Richie Shefland ~Medical needs

Hi, My name is Laura Rousu and I'm looking to help my brother, Richie, Here's his story:

On Saturday April 29th 2023, Richie wasn't feeling too well and he called an ambulance. He initially thought that he had food poisoning, but it turned out that he had a perforated colon and they did an emergency surgery. If he hadn't went to the hospital when he did, he would have died.

Currently Richie is in the ICU and will be there for several weeks. He is on many medications and ventilater to help him breathe. Everyday he is making baby steps in the right direction, but he's still in critical condition.

May 15th 2023 we were told that Richie has "Acute respiratory distress syndrome," this now puts him in more of a critical condtion. From what I am reading most people who develop this disease don't survive, but I did more research on this and people that are in his age range, which he is 40 have a better chance of survival. He had a second surgery to put a bag in to get this infection out because the medications weren't really doing much. He has a spiked fever between 100.8-103 and he has a cooling blanket on him to try and get his temperture down.

Every single day I have been visiting him in the hospital and talking to him, he is fully sedated but we're hopeful that he can hear us. We're very optomistic that he will pull through this. He is a fighter and he will beat this! He has many friends and family that visit him to keep his spirits up, even though we can't communicate with him, it's important for him to know that we're there for him.

Unfortunely, due to Richie being in ICU and losing a lot of muscle mass he can't live where he's living now, he's on the third floor and the building dosen't have an elevator. I have been packing up all his things and keeping them at my place for storage. Richie will have to start all over and move into a place that has adapted to his disability. He has months of recovery, they said for everyday he's in the hospital, he has 3 days of physical therapy. He has been in the hospital for 18 days and so far, his physcial therapy is at 54 days and climbing. He'll have a long road to recovery. We would love to help to take the stress off of him having to start all over.

Richie is very loved and he doesn't deserve this! He is young and has a great life waiting for him.

Any help is very much appreciated! Please share this as much as you can! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and share.

Sincerely,

Laura Rousu