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Alliston couple seeking help to pay husband’s medical bills

April 13, 2016   ·   0 Comments

An Alliston couple is asking the community for a helping hand.

Cassandra Sigler, 22, and her 33-year-old husband Jared, an American citizen, are facing thousands of dollars in medical bills and they are looking to raise funds to help pay the mounting costs. To make matters worse, Jared is in a coma.

At the end of February, Jared starting having excruciating pains in his abdomen. After they visited Stevenson Memorial Hospital in their hometown of Alliston, doctors prescribed hemorrhoid medication and sent him away.

The pain did not go away, so the next day the couple went to Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket. There, a CT scan determined that Jared had a large blockage in his bowel. They treated him with antibiotics for about four days to try and get the inflammation of the colon to subside, but that didn’t work and the mass grew larger. Doctors had to perform emergency surgery to prevent his bowel from perforating. A planned three-hour surgery took almost seven hours.

“They removed the section of his colon that was diseased with what they later determined was diverticulitis, a disease that is common but affects less than five per cent of people younger than 40 to the severity that my husband had it,” explained Cassandra in an e-mail to The Citizen. “A stoma was created on his abdomen. He spent another week in the hospital to recover after the surgery and finally came home. We were relieved he was home and recovering and the worst was over. So we thought.”

About two weeks after he was released from the hospital, Cassandra came home from work one day to find Jared feeling very weak and having difficulty breathing. She took him to the Alliston hospital again and they determined by CT scan that a large blood clot had travelled to his lung. They intubated him with a ventilator to keep him breathing and proceeded to transfer him to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie to their intensive care unit. On the way, he went into cardiac arrest on the shoulder of Highway 400.

“I was following in my car and witnessed everything,” wrote Cassandra. “It took the EMTs about seven minutes to resuscitate him and then we continued to RVH, I then in a police car escorting the ambulance. Once at the hospital, he coded another four times and needed almost an hour of CPR and a dozen different drugs to bring the blood clot down so his heart could pump freely. The doctors kept telling me he was not going to make it, but miraculously, he did. However, because of the lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain, he is currently in a coma and has been for almost two weeks. There is no way of knowing if or when he will wake up.”

Jared is an American citizen who applied for permanent residency in November but because the process takes so long, he is still not eligible for OHIP, therefore has to pay for every hospital visit, every doctor that sees him, the surgery, every scan and tests.

“Depending on how long he spends at RVH and then all of the rehabilitation and recovery if and when he wakes, we could be facing up to $100,000 of medical bills,” Cassandra explained.

Cassandra works at The Hair Gallery in Alliston and they are holding a fundraiser to help raise money to pay the medical bills. For a cash donation of $100, supporters will receive hair and makeup and a photo shoot complete with 10 high resolution photos to take home. The Hair Gallery is located at 3 Victoria St E, Alliston. The Hair Gallery’s Facebook page is www.facebook.com/The-Hair-Gallery-Salon-Spa-329464924813/. They can also be reached at 705-434-9220.

Cassandra has also set up a gofundme page if people would just like to donate – gofundme.com/hvsspat8.

FUNDRAISER THIS WEEKEND

The Hair Gallery in Alliston will be hosting a fundraiser this weekend in support of Jared Sigler.

This Sunday, April 17, customers can get a shampoo, blow dry, makeup application and a head shot for a $100 donation. The salon is also offering men’s haircuts for $20. In addition to the special offers, gift baskets will also be auctioned off at the event.

All proceeds will go towards Jared’s hospital bills.

The Hair Gallery is located at 3 Victoria St E, Alliston. For more information, contact the salon at 705-434-9220.

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