Please help the Almeida Family
It's with total and utter devastation and sadness that I create this account. I never imagined it would be something I would need to do. I'm humbled and humiliated that we need to ask for help. Asking for help - financially, emotionally, physically - it's not something I do very well. But I no longer have a choice.
On March 26, my husband Jeff Almeida was admitted to the hospital with complaints of Pancreatitis. What has resulted is complications to his kidneys, lungs, and his organs have been retaining fluids at an alarming rate. Jeff has gained 40 pounds in the 3 weeks he's been in the hospital. Shortly after being admitted, Jeff contracted C-Diff, a hospital super-bug, that caused him to be placed on isolation.
Yesterday, April 19 around 2 pm, Jeff felt a sudden pain and feeling of rupture in his abdomen and doctors now think that a pocket of diseased fluid opened and spilled into Jeff's bloodstream. They think that even though his pancreas numbers were trending very well and they thought they were out of the woods with it, somehow it had become infected and all that fluid was a "hornets nest" of infection getting ready to blow.
Things began going sideways with Jeff very quickly. I left work to be there for him. Doctors quickly moved him to ICU and began prepping him for surgery. Emmy left school and rushed to be with us too. We both kissed him, told him we loved him and then he was led back. They gave him a 30-50% chance of not surviving the surgery. They opened his stomach and cleaned out 5 liters of diseased fluid. They washed things and actually at this moment I type this, his stomach is still opened - covered only with a plastic sheet until swelling can go down and everything is closed back up. When swelling has decreased, they will try and put him back together.
The doctors are giving us a 50/50 chance right now that Jeff will make it through this. If he survives the weekend, he has a long road ahead with pitfalls in all directions. They've described his situation as a man getting ready to run a marathon. He's in mile one and he's got a good pace going, but there's a long long way to go. They estimate at least 2 more weeks in ICU if there are no complications and a month or two in the hospital from there.
The complications that aren't health related that make this extra tough is that Jeff's last week of work was his first week of being hospitalized. His old company informed him he was being laid off effective March 30. He was in final interview stages with a couple of companies when this occurred. So Jeff doesn't have health coverage other than Cobra - which is going to cost us $1,000 a month - and has now become a necessity. There is some severance money that his old company won't give us because there are documents to be signed and I do not have a Power of Attorney (NOTE: PLEASE PRINT A POWER OF ATTORNEY ASAP IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ONE. SIGN IT, PUT IT IN A BOX AND HOPE YOU NEVER NEED IT). We have checking and savings and retirement, but since our contribution right now for Jeff's treatment is estimated to be over 100k.
Right now, I am the sole provider. I work for a non-profit. My income alone won't pay for our mortgage. Jeff will not be eligible for unemployment due to not being able to interview for jobs. The doctors are working to see if they can set him up for disability coverage. We have a little time before everything goes south, but only a month or two. If you can help - even a little - we would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you.
