Brandon and Beth are friends of mine. Beth is very pregnant, and the baby is due to pop out any day now.
But on Tuesday night, July 16th, Brandon woke Beth up with a very painful headache. After several hours of trying to ease the pain unsuccessfully, they drove to the emergency room. Brandon was vomiting, slurring his words, and couldn’t get out of the car by himself.
A CAT scan confirmed he had blood on his brain.
Beth has spent over a week now at her husband’s bedside in the ICU as doctors have literally monitored his brain every hour since he was admitted. The doctors are fairly certain that he had a hemorrhagic stroke. They expect him to be in the ICU for a total of 21 days. Beth is expected to give birth any day now, so the doctors have worked with her to transfer everything to the hospital where Brandon is, so that she can give birth in the same building.
From Beth’s CaringBridge journal:
I’ve accepted the fact that Brandon will not get to be in the delivery room. While I’m really sad and disappointed that things won’t go exactly as we had hoped – I feel really blessed to be in that same hospital as Brandon… We are planning to film the birth so that Brandon will be able to at least experience it from that perspective.
When they eventually get out of the hospital, Brandon will be returning to a completely changed world: occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy. He will be monitored basically for the rest of his life. Medications. A limit on tobacco and alcoholic beverages. And their first child on top of it all.
Brandon and Beth are a faithful, caring, fun couple. I’m happy to call them my friends. They need any help they can get right now, because this is a long and expensive road ahead.
Not only do they have the bills that come from having a baby on the way, they have countless medical tests and a hospital room bill for Brandon, surgery bills, and they will have bills pouring in for therapy when he gets out.
A friend of theirs have started a site to raise some funds to help them pay their bills.
I’m reaching out to you today: if you are able to part with $5 or $10, please take a moment to help the three of them. Beth has been through a roller coaster of stress and emotions (no doubt intensified by being so pregnant!), but is putting out a strong faith as she updates their CaringBridge site every day.
So if you are willing, please donate at the link above. And if you are not willing/able to throw in a few bucks, please do me a favor and share this story on your Facebook and Twitter pages. Please spread the word and help us get them the help they need right now.
We’re all pulling for a happy ending right now, where Mom, Dad, and Baby get to go home together. But their story won’t stop there. It’s a long road – let’s all team up and give them a hand.
To read more about Brandon and Beth’s story, click here. And if you would like to see the latest updates on Brandon’s condition, click here.
And again, if you are willing to donate anything to help them out, here’s that link again too.
Thanks for reading.