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Help Matthew Come Home to his Family
Meet Matthew Vargo. Read his full story below (bottom).
The following is regarding the unfortunate recent events and situation regarding our son, Matthew. In April, 2013 (17 months ago), Matthew entered the hospital for yet another seriously needed heart surgery. This was one of many throughout Matthew's 22 years, as Matthew has had a life-long battle with a congenital heart defect and has had related issues and problems since birth. He received a Pacemaker when he was only 4 yrs old. Skip to November, 2012. We went for Matthew's regular heart check-up with his cardiologist and were told Matthew's heart was weakening so he would need a defibrillator added to his existing Pacemaker. This was strongly recommended and we went ahead with the surgery April, 2013. However tragically, Matthew ended up suffering devastating complications, resulting in paralysis from the waist-down and brain injury. To say the least, this was shocking and horrific news to us all, as Matthew and our family had already faced so many struggles and set-backs related to his health and heart problems.
Although Matthew suffered some brain damage, he is cognisant and knows what's happened, and although this has been devastating, he has remained very positive and brave, but he now just wishes desperately to be back at home with us, his family, and to be cared for at home.
Since this all happened Matthew is still in the hospital, requiring full-care, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, and also his heart remains weak. It has been a long arduous journey as we are now faced with the biggest challenge ever just trying to get our son home, which we believe will help him continue to improve mentally and spiritually, as he has been in hospital for a very long 17 months.
Therefore, our goal now is to get Matthew home and to meet his needs. We came to the conclusion that an addition onto our home as a fully contained room that is mobility-efficient-accessible would be the best solution for Matthew, and he will also have a sense of independence (unable to do the stairs up and down to the 2nd storey of our home).
Since this ordeal we have discovered that there is little or no financial assistance or help from the government for when a tragedy like this occurs. The only grant available is $5,000.00 dollars for a ramp or lift. We were told by our social worker we have to search out charitable organizations and that this is our only hope.
As you can imagine this is a huge financial burden and bills and costs are astronomical, as well as a huge undertaking and a very stressful time, so we are now seeking every avenue we can for help and funding.
All funds collected will go directly toward the costs of Matthew's care and necessities, which include: various medical equipment, extended home care, medical mobility equipment: adjustable mobility bed, lifting chair, wheelchair; nurse & home care, prescriptions, pharmaceuticals, and the renovation for Matthew's ease-of-mobility & wheelchair accessible bedroom/suite on the main level, and the general ongoing care and living expenses of Matthew.
The renovation/addition will be built from scratch, needs a cement pad poured with footings, and further materials will include: framing, electrical, lighting, drywall, flooring, trusses, roofing, shingles, plumbing supplies, windows, doors, baseboards, bathroom sink, toilet, kitchen sink, kitchen cabinets, kitchen appliances - all wheelchair accessible, handicapped shower, tile, exterior finishing, and a lift for Matthew to enter the house which will be provided by the ramp-up program.
We have received estimates on this proposed project and they are coming in quite high as you can imagine. Unfortunately, we are also astonished to find that some people even take advantage of our situation, in that we are desperate and in urgent need, and have had contractors over-charging and/or not completing tasks as promised, and leaving us to find another contractor to finish work that has already been paid for. But we remain focused and undeterred.
We understand this is a huge expense, we do not expect any individual or organization to contribute a large donation. Our family would be deeply appreciative and grateful if you could help in any way possible as we desperately want to get our son home.
On behalf of Matthew and our family, we would like to thank you very much in advance for your kind generosity, love and support.
Humbly yours,
Brent & Leanne Vargo
Email: bvargo@shaw.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Footnote
In this huge endeavour, Brent and Leanne have had to use borrowed funds to start getting their goals in motion and whatever is necessary to prepare for Matthew's return home. Over the past year and a half, Brent and Leanne are literally working night and day, while still dealing with Matthew in the hospital, doctors, meetings, dealing with contractors, etc. Matthew is still not home and all of their lives have been pretty much on hold. The main goal right now is Matthew's best options and his well-being, all of which involves having Matthew being able to come home ASAP.
Many of you have offered to help. We are asking you to consider giving whatever you can to support Matthew and his parents, Brent and Leanne during this very difficult, stressful time by helping to ease their enormous financial burdens and costs.
With the generous financial support of family, friends and even total strangers, Matthew and his parents can hopefully finally focus on full-time care and support with Matthew at home, where he will be most comfortable, loved and cared for, and wants desperately to be.
Please join me in helping to spread the word and feel free to pass on this FundRazr campaign to include your social network of family and friends. This is their only hope.
Thank you so much,
Kim Barron
(Cousin of Leanne Vargo)
Matthew's Story/History
Matthew Vargo, is our only son. He is now 22, and was born with a congenital heart defect and has had ongoing surgeries his whole life starting at 3 months old to present day. At only 4 years old, he had extensive heart surgery to have a Pacemaker implanted.
There have been plenty of ongoing, extremely hard and trying days through the years for Matthew and our family with Matthew's health and heart problems. He has had a rough go of it but has survived, maintaining strength, a positive attitude and even gratitude.
As previously stated, in November, 2012 we went for a regular heart check-up at Matthew's cardiologist we were told Matthew's heart was weakening so he would need a defibrillator added to his existing Pacemaker. So we went ahead with this surgery and this is where everything went wrong. We were told it would be a 3-4 hour procedure but it went on for 12 hours unfortunately, there were many complications including a huge loss of blood, blood clots and the surgery was not a success. As a result Matthew went into severe heart failure for 3 months. We went to the Foothills Hospital where we stayed for one very long grief-filled month to decide if Matthew was a Heart Transplant candidate or what his options were.
Finally the team decided to fly Matthew to Edmonton, and this is where Edmonton's surgical team decided Matthew was not a good candidate for heart transplant so they decided to try to fix his own heart, which was a very risky procedure.
The surgery on Matthew's heart went well, but when Matthew woke up it was clear he sustained astronomical complications, a brain injury was apparent and paralysis from the waist down. We were extremely shocked and devastated to say the least. The doctor's said they believed that possibly blood clots had traveled to Matthew's spine and head causing loss of oxygen to his brain and cutting off blood supply to the spine resulting in nerve damage.
We stayed in Edmonton for 3 months then returned to the Foothills where Matthew is currently still residing doing physiotherapy and rehabilitation. His brain has almost returned to pre-op except for a few areas. Matthew's legs will most likely never work again, he is paralyzed from the waist down and is learning a completely new lifestyle with a positive attitude and courageous spirit.
Matthew's hobbies and interests are computer gaming and networking, reading, doing puzzles and he loves dogs more than anything, he also loves spending time with his grandparents.
Registered on FundRazr by Leanne Vargo and Kim Barron (cousin of Leanne Vargo) on behalf of their family for their sole use for the necessities and care of Matthew Vargo.
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