Thom Buskirk's Medical Expense Fund

**Update**- My dad passed away peacefully
today 2/24. He fought as hard and long as he could. He will be greatly missed. 

As most of you may know, we found out in October that my dad was diagnosed with small cell extensive lung cancer. They started him on chemo and radiation soon after and things were going pretty good. 

Fast forward to January 6th and things started going downhill a bit. He was in a lot of pain and his coloring was off- so the doctors suggested he come in. He was brought into the hospital and they found his hemoglobin numbers were pretty low and was given a blood transfusion. He went in about 4 different times to receive new blood because his body could not keep the numbers where they needed to be. I got a text from my mom on January 25th that my dad was brought into the ER and was admitted to the ICU with an infection that was taking over his body. They ran tons of tests and couldn't figure out what was going on so they gave him a broad antibiotic that they hoped would help. During the course of that week, his body started slowly shutting down. They started him on Dialysis for his kidneys and had to drain fluid from around his heart. His blood pressure was super high and he was on a couple medications to try and regulate that as well. 

His body slowly started to get better over the course of the next couple weeks, but the blood flow to his feet got cut off and turned both of his feet black. They found out he had a blockage that needed to be cleared out once he was strong enough to undergo surgery but were afraid he would not make it through since his body was having lots of ups and downs. They ended up doing the surgery on  February 4th and it ended up being a success. He started getting some coloring back into his feet and was time to start the recovery process. 

They transferred my dad to a rehab facility in Minneapolis on Feb 11th to try and regain his strength  and figure out how to walk on his feet again after all the trauma his body and feet have been through.  All seemed to be going well until i got a call from my mom on Feb 20th that my dad was brought back to Abbot and admitted into the ICU again with troubles breathing and was retaining water. It was back to running tests to figure out what was going on. It turns out they think the infection is related to the issues and dead tissue in his feet. He is back on oxygen and antibiotics but his body is slowly starting to shut down again. They are giving him pain medicine and trying to keep him comfortable at this point, but we don't know what will happen next and if his body will pull through again.  If he pulls through and they get this infection under control like last time, they will have to amputate both of this legs. We also found out that since they will have to amputate, he cannot continue cancer treatments either. I will keep everyone posted once we know more.


As you can imagine, the rehab treatment and hospital stays are expensive, and my parents could use all of the financial support they can get. My mom has taken FMLA time off from work to be with my dad and i want to be able to take some off this stress off her plate. Your generosity can help lighten the load, so that they can focus on recovery. Your kind donation will go directly to Judy & Thom Buskirk to help deal with the financial repercussions of his current condition, so they can focus on healing and supporting one another.