Tommy’s Journey, Cardiac arrest survivor!

Hi I am the daughter of Gemma Franzmann and on the 5th January 2025 her husband, our beloved step dad Tommy suffered a cardiac arrest at home, we were told Tommy would never walk or talk again after being in a medically induced coma for 24 days with a hypoxic brain injury.

Tommy proved them wrong and was on the road to recovery however on the 13th March 2025 after having a PEG fitted, we discovered that the operation didn’t go as planned and his bowel had burst so he had life saving surgery and almost died in theatre for a 2nd time. We were then told to prepare for the worst and that he was unlikely to make it a second time around as he was completely septic but he beat all odds and he has come back quicker and stronger!

Tommy is such a strong proud man and he has overcome so much in 18 long weeks, beating an out of hospital cardiac arrest, pneumonia and sepsis twice.

As a family we will never give up on Tommy and he is living proof that anything is possible. He WILL WALK AGAIN!

We are 18 weeks into our journey and we are waiting for his next move to a rehabilitation centre to progress onto the next stage of his recovery and with this brings challenges which is why we are asking for your help, lots of people have reached out through Facebook and tiktok to say they would like to donate to Tommy’s recovery when considering all his future needs. Our dearest friends and family want to raise money to support with his growing needs.

Our first thought is that he will need some teeth as he has started eating, purée at the minute but the health professionals have said to advance to eating proper food and everyone that knows Tommy will know he was such a foodie! So he will need support to cover the cost of implants and then perhaps a contribution towards having their family home adapted so that he can come home quicker and safely because the rehabilitation centre has a 12 month maximum stay and we all want him home with mum and his fur babies.

At the minute Tommy is on enhanced support at our local hospital meaning he requires hoist assistance to get from the bed to the chair and to the adapted wheelchair but my mum Gemma is with him day and night stimulating his brain and helping his progress cognitively.

Tommy is such a proud man and worked as a self employed gas engineer and a trade carpenter. He had and still does have the biggest heart, he would always go above and beyond for others and he is so thankful as is my beautiful mum that people want to help them and us as a family get our Tommy back home so please do not feel you have too but as a family we would be grateful if you could share our story, far and wide and if you want to donate Thank You but please please follow our journey on Facebook Tommys Journey (cardiac arrest survivor & hypoxic brain injury recovery) group. You will see the progress from the start and how he is doing all thanks to the medical team and our wonderful mum!

Thank you for reading

Love Leah