Quick info; Todd Koehler is a retired police officer with many years with multiple agencies. He’s the type of guy that will give the shirt off his back for anyone. But now he needs our help.
Todd and his wife Tatiana are preparing to take their eleven year old in for open heart surgery next month. His third time undergoing open heart. Something no child of that age should go through.
They need our help with medical expenses and other costs they were not prepared to take on. Let’s help this family by taking some of the stress of this situation off them.
Give as little or as much as you can. Everything helps.
More Info:
Wyatt is an eleven-year-old boy living in Meridian Idaho that loves playing soccer, hunting with his dad, fishing and more. He’s living as active of a life as he can, but with a few complications. Wyatt was born with congenital heart defects. By the time Wyatt reached around 6 weeks old he was being rushed to the ER to have his chest cavity opened up for his first of many trips to the hospital as an infant. Trips that could have possibly been mitigated if the medical staff where they received pre-natal and post-natal care actually took better care. Wyatt’s heart defects were noted on an ultrasound but ignored by doctors and medical staff and appearing to be swept under the rug. When Todd and Tatiana (Wyatt’s parents) started noticing issues they frantically rushed Wyatt to the local ER where they still met resistance. At this point baby Wyatt was turning blue in the face on a daily basis, struggling to breathe and had begun to go into heart failure as stated by his first cardiothoracic surgeon. It was only after almost getting themselves kicked out of the hospital and demanding help that they were referred to another facility who diagnosed Wyatt suggesting emergency open heart surgery the following week.
It was then that Todd and Tatiana were referred to UCSF where a complex open heart surgery was performed on little Wyatt. Staff explained Wyatt was the most high risk patient in the ICU and would be having a team assigned specifically to him during his recovery. The first four days after surgery doctors had left Wyatt's chest cavity open, for possible emergency which could arise. During his almost 4 weeks in the ICU Wyatt experienced several life threatening complications landing him back in the operating room several times.
Approximately 1 year later Wyatt was back at UC San Francisco where doctors performed a cardiac catheterization in the hopes of pushing off another foreseeable open heart surgery. This procedure only gave Wyatt another six months of freedom when the family realized another surgery would be needed. Wyatt, now just over 2 years old, was on vacation with his family when he began experiencing breathing problems and then turned limp and blue. Todd, Tatiana and daughter Julianna were on a vacation in Flagstaff Arizona when they had to have Wyatt, life flighted to Phoenix children's hospital to be stabilized, due to Flagstaff ER surgeons who were not prepared to treat the condition Wyatt had. Once again Wyatt would undergo open heart surgery this time at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children Hospital. This time Wyatt had one life threatening event during this second surgery. Although scary, this surgery seemed to make the corrections needed that has allowed Wyatt to live a bit more normal of a life. When I say normal it is nowhere near what you and I call normal. Todd and Tatiana constantly live in fear of when the next episode will be. Sometimes things as simple as a little rough play on the couch end in Wyatt struggling to breath and the common upper respiratory cold every winter leads Wyatt to the ER for an injection to clear his airway and help his blood flow.
That being said, in recent years Wyatt has been able to participate in some active sports, go hiking and hunting with dad, and live a bit more of a regular 11-year-old kids life. Things seemed to have gotten better with an occasional scare here and there. That all changed a few weeks ago when Wyatt went in for a routine checkup. After reviewing his X-rays, EKG, echocardiogram, treadmill stress test and blood work doctors noted that two of his heart valves and one of his heart arteries are going to need immediate attention and now possibly a pacemaker. Doctors ask for the surgery to be done in December before Christmas, but Todd and Tatiana requested, with close monitoring they wait until after Christmas, so Wyatt can enjoy his Christmas holiday with his family. Wyatt will need to undergo yet another open-heart surgery after the new year in January. Unfortunately for the family there are no surgeons in the state of Idaho to perform such a surgery. The top pediatric cardiologist for this type of surgery works out of UCSF in San Francisco California. Late January Todd and Tatiana will have to make the trip to California to once again place their child’s life in the hands of the doctors and medical staff at UCSF.
It took some convincing but I was able to convince Todd and Tatiana to let me start this funding opportunity for their family. Believe it or not they both feel they should be embarrassed to ask, but I quickly struck down that notion. You see, none of us thinks to put away funds for a “maybe my kid might have surgery fund”. Todd and Tatiana are facing the reality that Todd will be away from work for possibly 1 month depending how Wyatt does. They may need to fly family and friends into SF in order to get blood donors who are compatible for Wyatt's blood type, due to the American Red Cross in Idaho, who does not allow direct donation, as in other states. Medical co-pays will most likely be in the ten thousand plus range and more not to include travel and care when they return.
As their community I am asking friends, families, and anyone that feels driven to help with this cause to please do so. Todd is a retired police officer who was forced into medical retirement after multiple work-related injuries. If he had his way he would still be working for the PD and doing what he loved, but his injuries resulted in the department deeming him medically too injured to continue in the type of work he was performing. Todd served the communities of Brentwood, California and Alameda County putting his life on the line for its citizens for many years. The early retirement has resulted in loss of funds, loss of additional medical insurance coverage for him and his family causing an undue burden on his family, and stress has taken a large toll on him as a father and provider. The ongoing stress has definitely had an effect on the entire family. It’s sad to know that we take care of our heroes in this way, but truthfully this is where we are at with caring for those who sacrifice for our safety.
Please join us in our effort to help Todd and Tatiana in a very difficult time. They could use the support of our community at this time. No young child deserves to go through something like this and no parents deserve to go through it as well.
