Friends and family,

Many of you know that my Aunt Dawn was recently in a medically induced coma and intubated on a ventilator, as she was unable to breathe on her own due to a severe viral infection and asthma attack. Dawn's asthma developed after she bravely served our country in Iraq years ago. She has been in the hospital since April 24th, with the first two weeks spent in the ICU. She was recently transferred to the Pulmonology unit without any information on a discharge date. Upon release from the hospital, she will be required to have rehabilitation; at this moment, for an undetermined amount of time.

During this time she will not be able to work to continue paying her bills while accumulating medical expenses. Although a lot of the medical expenses will be covered by the public healthcare system, she has already been informed that they will not cover a few things. She also relies heavily on the private system for most of her care. I would hate for her to have additional financial burdens when her energy needs to be directed to healing after spending the past couple of weeks fighting for her life.

With the distance between Dawn (living in Italy) and her family, it's difficult to physically help her during this time beyond our love and support. Dawn always shows up for those around her, let's show up for her in one of the few ways we can by easing her financial burden.

Anyone who knows Dawn, knows that she touches every heart around her. She is incredibly caring, loving, and spirited. Thank you for supporting her.