Joe Stepnik

Here is a synopsis of what has happened with Joe since the
summer.


June 2nd 2016:
Emergency room visit detected aneurysms.


July 23rd 2016:
Molly and Derek got married.


August 1st 2016:
Successful surgery treated aneurysms.


August 5th 2016:
Joe came home from the hospital and had a great recovery.


December 14th 2016:
Joe had a seizure at home and had emergency surgery to remove fluid
from the brain.
 

December 15th 2016:
Joe continued to have seizures despite various medications.


December 16th:
Doctors decided to medically induce a coma to stop seizures.


December 18th 2016:
In the morning, Joe’s blood pressure dropped severely but doctors quickly got
it under control. They then detected problems in his abdomen as it was
distended. He later had emergency abdominal surgery where surgeons removed
several dead areas of the intestines and colon.


December 19th 2016:
Joe’s liver and kidneys were not functioning properly. Doctors also detected
bacteria growing in the fluid that had been removed from his brain on the 14th.

 
December 20th 2016:
Surgeons took a look inside Joe’s abdomen to see if there had been any more
damage and to possibly put everything back together and close if all looked
good.  At the same time the neurosurgeon
looked at the area of irritated brain activity, with the possibility of
removing a small area of the brain.

All looked good in the abdomen; however, surgeons decided to
wait another day to piece things back together so that the neurosurgeon had
more time to look at his brain. There weren’t any bacteria, but the irritated
area appeared larger than predicted. They chose not to remove anything at that
point and to continue to monitor activity through the EEG.

 
December 21st 2016:
Liver and kidney function greatly improved. Surgeons went back into the abdomen
to put the intestines and colon back together with success. They also put an
ileostomy in place and closed everything up.

 
*We couldn’t be more pleased with the quality care Joe is
receiving and the amount of information provided to us by the great team of
doctors here at UW hospital. Joe is still heavily sedated and family requests
no visitors until a later date. We greatly appreciate your thoughts and
prayers.