Shelby Smith's Support Fund

This campaign is no longer active therefore a new one has been created for Shelby's prosthetic. It can be found here or by searching Shelby (Smith) Weinzierl's Prothestic Fund.

On the night of Jan 2, 2017, my step-daughter, Shelby went to the emergency room for what she thought was just a severe strep infection. She had been putting off going to the doctor because she did not have health insurance and she thought it was only a strep infection. The following morning, she was put in a medically induced coma on a ventilator in the ICU. They weren't exactly sure what was wrong, just that she was extremely sick with a bacterial infection. They put her on 4 antibiotics and on Jan 5 she was starting to show signs of improvement so they removed her from the ventilator. Unexpectedly, a few hours later, things took a turn for the worst. Her lungs started filling with fluid and she started to go into congestive heart failure. By the end of the day, they had her back on the ventilator. 

 At this point, the doctors (and there were a lot of them: pulmonary, infection disease, ENT, heart just to name a few) were still unsure what the exact cause was however they knew it was bacterial and serious. They finally narrowed it down to a rare strain of strep, as well as staph that had gotten into her bloodstream. Not only did she have sepsis, she was going into septic shock. 

We were told that 60% of patients that sick do not survive and of those that do survive end up with some type of organ damage. She was very lucky and did not have any lasting organ damage however the medications that were used to keep her heart pumping pulled the blood from her extremities, compromising her circulation in her fingers and toes. She ended up with permanent damage on 6 fingers and 2 toes. On Jan 18, she underwent surgery for partial amputation. She lost the first knuckle on her left index finger as well as her right pinkie, index and thumb. She lost half of her right ring finger and almost 2/3 of her right middle finger. In addition, she lost 1 ½ of her small toes on her left foot.

She was in the ICU for 1 week and the hospital for another 3 weeks. Then she was transferred to Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center for a week. After being in the hospital for over 5 weeks, she was finally able to go home. 

(Taken a week post-surgery)

It’s been almost 6 years since she developed septic shock and lost the majority of the fingers on her right hand. A lot has happened during this time. She and Caleb were married and now have a beautiful 3 year old son. 

While she has adapted extremely well and can pretty much do everything she could before her amputations, with the exception of holding cups and big items with her right hand, it has started to take a toll on her joints and tendons in her hands along with her entire arm due to overcompensationand and extra duress.

Shelby struggles daily with pain radiating through her hand and arm, requiring her to take frequent breaks from tasks that require her to hold and carry things. This includes tasks that require constant use of her hands, which when you think about it, includes many of our daily mundane tasks. 

She consistently drops stuff because her hands get extremely tired, especially at the end of the day. The pain can be very distracting at times.

Up until now, Shelby has not allowed herself to think of herself as disabled since she only lost a “some fingers and a few toes” when the outcome could have been a lot worse. However, she is starting to be kinder to herself and is coming to realize that her quality of life could be greatly improved by using a prosthetic on her right hand.

She have taken the beginning steps necessary to get a prosthetic. However, the cost has presented a huge barrier. The total cost for a partial hand prosthetic is $15K. The main unit is $10k which includes the middle finger (as seen below). The pinky will be an additional $5k. They believe that the partial prosthesic with 2 digits will be more beneficial than a full prosthetic in addition to being more cost effective.

These are photos of when she went in for her consultation. The device was much too large and was not sized for her hand but the joy on her face when she was able to pick items up more comfortably (and to flip people off) was indescribable. 

Since she is without insurance, they have heavily discounted the price. We are asking anyone who knows Shelby and her story to consider donating, even if it is a small amount, to help her reach the goal and dream of having a prosthetic. We have started a new GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d15ea6ea.

Her life could be improved in many ways with the acquisition of this device, allowing her to focus on being the best mother, wife, and contributor to her family. 

Shelby and her family are forever grateful for any support that can be offered, whether it is monetary or just words of support. Thank you!