Julia Gacao Rehabilitation Fund

Julia, her Journey of beating the odds. Her journey started on Sunday, June 7 2015. About two weeks prior she had been hospitalized for 6 days for high blood sugar and high BP and was on blood thinners.  She had been home 3 days when she developed severe abdominal pains and low BP.  She was taken to Cambridge hospital and admitted to ICU because of internal bleeding.   By morning her condition had worsened and  was transferred to Beth Israel hospital to T/SICU for surgery or she would surely die without it. They did exploratory surgery and discovered massive bleeding in the abdomen, 2 liters of blood taken out.  After surgery later developed complications and had multiple organs failure. Had vomited and aspirated during intubation causing her lungs to collapse unable to oxygenate the blood adequately. The kidneys had also failed.  She was started on continuously dialysis, was ventilated and was on ECMO (a machine that allows blood to bypass heart and lungs allowing them to rest and get better).  That night the expectation for her to survive was very slim (10%). It has been a long road since then. She stayed for one month in T/SICU heavily sedated and underwent five surgeries which involved removing body organs every time.  Her vital signs remained unstable for a long time and she took longer than expected to wake up from sedation.  By grace of God she finally woke up and was able to breathe on her own and transferred to surgical ward.  She then started developing spiking fevers with no known cause for 2months until a probable cause was found and treated.  
In early September were informed that it was time for her to go to rehab and would be discharged within a few days.  She is totally dependent and bed ridden. Her insurance MassHealth Limited would not cover  rehabilitation nor transportation services and we were to get ready to bring her home in few weeks. However her discharge is pending but coming soon.  The challenge is to find a bridge from acute hospital to home where she can access physical therapy for about 2 months which has been overwhelming. They range from nursing home with physical therapy for 45 minutes a day to a rehab hospital with about 3 hours every daily. The family is appealing to well wishers to support this course.