If you know my mom, you know she is a vibrant, joyful woman, full of energy who cares deeply for and is always looking for ways to help others. She’s a staple in mine and my daughter’s lives and we’d be lost without her. To see her reduced to a hospital bed- a shell of her former self, connected to all sorts of tubes and bags was heartbreaking. $150 dollars a day to keep her alive for well over 5 months. The antibiotics saved her, but they also broke the bank. We’d be grateful for any help. Please show some love to my mom who has been through so much.

I’m Lindsay Scherbarth and I’m raising money for my mom, Terry Rohlfes. For those of you that don’t know the story, I’ll go into it. About a year ago we celebrated our Christmas a week late bc I had COVID during Christmas. Instead of sitting down with us for dessert or to play games like we usually do, she excused herself to go to bed, doubled over in digestive pain. As it turns out, she had a gallstone blocking her common bile duct and desperately needed her gallbladder removed.

Several weeks later she had a procedure to remove the gallstone blocking her duct. She developed severe pancreatitis. She was in an out of consciousness for days, but she finally improved enough for them to go in and remove her gallbladder. Afterwards, the doctor described the surgery saying, “it looked like a bomb went off on in there” (as her pancreas was just spewing fluids) a phrase that did not instill much confidence in us. However after a few days in the hospital she had improved enough to go home.

At home, what should have been a few weeks of recovery turned into months and she was getting worse and worse instead of better. We didn’t know it at the time, but during one of those procedures, the doctors had inadvertently punctured a hole in her digestive system, and her stomach/intestine contents were leaking out internally.

Her body formed abscesses around the digestive contents, but all of this eventually lead to Sepsis. For those of you that don’t know what Sepsis is, Sepsis is a bacterial blood infection that slowly takes over each organ until you go into septic shock, and organ failure. Pub med says, “abdominal sepsis exhibits the highest mortality rate with 72%. The long-term prognosis is equally poor; only approximately 30% survived the first year after hospital admission.” So we are very very lucky my mom is alive and thriving now.

In the hospital, back home, to the ER, in the hospital, back home, to the ER, to the ICU, back home, to the ER, back home. This was what life was like for my mom for over six months. We counted over 5 hospital stays, not including the ER visits. The time she was in the ICU was the scariest. We didn’t know if she would make it. She had 3 different blood infections and 3 different antibiotics, a blood transfusion, an injection of white blood cells a nutrition replacement and all kinds of nutrients. Somewhere between hospital visits my mom had a PICC Line put in so she could receive her antibiotics at home. This was a godsend because my mom was so much more comfortable at home. Alas, $150 a day for meds, plus all the hospital stays and procedures adds up quickly.

From the bottom of my heart I want to express how grateful I am for all of your prayers and well-wishes. At the end of the day, we’re just happy that my mom is alive. Almost a year later and my mom is infection-free, abscess-free, she has slowly been regaining all of her weight, and healing from the secondary side-effects.

After all of this, my mom’s insurance only paid 50% leaving my mom with over $25,000 in leftover medical bills. I’m asking for your help again, but in a logistical way. If it were up to my mom she would never ask anyone for help in this way-so I’m sending this out without her permission. Hopefully, she won’t be too mad.