GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — A West Michigan woman says her husband’s health recently took a turn for the worst, but now, her community and coworkers are stepping up to help.
Samantha Zentner has worked at The Find Discount Retail in Grand Haven for just six months.
Samantha’s daughter caught influenza A while at school back in December. The entire house ended up getting sick, but everyone was able to bounce back except her husband, Kyle.
“It just hit him like an illness that, you know, wouldn’t normally hit him. Usually, we’re pretty good at bouncing back,” Samantha told FOX 17. “By the time we went to the hospital the next day, they said that…it started out with his influenza A and then it went to somehow, the strep bacteria got involved and invaded his upper lobes of both lungs, causing pneumonia. The pneumonia then went to his bloodstream, so he had severe sepsis, and it had mitigated into his shoulder and his joint of his right arm.”
Kyle was diagnosed with severe sepsis with multiple organ failure and pneumonia.
He ended up in the Intensive Care Unit and had to be intubated for 19 days. After that, he had to learn how to walk again.
“I take him to rehab four times a week…Occupational rehabs to physical rehabs where he’s just kind of learning how to get feeling back into the strength to kind of be mobile still,” Samantha explained.
Kyle has made significant progress. Now, he can use a walker and get back in the kitchen doing what he loves: cooking with his daughters.
“It was one of those cases where the doctors didn’t think he even had a chance really, so the length that he’s come so far is beyond amazing,” Samantha added.
Samantha’s husband has eight more weeks of intense rehabilitation and meets with a surgeon soon.
However, there’s still a long road to recovery. Not just for Kyle, but also for his family which suffered financially during his health scare.
“I want to help her. I see her struggling on Facebook with her posts or her text messages. They kind of break my heart,” Devin Desauteles, Samantha’s coworker, said. “So I just wanted to jump in there and try to take some relief for her.”
Desauteles hasn’t known Samantha and her family that long, but she came up with a way to help them: an auction.
“I thought if we gathered a bunch of stuff from customers or anybody that we could auction them off to try to raise money for Samantha and her family to get them back on their feet again,” Desauteles explained.
“I’m not a crier, but man, this has got me this last year and it’s just, wow. It’s a struggle, and, you know, everybody’s struggling right now, so when people are so genuine it just, I don’t know, it’s appreciated,” Samantha said.
They’re accepting furniture, jewelry, home décor and much more.
You can also give monetary donations at the store, which is at 807 Robbins Road in Grand Haven.
The auction will take place on Facebook Live on Thursday, March 16 at 1 p.m.
