“Turtle” (Jeff Liedtke) medical expenses.

I am the daughter of Jeff Liedtke, more commonly known as “Turtle.” If you know Turtle, you know what an amazing guy he is, he can make friends with anyone and would do anything for you. Unfortunately Turtle was recently put into a situation and could use a little help.

On 8/24/23, my dad, Joann (his wife) and her brother flew out to Lake Tahoe for a short vacation.

On Friday night, my dad wasn’t feeling well and started dealing with some GI issues. Blood was present and it continued to get worse into the night and early morning. On Saturday morning, they decided to seek medical attention and went to the ER at the local hospital. It was obvious there was internal bleeding present so they med flighted him to a hospital in Reno.

My dad was very weak and they did not feel he was stable enough to do a scope procedure to find the source of the bleeding. They waited a day but he still wasn’t stable enough. Day 3, still not comfortable doing the procedure but in the meantime, bleeding had stopped and his blood levels didn’t warrant a transfusion (thank God). So, they continued to monitor and would do the procedure when they felt it was safe to do so.

Tuesday morning, (8/25), around 6:30AM, he went into cardiac arrest. They had to perform CPR for 20 minutes before getting him back but then his status was changed to critical and he was transferred to ICU.

My sister was inflight to Reno already and my brother and I made the decision to book a flight out there to be with them.

The medical team believes the cardiac arrest occurred when my dad was sleeping, started bleeding internally again, aspirated and went into cardiac arrest. His heart looked good and there were no other issues. They got him stable and he started waking up (very slowly) on Wednesday with all of us there. He was responding to commands, squeezing hands, wiggling his toes, etc.

Since then, he has progressed very well, awake, etc.

They were able to finally do the scope and determined there is “nothing new” and that the internal bleeding was due to an “old tear” they found. Bleeding has stopped, levels are good and discharge at some point is being discussed; however there are a few things they want to see improve first.

From the hospital he will discharge to inpatient rehab to get him strong again. He is having difficulty with walking, etc. They estimate rehab could be a week, 2 weeks, a month; it really all depends on him.

We asked about getting him home to do rehab locally. Doctor said that is an option but they will not clear him to fly commercial until he’s done with rehab and strong enough to get on a flight.

As you can imagine, this is devastating news. They went from a short vacation to long term hospital stays followed by inpatient rehab, being 2,000 miles away. There is an option to get him home for rehab locally once he is discharged from the hospital and that’s a medical flight from Reno to a rehab facility here. We have received a few estimates on medical flights and so far, the cost is anywhere between $20-$30K. We have been informed that insurance will not cover the cost of the medical fight.

Thursday morning, my dad’s brother Jon passed away, obviously creating a whole new level of worries, emotions, etc.

We just want him home! The amount of stress and financial burden this is putting on my dad Joann is mind numbing. Unexpected lodging, food, transportation for Joann to and from the hotel to the hospital, and now the news about the medical flight, and most likely long term medical costs.

We continue to pray they will be able to discharge him to rehab soon so we can work towards getting him strong again. We are currently looking into options for the med flight to get him home so we can all be with him during physical rehab, getting him stronger and that he can have the option to grieve the loss of his brother privately. (Him and Jon were very close.)

If we can’t get him home for rehab, he will have to stay out in Reno to do it and once he’s stronger they can hopefully clear him to get on a commercial flight home. (With assistance)

Any amount helps and we would be forever grateful for any financial support we receive to get my dad home.