Warren Family Fundraiser

Brad and Jennifer Warren are a local family, with two children Hunter and Megan, and strong ties to our community. Brad and Jennifer have volunteered their time for years to help coach multiple sports teams, always enjoying, motivating, and educating our young athletes. Brad owns his own company, and Jennifer is a substitute teacher. My family moved here just over a year ago and became friends with the Warren family and quickly knew they were people who will always be there for you when needed. Now is the time when they need us. Family, friends, or even strangers who would like to help this family out, they would be forever grateful, thankful and blessed. Here is what happened to Brad, written from Jennifer. "A few weeks ago, on Saturday, August 17th, Brad came home from work feeling sick, other than appearing to be some of the normal virus symptoms, he seemed fine. On Sunday he started hurting all over and was in so much pain that he asked to go to the hospital, which if you know Brad, he never asks to go! At 10pm Sunday, August 18th I took Brad to the hospital. At first we could not explain the pain, so they thought it would be ok to release him and send him home and have a check with his primary physician. At 2:30am the tests came back showing that Brads kidney and liver functions were elevated, and they would like to monitor him until the morning. Throw into the mix Brad is Type 1 Diabetic, and had his spleen removed when he was a young boy, it was hard to figure out what was going on! By 4am Brad was admitted into the hospital with a white blood cell count of 44,000 (normal levels are between 7,000-10,000). The possibility of cancer and other things were tested and explored. Nothing came back to help us know any answers. Monday afternoon Brad went into Respiratory Failure from a bacterial infection in the blood. Preliminary blood cultures came back showing Strep B had taken over Brads body. At that point Doctors and nurses rushed into his room to try and stabilize him. He went for x-rays and an MRI to make sure they had him stabilized. He was then brought to CCU for monitoring. Once stable for transfer, Brad was moved from Hillsborough, to UNC Chapel Hill where he was admitted to the ICU. Brad stayed in the ICU for 5 long, hard days fighting the bacteria that continued to attack his body. Brad lost almost 30 pounds, a significant amount of his muscle mass, it caused electrolyte problems, and the respiratory failure continued to worsen. He no longer at that point had the ability to use his arms or his legs. Brad was most definitely in for the fight of his life. After 5 days he started to recover. He was moved to a regular floor, but still did not have the ability to do much for himself, or even walk. After 8 days in the hospital they told him he would possibly be admitted to a Rehab facility in a nursing home. Brad fought for that not to happen. On Monday, August 26th Brad was able to walk with assistance from a walker, and was still on oxygen. On Wednesday, August 28th, Brad was removed from oxygen and released to come home with the assistance of his walker. Home health comes in once a week as well as Physical Therapy once a week. I give him infusions of antibiotics in an IV everyday, for an hour." Thanks to their wonderful friends and family who pulled together, Hunter and Megan were taken care of, but started their first week of school without mom and dad home. As of last week, and still with more hospital bills and home health bills trickling in, the current total is around $150,000.00. Brad is self employed, and Jennifer was not able to go back to work when school started, as she was by Brads side the entire time, day and night. Brad won't be back to work at least until mid September, as he is trying to build back his strength. So any small amount, any donation, any prayers, are greatly appreciated.