Supporting Wes & family thru his long recovery

Hello, I’m writing this today to seek support for Wes, his wife Wendy and their two kids living at home, both on the spectrum and unable to help financially. Wes and Wendy need support while they navigate their way through a very traumatic medical situation, hospital stay and recovery.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of knowing Wes, either family, friends, coworkers, hanging out at the coffee shop chatting, knows he is talkative, kind, open and willing to always lend a hand anytime kind of guy.

Here is his story:

On Feb 16th, Wes was first admitted to the hospital after he suffered a heart attack including a 100% blockage. After a failed angiogram, where his artery was nicked, causing a pericardial effusion (fluid around the heart), he was then made comfortable to recover and await open heart surgery.

On Feb 28th, he suffered major cardiac arrest. The dedicated medical staff spent well over an hour resuscitating him, and by some miracle, were successful. He was intubated and placed into a medically induced coma to rest for a couple days. They were unsure what his brain activity would look like, once they began to lift sedation as he was under for so long, yet another miracle occurred, and he showed signs of life. Wiggling toes, thumbs up and responsiveness to questions.

On Mar 1st, they extubated him and lifted the sedation. His notorious humor is still loud and clear, and cognitively he looks well. He suffered a minor stroke, which is impeding his right peripheral vision, and his kidneys did take some damage, but otherwise he is doing ok considering the circumstances.

On March 3rd, he had a brief episode of v-tach, and it was decided that surgery was required immediately, or he wouldn’t live to see the end of the day. Within the hour, family was giving him love and saying see you when you wake up. The surgery was successful, and they completed two bypasses. He has a long road to recovery and still needs a pacemaker/defibrillator placed, as well as, months of all kinds of therapy.

As of today, he is still currently in the hospital, with his wife Wendy and his daughter, who flew in from east coast, Emory by his side, living on the premises of hospital. He has been receiving dialysis and waiting for an infection to heal before they can go ahead with the next surgery.

Financial hardship is one of the toughest things for anyone to battle mentally, let alone after a traumatic and life-altering event. Wes, who is the primary financial provider for his family, is feeling the stress that comes along with financial worry. Wendy is off work to be by his side, so we are hoping she can stay off work to be there to his long recovery.

I’m hoping that we can gather a village willing to help just a little bit, whether financially or simply by sending positive, healing thoughts. Wes has imparted so much joy and laughter into so many lives, and I am hoping he will be able to see just how much he means to his community of people.

If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you kindly for taking your time to hear about the long journey Wes has taken to get to this point, recovering and thankfully, alive.