Welcome to the Caring Bridge for the recovery journey of Patrick O'Shea. All updated will be posted here. If you have any questions, or would like to help, Jesi Rau and Paula Nowariak are leading the charge while Krystal, Barb, and Patrick's family focus on his recovery. All monetary donations can go to their GoFundMe, which is linked from the Ways To Help page of this site. On January 30th at 4AM Patrick got home from work and complained of numbness starting on one side of his body, which then began moving to the other side of his body. 911 was called shortly after as Patrick lost the ability to communicate, his eyes were unable to focus on people, and he experienced severe confusion.
Patrick was rushed to United Hospital where they performed an ECHO, EKG, CT, lab work and an MRI. They didn’t get clear images from the MRI, but everything else came back indicating no issues were present. They discharged Patrick with “prolonged sleep deprivation”.
On Saturday, February 1st at 1AM, Patrick rolled over in bed and said something to Krystal that made no sense. The confusion lasted 20 minutes and was followed by a terrible head ache and nausea. Neurology was called and said they would be calling back to schedule Patrick for an EEG on Monday. After sleeping most of the day Patrick woke up feeling great.
Monday, February 3rd, Patrick woke up eager to head back to work. In the early afternoon Patrick experienced another episode of acute confusion. He was taken back to United where he has been admitted ever since.
They have performed many tests... ECHO, several MRIs, EEG, CT, ultrasound, lots of blood work, two lumbar punctures and more.
MRI has confirmed he has viral meningitis.
Patrick has continued to have a couple episodes while at United. They are believed to be complex partial seizures caused from the inflammation in the brain from the meningitis. The last episode resulted in more the 24 hours of acute confusion.
Patrick showed no signs of improvement and on February 11th they determined it would be best to intubate and sedate him.
He is now comfortable, which will hopefully help him heal. They continue to look for more answers and see if there is possibly more going wrong. His team and family are determined to return him to full health.
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