Hi all. My name is Amanda Teachout-Emerson, I am Jan’s granddaughter and will be running this page on her behalf. We have been inundated with so many calls and messages of care, love, and support. Thank you, we are so grateful and know that Jan is loved by so many. I hope this site will help to keep everyone updated in one place.
As some of you may already know, our family was forever changed on Thursday, December 10, 2020. Darrell (aka Pa) was rushed to Brainerd hospital via ambulance on Thursday morning. He had been sick for about a week (COVID test was negative) but also courageously battling severe underlying health issues (pulmonary fibrosis and trigeminal neuralgia) for the past several years. Jan went to the hospital but was not able to go inside due to COVID so she waited in the parking lot until they told her to go home as Pa was going to be admitted to the ICU. Jan went home to Pine River (where her and Darrell resided with Jan’s mother, Doris). Jan was not home for long when she got the call to return to the hospital as Darrell was not doing well. It was determined he had pneumonia which led to sepsis and cardiac arrest. She had just left her home and didn’t even make it out of Pine River when she suffered a medical emergency while driving and crashed her car. She was airlifted to St. Cloud hospital where it was determined she had a type A artery dissection of the aortic arch. She was airlifted again that night to the University of Minnesota for emergency surgery as her only chance of survival. Jan underwent surgery on Friday, December 11, 2020. She was in surgery for about 9 hours. The surgery went very well, the diseased aorta was removed and the tear (that went to her heart) was repaired. It was determined the tear went into an artery that connects to the right carotid artery which caused a stroke. Jan is in recovery at the U of M and is defying all odds. She is fighting hard but has a long road ahead. It is estimated she will be in the hospital for 4 weeks and then likely moved to a stroke rehab center. We lost our beloved Pa on 12/10/2020 - Jan did not know of his passing until a week following her surgery.
I will be posting updates here as I receive them. We are continuing to ask for prayers as that is of upmost importance to Jan and our family.
We know this will have a huge financial impact on Jan between her medical expenses and arrangements for Darrell. If you feel called to donate we have created a Venmo on her behalf. Please put “Jan” in the memo and send to @Jason-Adams-404 We also have a GoFundMe link through caringbridge under “ways to help”. However, if possible we encourage the Venmo account as there are fees associated with the GoFundMe. If Venmo asks for the last 4 digits of the phone number it is 9582.
