SUMMARY: Dr. Brandon Wilson and his family need help. On Wednesday, March 25^th Dr. Brandon was taken to the hospital with extreme abdominal pain that then escalated to vision loss and seizures. After 16 hours of failing to stabilize, he had abdominal surgery and was found to have an abnormally long small intestine and colon that had become entangled and died due to the blood supply being cut off. The dead section was removed. His excessive blood pressure during the medical emergency led to a hemorrhagic stroke in the occipital lobe of his brain. Currently, he has lost some vision that we hope will return. The intestines were reconnected in two locations, but one of the connections ultimately failed and he has been left with a colostomy bag for at least the next six months.  

Brandon has six children and his wife is currently seven months pregnant. They live in an off-grid homesteading community and Brandon goes to his office in the city nearly three hours away several days a week to treat patients at his chiropractic office. At the ranch they are working towards a life of self-sufficiency as they have planted hundreds of trees and have started raising animals for food. Brandon’s income has always provided for their needs. Now, Brandon will be unable to work for the foreseeable future as he recovers. He and his family need to find a short-term rental near medical facilities for at least several months so they will not be able to work the ranch. The family was also in the process of purchasing a larger vehicle for their soon-to-be family of nine.

Dr. Brandon and his family could use our love and support at this time. All contributions will go toward their temporary living expenses, food for the family, and the purchase of a vehicle, as well as medical expenses that are not covered. We know many of you have received great care from Dr. Brandon over the years. He is not only a great chiropractor, but a beloved member of his community and family. Dr. Brandon is a fighter and he has already demonstrated his resilience. We are asking family and friends to help support this family while they are temporarily without income. 

LONGER VERSION:

When I received the call from his wife that evening letting me know that Dr. Brandon had been taken the ER after experiencing severe abdominal pain and then had ended up in a coma, I was shocked. Then when I heard the details of the incident, I started preparing myself to plan for a funeral. CT scans showed a lesion in his brain and another in his colon. His blood pressure was 218/108. As soon as he got to the hospital, he had a seizure, then went unconscious. He then woke up, he pulled out the IV and began to defend himself against the nurses. Five of them had to hold him down to sedate him and he ended up have as many as 50 more seizures. The ER doctor did not think he would make it.

Miracles, and the power of faith and prayer, however, proved to be more powerful. (Throughout this process family and friends from different religions around the country offered to pray, and we felt the power of those prayers.)

Earlier that morning, Brandon had woken up and began to get ready for his day of seeing patients at his office. His pregnant wife and six children were at their home on the ranch nearly three hours away. He had been following the same routine for years that consisted of him going into the city a few days a week to treat patients at his office, then return home for the remainder of the week to work on the projects at their property that included planting over 800 trees and dealing with the many different animals they are raising for food.

That morning was different in that he had extreme abdominal pain. So he called his wife and she encouraged him to go to the hospital. But Brandon had patients coming in later who he had committed to treat, and he needed to make it through the day. Plus, with the birth of their 7th child expected in two months and the expense of the larger vehicle they needed for a family of 9 on the horizon, there did not seem to be any other option. But Shari knew something was wrong and called a friend in the area to go check on Brandon. The friend, who she says typically does not answer the phone, picked up immediately. He rushed over and began to knock on the locked office door, but Brandon did not initially answer. The friend finally got Brandon to open the door and by this time Brandon's vision had started to darken and blur. The friend rushed him to the ER just 6 minutes away. Miracles one and two. Had Brandon been at the ranch, or attempted to drive himself, he likely would not have made it; and if the friend had not answered and gone over when he did, Brandon may have not made it out of the office that day. The last thing Brandon remembers is sitting in the wheel chair in the ER and blacking out.

When Shari received word of what happened, she scrambled to get to the hospital and make sure there was someone to watch the kids. Members of the community at the ranch stepped up and took the kids so she could make the trip to the hospital to be by Brandon's side. Five hours hours later she arrived at the hospital and began to take in the enormity of the catastrophic situation.

After having the scans, the doctors planned to perform brain surgery to determine the cause of the lesion and hopefully eliminate the cause of the seizures. They were guessing that some form of infection or other fluid buildup had made its way to the brain, but worried that he may have contracted meningitis based on his symptoms including his high white blood cell count. For the next 16 hours Brandon was in a medically-induced coma and would not stabilize. The doctors administered blood pressure medication and anti-seizure meds, but to no avail. I received a call at 5:00 a.m. from Shari letting me know the doctors wanted to open Brandon up to address the lesion in the colon instead of the brain to see if doing so would stabilize him. The doctor thought based on the description of the symptoms Brandon had given Shari, the colon could have lost blood supply and died. Shari and I prayed and both felt that the surgery was the proper course of action.

He was taken to surgery about an hour later and his abdomen was opened up. While the doctor was not surprised to find a section of the colon and small intestine had in fact died, he was shocked to find that Brandon's colon as well as his small intestine were much, much longer and larger than they should have been for someone Brandon's size, and would have been too long for most any body. The sheer volume of the intestines had led to the colon and small intestine becoming entangled and cutting off the blood supply. One third of the small intestine and most of his large intestine (colon) had to be removed. According to the surgeon, Brandon's vitals were very stable and he tolerated the surgery very well. His healthy lifestyle of not drinking, smoking, or doing drugs had allowed him to tolerate the stress of surgery. Afterward, his blood pressure stabilized.

The doctors then decided to take another brain scan, this time with contrast, and determined that the lesion was in fact a hemorrhage, and that Brandon had experienced a hemorrhagic stroke in his occipital lobe due to exceptionally high blood pressure. Thankfully, this meant that they were no longer planning to perform brain surgery, but would monitor it to see if they at some point would need to perform a procedure to remove pressure.

After remaining in a coma for two additional days, on the morning of his 46th birthday, they decided to reconnect his intestines. Again he did well during the surgery. They connected the small intestine and colon together, and the two remaining sections of colon together. Shari rejoiced when she saw that he did not have a colostomy bag connected. We all realized this would mean a more complete recovery and greater ability for Brandon to get back to work on the ranch and in his office.

It was later that evening that I was finally able to make it to the hospital so see him. When I walked in and saw him unconscious in the bed, I was taken back to when our father had been on life-support shortly following his 44th birthday. My oldest sister and I later talked about it and we had the same experience and expected the worst. And I felt an extreme amount of compassion for his children who had not seen in him for nearly a week.

The following day, Palm Sunday, he was  brought out of the coma and throughout the day regained consciousness and began to speak, although in a very labored manner. At this point, the biggest worries were his intestines healing and his vision being restored. A number of tests were given and as he was evaluated several times throughout the day. We were grateful he was not completely blind, but was struggling to be able to see and read and had lost the peripheral vision in both eyes to one side. We are hoping it will come back, but it may not.

Tuesday started with a set back with his stomach suction tube had creating pain in his throat. As the day progressed however, he was able to get out of bed and walk down the hall and his catheter and stomach tube were removed. And he finally was able to have liquids for nutrition for the first time in six days. After having some broth and lemon water he said that he never knew lemon water could taste so good.

By Thursday he was having some new symptoms including high white blood cell count and his blood pressure was once again out of whack. Friday morning the surgeon opened him up again and found one of the connections failed and nearly two liters of material (yuck) from the intestines had leaked inside his abdomen. The surgeon said he would have acted sooner if Brandon had behaved as most patients do with pain. (Being a tough old wrestler has been a blessing and a curse through this whole thing.)