs while she is unable to work, such as food, rent, utilities, etc.

Thank you for taking the time to read her story and to share.

With gratitude,

Sam (her niece)