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PJ’s Story

Site created on July 15, 2023

PJ, twenty-four year old Paul Junior, suffered a stroke on July 13, 2023, after being severely ill for more than a week. He was airlifted to St Al’s in Boise and immediately had surgery to remove the blood clot from his brain. Doctors also found a staph infection that had vegetated on the mitral valve of his heart. This condition is called Endocarditis. Debris from this infection was breaking off and being sent throughout his body, including his brain, and that’s where the blood clots came from.

PJ was doing okay for the first 3 days in the ICU, he was conscious, coherent, and even had a sense of humor. However, on July 17, he stopped being able to breathe on his own. The damaged mitral valve was getting worse, causing blood to get backed up into his lungs instead of going out through his heart. So they sedated him and intubated him.

After days of this, his heart was only getting worse and both his lungs and kidneys were starting to fail. It was only a matter of time before he died of heart failure, and Boise doctors deemed his brain was still too sick to undergo the heart surgery. If they operated, he would die. It was the hardest news we’d ever received.

Then, the doctors said there’s hope for him if they flew him to Seattle UW, to the cardiothoracic ICU. Those doctors were experts in their field, and they would have more resources to treat and support PJ. We said yes immediately.

He’s been sick for two weeks now and if all goes well, PJ could be in this ICU for weeks more. There’s still a lot of risks involved, measures to take, operations to be done, but if PJ has a fighting chance we’re going to take it.

PJ’s condition changes daily, so we’ve created this Caring Bridge site. 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.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Pauline Finkbeiner — Oct 7, 2023

PJ’s home!! We got here on Thursday Oct 5 and he could not be happier. His excitement to finally get into his own bed was unmatched. It was like a child on Christmas.

Now the plan is to get him situated with a local doctor and therapist team to continue his out patient rehab. He’s got a lot of work to do before he’s back to 100% but he’s ready and eager to get started.

Thank you all for following these journal entries over the past couple months and for all the love and support that has been shown to our family. It was very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes and it was always your words of prayer and encouragement that lifted our spirits in those moments. We literally cannot thank you enough. Thank you thank you thank you!!

Read More of the journal titled "October 07, 2023"

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