Wade’s Story

Site created on September 6, 2020

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your prayers, support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

Wade went to work on Monday, August 31st as usual. He wasn't feeling great but it was manageable. He started developing additional unpleasant/painful symptoms and by Thursday,  September 3, he decided to go to the hospital in Grand Rapids. Upon arriving at the hospital, they immediately tested him for Covid-19 and the test came back negative. They began to run other tests and quickly discovered that he was very sick and that whatever was going on was affecting his kidneys, liver and heart. Soon thereafter, they determined that it was best if they transferred him to a more specialized hospital so they airlifted him to a hospital in Duluth. 

When Wade arrived at the hospital in Duluth, they tested him again for Covid-19 and this test also came back negative. They began running additional tests. By early Friday morning (September 4), they had intubated Wade and placed him on a ventilator. He was in multi-system failure (kidney failure/liver failure),  had pneumonia in both lungs and was experiencing septic shock.  Blood tests revealed that he had high levels of bilirubin (14) and creatinine (7) in his blood. His lungs had also taken a hit. The doctors said that the next 72 hours were crucial and they started slow dialysis to clean his blood/kidneys. 

By Saturday afternoon, they were still working on determining what exactly caused all of it. Unfortunately, they did not have a lot of answers, as many of the tests take 48+ hours to process. They decided that due to some concerns with his liver, it was best to transfer him again to a hospital that had specialists that would be able to help in case his liver shuts down. So they flew him to a specialized hospital in Minneapolis on Saturday night. 

That leads us to today - Sunday, September 6. All the hospital staff has been working diligently to help Wade. They were able to stabilize him and ran a CT scan of his head, chest and abdomen. He has bilateral pneumonia (fluid in the lungs). Wade is still sedated and they are continuing slow dialysis. 

We want to say thank you for the care, support and prayers you have already given. They are very meaningful to Wade, Colleen and their family. We will continue to post updates on this page as we know more. 


HOW TO HELP: 

1. Encouragement/Prayers: feel free to leave a comment of support/encouragement. We also welcome your prayers for his continued health and healing. To join the Facebook prayer group for Wade, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prayforwade

2. Give: If you know Wade, you know that he is hardworking as well as caring and generous. He is quick to lend a helping hand. We have created a gofundme page in order to help with some of the immediate financial burdens involved in a situation like this. If you are able to help in this way, it would be appreciated. Please visit  https://gf.me/u/yw54sv    to learn more. 

3. Other: If you think of another way that you would like to help, please contact Colleen or another family member. Also, as we know more, we may be posting additional ways to help, so please feel free to check back in. 

Newest Update

Journal entry by Ethan Bohn

Colleen and I just wanted to take this time at Thanksgiving to thank everyone for the amazing amount of support and prayers!!!! I have just finished physical therapy and am completely off of dialysis. We are busy with the goat ranch and colleen is working a lot.  All the work around the ranch is helping me gain strength back and I hope to be back to normal strength soon!  We are both very grateful and appreciative for all the support and prayers during my hospital stay and since.     May God Bless you all!  Wade and Colleen

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