Hello, My name is Micah and I am a mother of 5 wonderfully talented, passionate, purposed children.

 

I’m sharing this because I am asking for help for our family and for my son, Lincoln Lively. I also hope that through our story we can help other kids and parents along the way.

 

My son Lincoln is 15. He lives in Sycamore Creek in Corona. On Monday afternoon, 10/4/2021, he was found in his room, barely coherent with blood and vomit everywhere. He was in and out of consciousness.  When he would come to, he was yelling and crying that he was in severe pain, couldn’t feel his legs, and his back and gluteals were severely hurting. In panic we called an ambulance.

Upon arrival, the medics were able to finally give our son an IV and get him stable. His vitals were very weak. When we arrived at the ER they began the process of trying to figure out what was happening to Lincoln’s body and trying to save his life. He was still in and out of consciousness. He was crying, holding onto me saying “Mom I don’t want to die”. He continued cry in pain and fear and  vomit blood.

 

After a barrage of tests and blood work there were no answers. He had lost a lot of blood and the Dr told us there were a lot of concerns, the main being he was in kidney failure and his heart and liver were in shock and not working properly. As we prayed and worked with the Drs more information came to light. We found out Lincoln had been taking street pills laced with Fentanyl and other toxins. We had NO idea. Zero.

 

Once we received this info and told the Doctor, we started down a different avenue of treatment. This treatment saved his life. Dr gave him medication that purges drugs from the body quite quickly. Shortly after receiving that, he was wide awake and yelling in pain. He kept saying he couldn’t feel his legs. One moment he was hugging his dad and I and saying he was sorry and telling us he didn’t want to die, and the next he was angry, shaking, and cold, telling us to get back from him and not to touch him. This was what we now know as withdrawals. My heart was breaking as I watched my son die and there was nothing I could do about it. I held him, we cried, we prayed. I felt rage at the person who sold him these drugs. 

 

The ER Doctor told us he needed to be air lifted to a level 1 trauma center because he was in critical condition.

We asked Lincoln what he took and he said he’d taken nothing. We told him that his life depended on him telling us and he lied repeatedly. My mind was blown. I didn’t know this version of my son. We told him what we found out he had been using and he said it was lies. He finally admitted to taking a Percocet but at this point he was back to being in and out of consciousness.

 

They air lifted him to Loma Linda where they were more equipped to handle his needs. We have been in their PICU since then. The Drs had to sedate Linc and put him on a vent. He was on the ventilator for 5 days. Those days were never ending. To make matters EXTREMELY worse we found out Linc had developed a serious staph infection (Staph Aureus). The doctors told us it has a 90% mortality rate. Nightmare on top of nightmare. They administered the proper antibiotics and miraculously they seemed to help. The pill usage and infection had shut down his kidneys and affected his heart and all other organs. We discovered that he had elevated CK (an enzyme-Creatine Kinase) numbers, meaning he had major muscle damage and his muscles were degenerating and breaking open.  His CK numbers were well over 230,000 with a normal range for a male being around 39-308. They inserted a huge central venous catheter into his internal jugular and began dialysis to keep him alive as his kidneys were not functioning. They are currently still in failure unless given medication to shock them into temporarly working. He still continues dialysis and extreme pain from his kidneys and bladder not functioning. 

Along with major antibiotics Linc had 3 surgeries to remove necrotic tissue/intense swelling from his right leg. This was a result of the staph infection/CK release. One surgical incision goes from his hip to knee and the other is smaller and on the front side of the leg, groin area. They are still extremely painful. On top of all of this, they are finding there is nerve damage in his leg and he can only move his leg from rotating his hip. It is heartbreaking to watch this pain and not to be able to comfort my son and trade places.  His pain medication is removed by the dialysis that keeps him alive so he can find no peace, no comfort. He has been given blood transfusions, ultra sounds of his kidneys, and EKGs of his heart to assess damage and CT scans. We are still waiting for all those results as they are done routinely to assess status.  As you can imagine this has been the hardest time in our families life, and we know this is only the beginning. His father and I are in shifts fluctuating from round the clock hospital stays, working to keep him alive and not in intense pain, to trying to care for the remaining children that miss their brother. We are all just barely hanging on, thankful he is alive, living moment by moment. We are forever grateful for all the love, support and prayers and are continually reminded he is a miracle and is purposed.  This is not how his story ends. 

 

Thank you to each and everyone that has reached out, everyone that has prayed and sent healing life to him and our family. You have been the pillars that have held us up.  We can't even begin to imagine what the hospital bill is going to look like (we do not have insurance) and when he is able, we need to get him into a program to help heal the root cause of why he my son felt the need to self medicate. Our family is struggling and we all would like to seek outside help as well to process and heal this. PLEASE CONTINUE THIS MESSAGE FOR THE LIFE OF MY SON. We are setting up this GoFundMe at the encouragement of many loving friends and family. Thank you for the support and anything you can contribute to help us run this marathon.

 

My son is here because he took pills. He spends most days at Daleo Skate Park. If your son skates at that park please talk to them. If you have teenagers, please talk to them. Please create a frequency of love and understanding so they will share with you their struggles. Struggles with drugs, depression, suicidal thoughts...everything. We didn't know he was struggling with all this, but we know now and we know we have a long road of healing and recovery for our entire family. Thank you for all the help and support.