Crisis-Bereavement Fund

Aloha.
My name is Rose and I normally would not ask for help but I am in a crisis situation so please take the time to read this. Donate if you are able and if not just pray diligently.

**10/30/2016: My Father has passed away. Please see updates for more information**

Earlier this month I spoke to my Father on the phone and he said that he wasn't feeling well and thought he just had the flu. I live in Hawaii and he lives in Georgia and when I didn't hear from him I became concerned so I contacted my family who lives there to find out how he was doing. I found out that he had been admitted to the ICU for respiratory failure from pneumonia and was breathing through a ventilator tube and was put into a medically induced coma. After a few days he had the breathing tube removed and the sedating medications were stopped so he was no longer in a medically induced coma and he was moved into a step-down unit. He seemed to be improving but then he had a heart attack and stopped breathing and it took them 12 minutes to resuscitate him. He was re-admitted to the ICU and was again put into a medically induced coma and was breathing through a ventilator. My mother bought me an airline ticket and I flew to Georgia that evening so I could be with him and my family.

Since I have been here they did a CT scan because his brain went without oxygen for too long and they suspected that he sustained some brain damage. His temperature spiked really high and they were not able to bring it down and then he started having seizures. Every time they tried to wean him off the breathing tube he would stop breathing so he is considered on life-support. They turned off his sedation yesterday morning so he could awaken but he remains comatose and unresponsive. He is not responsive to pain, his pupils are responsive to light but very sluggish, he has a weak gag response and is not able to regulate his temperature.

All of these things put together paint a very poor prognosis for my father. He is not considered completely brain dead yet but they suspect that he has a lot of brain damage. The doctors said that if he does come out of the coma he will likely not be very responsive or be able to care for himself and will continue to be on full life support.

They are planning to do an MRI to confirm how much brain damage he sustained but the wait time is 3 days since they do the more urgent cases first. After the results of the MRI my family has to make a decision whether or not to keep him on life-support indefinitely or to just remove the breathing tube and let him go. We know that he would not want to live his life as a "vegetable."

So here is my dilemma; I am supposed to fly home on Sunday 10/30/16 but I feel I need to be here in the event he recovers or is taken off life support so that I can be with my family and attend his funeral services if that is the case. I had to take off work to be here which means I have no income. I have exhausted my sick and vacation pay from when I was ill earlier this year. I have rent and bills due soon, as well as living expenses while I am here.

Please pray for me and my family.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Mahalo, Rose