Support for WFPD Ofc. Jeff Hughes
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Officer Jeff Hughes is a Public Information Officer, Crime Prevention Specialist and he runs the Citizen’s Police Academy for the Wichita Falls Police Department. He spent his 20th anniversary with the department in his hospital bed on January 5th.
The Wednesday before New Years, Jeff noticed a slight pain in his shoulder. When he woke up Thursday morning, he noticed weakness in his arms and hands and his fingers and toes were numb and tingly.
On Thursday, his wife Sandy, took him to the Emergency Room where they checked his blood and tested him for the flu. They decided that he had a bacterial infection that they were going to treat him with a Z pack. The other symptoms were described as being side effects of weakness and from being sick. They were sent home, Jeff went to sleep and slept on and off until Friday morning.
When he woke up Friday morning, he got out of bed and immediately collapsed on the floor because his legs would not support his bodyweight. He was admitted to the hospital Friday afternoon and by Saturday and Sunday he had lost nearly all movement of his arms, hands, legs and feet.
The diagnosis they are considering after spinal taps, blood tests and more is Conversion Disorder Syndrome, which is where his body was already weak from being sick mixed with high stress and it shut his body down.
The treatment has been intense - steroids to fight any infection in his body and plasma exchanges to clean out any anti-bodies that may be attacking his good cells. After five days in a row of removing the plasma from his body and then cycling it back in, they will begin to pump him with new anti-bodies that should help with improving movement of his body.
After several days of anti-bodies being put back in, he will be released to a rehab facility where he will be an inpatient and learn how to walk again, how to feed himself again and all of the day to day things we do, as if he had suffered a stroke.
The recovery process is long and the Doctors don’t have an estimated amount of time until he is back to his normal self again, but the good news is, there is no reason to believe that he couldn’t regain all of his functions back!
For those of you who don’t know Jeff, he is an extremely involved and active person and this has been a complete shock and something that’s very emotionally difficult to deal with. He currently is unable to sit up on his own and can’t move his fingers to text or read anything on his phone.
At his worst, Jeff was paralyzed from the neck down with his hands clenched in a fist. His hands and fingers had to be manually moved to make sure the blood flow was still moving to his hands and feet. Now that he has completed three rounds of the plasma exchange, he is actually able to lift his legs up off the bed about 4 inches which has the Doctors and Physical Therapists encouraged.
Jeff does so much for so many people and his family needs us while he heals. All of the money collected will go directly to Jeff and Sandy to help them with expenses while Jeff is not working and Sandy has to take days off from her job.
If you would like to help in other ways, please consider purchasing restaurants gift cards and dropping them off at Frank & Joe’s Coffee House, Attn: Jessica Edwards, so that Sandy doesn’t have to worry about cooking and can spend her extra time at the hospital with Jeff.
Please pray for Jeff and his family while he goes through the recovery process and his body heals.
The Wednesday before New Years, Jeff noticed a slight pain in his shoulder. When he woke up Thursday morning, he noticed weakness in his arms and hands and his fingers and toes were numb and tingly.
On Thursday, his wife Sandy, took him to the Emergency Room where they checked his blood and tested him for the flu. They decided that he had a bacterial infection that they were going to treat him with a Z pack. The other symptoms were described as being side effects of weakness and from being sick. They were sent home, Jeff went to sleep and slept on and off until Friday morning.
When he woke up Friday morning, he got out of bed and immediately collapsed on the floor because his legs would not support his bodyweight. He was admitted to the hospital Friday afternoon and by Saturday and Sunday he had lost nearly all movement of his arms, hands, legs and feet.
The diagnosis they are considering after spinal taps, blood tests and more is Conversion Disorder Syndrome, which is where his body was already weak from being sick mixed with high stress and it shut his body down.
The treatment has been intense - steroids to fight any infection in his body and plasma exchanges to clean out any anti-bodies that may be attacking his good cells. After five days in a row of removing the plasma from his body and then cycling it back in, they will begin to pump him with new anti-bodies that should help with improving movement of his body.
After several days of anti-bodies being put back in, he will be released to a rehab facility where he will be an inpatient and learn how to walk again, how to feed himself again and all of the day to day things we do, as if he had suffered a stroke.
The recovery process is long and the Doctors don’t have an estimated amount of time until he is back to his normal self again, but the good news is, there is no reason to believe that he couldn’t regain all of his functions back!
For those of you who don’t know Jeff, he is an extremely involved and active person and this has been a complete shock and something that’s very emotionally difficult to deal with. He currently is unable to sit up on his own and can’t move his fingers to text or read anything on his phone.
At his worst, Jeff was paralyzed from the neck down with his hands clenched in a fist. His hands and fingers had to be manually moved to make sure the blood flow was still moving to his hands and feet. Now that he has completed three rounds of the plasma exchange, he is actually able to lift his legs up off the bed about 4 inches which has the Doctors and Physical Therapists encouraged.
Jeff does so much for so many people and his family needs us while he heals. All of the money collected will go directly to Jeff and Sandy to help them with expenses while Jeff is not working and Sandy has to take days off from her job.
If you would like to help in other ways, please consider purchasing restaurants gift cards and dropping them off at Frank & Joe’s Coffee House, Attn: Jessica Edwards, so that Sandy doesn’t have to worry about cooking and can spend her extra time at the hospital with Jeff.
Please pray for Jeff and his family while he goes through the recovery process and his body heals.
Organizer and beneficiary
Jessica Edwards
Organizer
Wichita Falls, TX
Sandra Hughes
Beneficiary
