Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.
On Sunday, November 13th, Doug experienced an episode of low blood sugar/hypoglycemia. As a diabetic, this is not uncommon. Due to the low blood sugar he passed out and his girlfriend, Kara, gave him syrup (as she has done before) to raise his blood sugar. He regained consciousness but then began to experience shortness of breath at which time they went to the emergency department at HRMC. He walked in and was responsive and coherent at that time. Following an assessment, it was determined by the medical staff that he needed to be intubated. He was also given medication to lower his heart rate as it was high as well. When they went to intubate him, his heart stopped and it took 15 minutes to resuscitate him. HRMC then requested a flight team to get him to Sanford in Sioux Falls. In the mean time, they had difficulty regulating his blood pressure and heart rate.
He arrived in Sioux Falls around 1:30 a.m. on Monday. Over the course of the next week, they were able to stabilize his heart rate and blood pressure and ran a lot of tests to determine his condition. Initially, we were told he was in septic shock and had bilateral pneumonia, which was our first hurdle to overcome. He was started on antibiotics and other medications to keep everything stable and him comfortable. Tests showed that he did not have a heart issue that was attributing to his condition. There was evidence of a couple small strokes but the damage was minimal and not in areas where it would be effecting his current status. His initial MRI appeared that there was not any damage to the brain when his heart stopped. However, a repeat MRI on Sunday showed that the damaged had progressed and it will now be a matter of time to see what the extent of the damage was and how it will impact his brain function and further recovery.
He remains mostly sedated and unresponsive other than moments of him opening his eyes and sometimes turning his head. He is still on a ventilator and coughs a lot when they try to reduce the sedation. His team is working on a plan moving forward.
Now it’s a lot of waiting and praying ❤️ I know many have asked for updates - unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of new information. As we learn more about his current condition and future prognosis, we will share it to this page.
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE REACHED OUT, SENT MESSAGES, VISITED OR JUST KEPT DOUG IN YOUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS… we appreciate you all.
Resilience, endurance, hard work... these were the words to describe Doug's continued progress at QLI by his care team today. He never ceases to amaze me in his ability to persevere and his tenacity. It is hard to believe almost 8 months ago, we were uncertain if we would ever have any meaningful interactions with him, hear his laugh, see him smile, witness his incredible sense of humor... but here we are! Only a few weeks ago we were unsure how mobile he would be - would he walk unassisted or always need support? Now he walks unassisted and without his braces. He also has BIKED 181 MILES and made it on the wall of fame at QLI! As he prepares to head home the end of this month, it will not be without challenges and set backs but WOW IS HE READY and IN A GOOD PLACE! Thank you to the many people who helped make those extra few weeks possible - we are forever grateful. He will continue with PT/OT and speech therapy once he is home but he is anxious to start the next chapter and get back to work!
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