Support Shelly's Family After Sudden Passing

My name is Susan. I started this GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses for my sister-in-law.

On Sunday, June 22th, Shelly came over to have coffee and chat. We live across the street from each other. About 15 or 20 minutes went by, and she said she was having pain in her back. She left to go home and lay down. About 15 minutes later, my nephew called and said his mom had back and stomach pain. I said, "Call 911." I went over and finished with the 911 call. They came and took her to Dubois Hospital. Her vitals were fine, or they would have gone closer.

We received a call later stating she needed to be life-flighted to Pittsburgh for what we thought was a ruptured hernia. My other sister-in-law and I raced to Pittsburgh to find out they couldn't get a helicopter there to transport. So we waited hours, only to find out she was being brought by ambulance. When she got there, they took her back for emergency surgery. That was the last time we were able to speak to her.

After her surgery, we were told she had a tear in her small intestine, which they repaired, but by then sepsis was filling her body. They moved her to ICU where they told us she was left open because she would need more surgery to put everything back together and wanted to let her rest so her body wouldn't be under so much stress.

Now it is the 23rd. It had been 18 hours. We needed to go home and rest. On the 24th, we headed back down to Pittsburgh as we were told they had to do emergency surgery again because she was filling with more sepsis and needed to find where it was coming from. They did that surgery bedside in the ICU. They found that part of her colon died and removed part of it to stop the sepsis from getting any worse. Also, some of her stomach skin had also died. They were giving her the highest dose they could to keep her blood pressure up because it was so low.

We stayed until about 5 and headed home. At 10 pm, we got the dreaded call that we needed to come back because they were doing all they could, and she was declining. It was time to call the family to say our goodbyes. We all drove back down, including her 14-year-old son, and said our goodbyes as she took her final breath on the 25th at 3:09 am.

We are a modest family. The cost of a funeral is far above our means. We are asking for help at this time to lay her to rest. Prayers for strength are also welcomed. This is a 3-day period of complete loss of words and devastating heartbreak. Shelly is 45 with a 14-year-old son. She is so kind to everyone, doing everything she can to help. She is a wonderful mom and amazing friend. She is more than a sister-in-law; she is my sister in heart.