Support Team Asher!

Asher has been in the hospital since 03/07/24. He came down with the flu and that progressed into pneumonia, Respiratory Acidosis, and Acute Hypoxic Respiratory Failure. He was admitted to PICU at the UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento. This time he needed to be put on a ventilator, and countless medications.

The virus hit him so hard that he had something called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) which is a life-threatening, hyper-inflammatory disorder. The disease is characterized by dysregulated immune activity resulting in malignant inflammation and multi-organ failure. (It’s also almost impossible to pronounce) Luckily he overcame the HLH.

Asher is back to acting like his smiley self, despite still having an ET tube down his throat. After being on the ventilator for over 6weeks he still isn’t able to breathe on his own enough to be taken off of the ventilator. They’re saying he has Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, and Restrictive Lung Disease. Remaining on the ventilator poses further risks and options are becoming limited. A tracheostomy is being scheduled and we should be able to bring him home in 3-4 weeks post op. This will require 24hr care and supervision, even once we bring him home. We will be learning all about his trach tube and how to care for it over the next few weeks. Andrea is going to continue to be Asher’s primary caregiver while Dan works full time. Asher will now qualify for in home nursing care and we’re hoping we get connected to that quickly and easily.

His medical expenses are covered by insurance however this situation is still making things hard for our family financially. While Asher is in the hospital he is ineligible to receive in home care, which means Andrea’s job will not pay her for his care even if she spends the majority of her time including overnights at his bedside. Luckily one of us is almost always able to be with Asher in his hospital room. Andrea being Asher’s primary caregiver provides our family with much needed monthly income, and not having that is making it harder and harder to keep up on our normal expenses, as well as unexpected expenses that come along with weeks to months in the hospital. 

A big thanks to everyone that has been helping us along the way. I will update this page once we get him home.