My brother-in-law, Ted, has been critically ill in a hospital in Ohio. After two weeks, he is stable enough to be transferred home to Connecticut to Yale. Unfortunately, his insurance has denied the claim and is refusing to move him. Any funds raised will be used for his transport and any expenses associated with his long-term care that won't be covered by his insurance. His story: Ted has been a teacher at The Morgan School in Clinton, CT for 33 years, and is a veteran of the Army Reserves, having served for 20 years. On June 26 and 27 Ted wasn’t feeling quite right and slept for most of the day. He seemed to be fighting something off, but the only symptoms of illness were extreme fatigue and a reduced appetite. Ted had planned a cross country trip to his friend Martin’s house in Wyoming near Yellowstone Park. He woke up on Wednesday, June 28 and felt fine so he set out on the first leg of his planned trip. He drove 10 hours to Martin’s house in Ohio. He felt fine upon his arrival, but by around 5:30 that evening was feeling very tired again, had a rapid heartbeat, was shivering, spiked a high temperature and began to slur his words. Martin brought him to the emergency room. He was admitted but the team had difficulty finding the source of his infection. Within 12 hours his lungs filled with fluid, and it became clear that he had pneumonia. His blood oxygen levels dipped dangerously low despite oxygen support, and he was moved to ICU on June 29. He was classified as being critically ill. His wife (my sister) Kelly was called in CT and told to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Kelly, their son Teddy, and I drove overnight and arrived in Ohio by 7:00 on Friday morning. Ted continued to decline and it was decided to intubate him and put him on a ventilator by 2:00 Friday afternoon. Ted went into septic shock and his organs began to shut down. It’s important to know that when Ted arrived home from a deployment in Iraq it was found that he had kidney disease. It was believed that he caught a virus while in Iraq that had attacked his kidneys. This condition had been treated and had been under control for many years; however, he began to experience problems with his kidneys again recently. The doctor had decided to treat this with a high dose of prednisone and steroids. Unfortunately, this weakened Ted’s immune system and rendered him unable to adequately fight the current infection. He was given intensive support in the ICU for several days while on the ventilator, including having to be placed in the prone position twice to try to relieve the pressure in his chest. His platelets were dangerously low. His kidneys shut down and he had to be put on continuous flow dialysis. After 8 days he was well enough to be taken off of the ventilator. While Ted is still critically ill and will require medical intervention for quite some time, he is stable enough to return to CT. The hospital staff arranged for a medical transportation company to move Ted to CT via air and Yale was prepared to receive him; however, in the 11th hour, the insurance company denied the claim and is refusing to move him. He is not well enough to take ground transportation such a long distance. Ted is experiencing ICU delirium and his doctors believe he needs to be around familiar people in order to heal. We are desperately trying to find a way to get him back to CT and are now trying to raise the funds to pay for the transport ourselves. Both Ted and Kelly need the support of their friends and family and would like to get back to CT in order to give him access to the wonderful support system he has in CT. Any help that can be provided will help.
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