For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Stefanie Vining but I also go by Stevie. In November 2020, dealing with a worldwide pandemic, my brother Skyler started feeling pretty ill and thought he was maybe having covid-19 symptoms. Unfortunately after going to the hospital, he was told to go to the ER and was admitted right away. They diagnosed him with congestive heart failure and since then it’s been a downward path of health problems. He had been in and out of the hospital, finding 3 blood clots on his left ventricle and sludge in his gallbladder. They wanted to perform surgery to remove the sludge but wasn’t able to because he wouldn’t have survived the surgery. A couple months later, after being on blood thinners and medications, the blood clots went away but we found out his kidneys were starting to fail. Later on he was having liver issues and developed jaundice, along with major fluid buildup throughout his entire body, causing intense amounts of pain.

He was admitted back into the hospital April 27th,  which is why my family and I need everyone’s support and help. He was put on an impella device that helped him pump blood through his body because his heart wasn’t able to pump enough on its own. He was taken off of it with signs of improvement.  Thursday  May 7th I was informed that he “crashed” during the night and had an emergency surgery being put on an ECMO device which saved his life. He has currently been on this device keeping him alive, pumping blood throughout his body since his heart is too weak to do it on its own.  Unfortunately he can’t stay on this device for long and needs to be approved for a LVAD(left ventricle assistance device), with hopes of receiving a heart transplant. In order to be approved for the LVAD, he has to have two caregivers, a primary and a secondary. The primary moving in with him, being 24/7 care and the secondary helping relieve the primary when needed. If he is not approved for the LVAD, he will move to palliative/hospice care, which will keep him comfotable until he passes on. This has been a really difficult situation for my family, with my mom being handicapped from a stroke 3 years ago leaving her in an assisted living home, my dad passing away from lung cancer while Skyler and I were in our teens, which leaves me being Skylers only sibling and immediate family member. My brother Skyler is only 31 years of age and deserves a second chance at life. We’ve had an amazing amount of help from sky’s really close friend taking care of him since he first became ill, and now two of skylers friends being asked and accepting to help be caregivers. We’ve also had a ton of verbal support from family and friends throughout this difficult time.   

With all this being said, my family needs help with medical expenses ie:caregiver compensation, living expenses, anything not covered by insurance, medicine, etc. If you’re able to donate, any amount matters. If you’re not able to donate financially, my family and I absolutely understand but would appreciate the support of spreading this go fund me throughout the community and to anyone you know capable of donating. 

 

With love from the Vining’s and Skyler’s squad❤️