The Ponos Family Needs our Help

One of our most wonderful Scotts Valley families, the Ponos Family (Dennis, Laurie, Michelle, and Trevor), is in need of our help. Dennis Ponos is currently in the hospital at UCSF after multiple surgeries and my hope is that our community can offer them the support they need to stay in San Francisco to help him recover without the stress of the expenses that requires. Laurie Ponos is one of the most generous and wonderful people I am privileged to call my friend and I can’t think of any family that I want to help more. Any support would mean the world to the family during this incredibly challenging time. Any donation, big or small, will go directly towards covering medical bills, expenses due to the family needing to stay in San Francisco, and other essential needs. If you prefer Venmo over Go Fund Me, Laurie’s Venmo is @Laurie-Ponos.

The following is from Michelle (Ponos) Fortino:

My dad, Dennis, was taken to the Dominican ER on Wednesday night, 4/10, around 8pm. We thought he had swallowed something that went down the wrong pipe. After several tests, we found out around 1am that his esophagus ruptured, which is very uncommon. The surgery to fix this is only done by specific cardiothoracic surgeons at specific hospitals, which Dominican does not have and must be done quickly. The ER spent all of Thursday calling every hospital between here and Sacramento with this type of surgeon to look for openings so he could be transferred. It was a rollercoaster of a day with multiple hospitals saying they would take him and then actually not having a bed for him. It was extremely frustrating and concerning knowing that he was running out of time. Finally, in the evening on Thursday, UCSF confirmed that UCSF had a bed ready for him and after several tests and examinations, they were able to start surgery around 12:45am. We were told that this is one of the worst things that could happen to a person’s GI tract, especially noting where the rupture was.

We (myself, my mom, my brother and my husband) “slept” in the waiting room as we waited. We got a call at 3am that the surgery went smoothly and got to see him early Friday morning, but he was sedated. On Friday afternoon, they determined he needed a second procedure to drain more fluids, which also went smoothly.

Fast forward to Saturday morning (today, as I’m writing this), he is only slightly sedated, but still has his breathing tube in. They will not remove it until they are certain he does not need any more procedures. We are hoping they can take it out today, but it is possible it could stay in for up to another week. He is feeling frustrated since communication is so difficult with the tube in.

We are told that this is a long road with many unknowns ahead of us. All we can do for now is hope and pray that everything from here on out continues to go just as smoothly and that my dad can stay calm and comfortable.

We thank all our friends and family and community for the love and support we are receiving.

Sincerely, Michelle