A Meaningful Donation to the Team that Saved My Son's Life
A Journal Entry Written By: Bill Fliess, AVP | Credit Manager at Community State Bank
This year when Community State Bank announced the #Gift2Giving program I knew exactly where I wanted to apply my funds.
November 3rd, 2022 my son, Will, was born a happy healthy baby boy. 3 weeks later he had stopped eating, was hardly waking up, had developed a bad cough, and was losing weight. The day after Thanksgiving we took him into Children's Urgent Care in Kenosha .
The doctor at Urgent Care requested a number of tests and after a short time they had come back to the examination room and told us that they had been in contact with the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital Team. The doctor had us directly transferred to the emergency room in Milwaukee.
When we arrived, the team was already prepared to admit my son. They moved him to an examination room and began doing some tests. That night they had determined he had contracted RSV. We were sent home with instruction to return if any fever or additional symptoms developed.
We went home and that night my son had a 101° fever. So we went back to Children’s Hospital. After a battery of tests on him, the doctors had informed us that they wanted to test him for Meningitis, and that this would involve a lumbar test where they would test his spinal fluid and that we would have to leave the room for it. My wife and I waited nervously in the waiting room for any sort of update. When the nurse came back she had informed us that my son had stopped breathing and was in a resuscitation room and they had stabilized him and we were ok to come back and see him. The number of doctors and nurses looking after him was shocking, yet also amazing. It seemed like all hands were on deck to make sure he was ok. We were at the right place.
The emergency room doctor then informed my wife and I that they wanted to keep him until they had all the results and we would be staying there. Once we were up in his room we were told it was more than RSV that Will had. Will was diagnosed with Bacterial Meningitis, an infection on his brain. This meant that he would be on a very strong antibiotic for three weeks through an IV.
During those three weeks we had nurses checking on him every half hour, measuring his head for inflammation, making sure he was staying hydrated and making sure everything was normal. Daily, the medical team had meetings to discuss Will's progress. Bre and I were treated like a part of the team and were included every step of the way.
We had infectious disease doctors, hematologists, speech and occupational doctors, resident doctors and numerous nurses all taking care of him. After a short time of him being there one of the nurses felt his leg looked abnormal. She immediately called in the doctors to look and discovered that he had developed a blood clot. Without her attentiveness, this wouldn't have been caught. Will was then placed on blood thinners, along with his antibiotics.
I remember one of the doctors state to us, "Right now isn't boring and it will become boring eventually. When it does, that means things are getting better." Eventually things did get "boring" and Will was healed. He was healed because of an incredible team of doctors that went above and beyond to get him well again.
Last year as I was sitting in the hospital with Will I remembered the #Gift2Giving program and thought to myself that I needed to share my son’s story and make my contribution to Children’s Wisconsin and its Kenosha Clinic. I'm happy to say that a total of 38 total individuals have contributed their funds to this donation and an additional 5 others gave of their own personal funds.
I'm so grateful for all that Children's Wisconsin has done for our family and what they do for others in the community. They saved my son's life. Thank you! Our CSB Marketing Team created a video that shares our entire experience with Children's Wisconsin and their Kenosha Clinic. You can watch that story below!
To anyone interested in donating to children's you can learn more: giving.childrenswi.org
Contributing CSB Employees: Bill Fliess, Heidi Conde, Katie Stolp, Karen Jorgensen, Katielynne Olszewski, Susan Bork, Dave Moyer, Peter Schumacher, Mandi Maas, Sara Putz, Molly Krause, Donna Daniels, Bob Findysz, Seth Meyer, Marion Myers, Sandy Lompa, Dave Schalk, Nick Dawley, Rich Behls, Terri Lott, Amanda Campagna, Brian Lois, Shanandoor Kanter, Cyndi Lambdin, Jennifer Braun, Miranda Swirth, Shelly Petrick, Scott Huedepohl, Ryan Baronsky, Joe Putz, Jeaneen Acklam, Rachael Ahrens, Brianna Behringer, Teresa Frelk, Barb Blazina, Jackie Kolbeck, Lisa Galvan