Steve Plafchan

Welcome to our CaringBridge website for Steve Plafchan. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
Last week Steve was admitted to Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield. The doctors found he had a serious infection that had spread into his sinus cavity, brain and spinal cord. Henry Ford Hospital quickly realized that Steve needed to be relocated to the Henry Ford Main hospital in Detroit. He was moved to the new location downtown, as they realized that his condition was quite serious and he needed to be in the best hands available.  
His brain was seizing due to the unknown infection throughout his body and he was put into induced coma, while the doctors were trying to manage and eliminate  the brain seizures with medications.
On Wednesday, May 23rd, he went into surgery to have the infection removed that had spread into his sinus cavities . When the doctors were in surgery, unfortunately they found that the infection spread further to his brain, they also found an abscess on his brain. 
He continued to have many seizures after that surgery. The two different medications the doctors were using to try to eliminate the brain seizures were able to stop the seizing were finally working. 
He has been in intensive care this whole time with a close watch from the medical team.
Suzanne (Steve's Sister), Ted (Steve's Brother) and Janet (Ted's Girlfriend) have been by his side to help with decisions, paperwork and gathering information from the doctors. Celeste had contacted the family when she found him unconscious at the house Sunday morning last week, May 20th,  and has been so helpful to the famly, also gathering information for the doctors and taking care of Steve's birds and the household. 
Today, Tuesday May 29th, family was contacted by the hospital and were told that there needs to be immediate surgery on his brain to remove the quickly spreading infection and abscess.  The most recent MRI showed that the brain had infection and the abscess had grown, so immediate surgery was necessary.
Steve is now out of surgery, still in intensive care, and will have a super long recovery. He is being closely watched and the doctors will be waiting for him to wake up. They say recovery will be weeks or most likely months. 
At this point, we have been told that there will be some damage to his brain...frontal lobe. They do not know the extent of this damage quite yet. 
He will be in intensive care for a while then moved into another section of the hospital, a medical step down care unit, with full care at the hospital in the next week or so. There, they will be able to make medical assessments of his current condition and any deficiencies that may have resulted.
We want to make sure all friends and family are able to keep up and be informed of the latest updates via this Caring Bridge site. We apologize for not reaching out sooner but as you know, it has been quite difficult with so many unknowns. His health was declining more and more during this hospitalization, until today's surgery. We still do not have all the information and the doctors still do not know if the infection is fully removed and gone yet. 
In the meantime, we will pray and hope that there is minimal damage and keep all of you up to date with any information as it occurs. 
Please keep Steve in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you,
Carrie ( Steve's niece) and family.