Gayle's battle with pneumoccal pneu

On November 14th I went home to find Gayle asleep and her legs were dark purple.  I rushed her to the hospital where they quickly made the decision to move her to the ICU in a nearby town. I will never forget the Doctor saying"so this doesn't get away on us". Once in Harris medical center  she was almost immediately intubated and put on respiratory assist. The diagnosis was pneumoccocal pneumonia.  Her condition worsened over the next two weeks , the decision was made to move her to Mission hospital in Ashville NC. The palliative care people at this time had said to me that a DNR (DO NOT RESUSCITATE) order is what they suggested, they thought that her heart would not hold out due to the severe pulmonary damage.  I did not sign the order at that time, I wanted Mission hospital to be able to take their swing at it. Once at Mission she had a trach inserted along with drainage tubes in her chest, a new feeding tube, catheters and picc lines. Once the trache was in she was placed on a respirator where she remained for weeks. Our darkest day was when the doctors at Mission called and said at this point they also thought a DNR was the recommendation as she was showing no improvement. Then we waited, hoped and prayed.  A couple weeks later they decided to try a trache collar test(providing oxygen but not forcing it via respirator).  She did fairly well and as they continued this (along with almost 20 different combinations of anti-biotics) she started to show some improvement. The doctors now thought she would recover but were very cautious about what level she would recover to.   Over the next month she progressed to the point where she was transferred to a rehab facility to learn how to walk, talk and eat again.
  Gayle finally got to come home on Feb 17th. This type of pneumonia however leaves lasting damage to the lungs and the rest of the body, joints,organs,thyroid etc. She will always need additional oxygen support and medication. We have a small store here that is our only means of income, we have no employees so our abscence during much of Gayle's hospitalization was financially crippling, both for the business and personally. 

A go fund me page was suggested by a friend after exhausting all other avenues of trying to find financing. We would use the funds to cover back over-head at the store, replenish inventory and pay for Gayle's ongoing medical care. This seems to be our only and best option at this point. I am Gayle's caregiver at this point and to go find other employment would leave us trying to pay for home health care rather than her being able to be with me both at the store and home. Its a very good care situation for her, we just need to keep our business viable. This page could have been listed under medical and lost wages. We have been in business almost 7 years and have a strong clientele but those of you who are in or familiar with retail know that 4 months with a 60 to 75% loss of gross income is devastating. 

This type of pneumonia can take a person from walking around fine to a respirator in 24-36 hours, something you never see coming, especially at age 48.   We thank you in advance for reading our story, your consideration and anything you can do to help.

The picture shown is Gayle and our daughter Sarah, who at age 17 became one the strongest and bravest people I know.



Scott & Gayle Richter- Fairfull