17-year-old hospitalized and being considered for lung transplant following wisdom teeth surgery
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Four months ago, 17-year-old Lonnie Pesterfield, was the picture of health — lifting weights and playing with his siblings in Colorado Springs. Today, Lonnie is in a hospital bed at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora, seeing if he can make the list for a lung transplant.
"To see a child that could be that active and now struggles to walk from a hospital bed to a bathroom that's five feet away, is just heartbreaking," said Lonnie's mom, Stephanie Pesterfield. "I think that we're all just in a state, I feel like since November, we have walked into a nightmare of constant fear."
Lonnie's medical journey started with a dental surgery in October to remove his wisdom teeth.
Seven days later, his mom says Lonnie started coughing up blood, and from that point to today, his health has deteriorated.
Doctors first diagnosed Lonnie with multifocal double pneumonia, but when he didn't get better, they discovered he had a rare autoimmune disease called Vasculitis impacting his blood vessels.
After months of waiting for Lonnie's health to improve, doctors ultimately decided the Pesterfield family should consider putting Lonnie on the list to get new lungs.
Every night, Stephanie is driving from Colorado Springs to Aurora to be with her son, sleeping in the Children's Hospital there before driving back to parent her five other kids here in the Springs.
She says the past four months have been terrifying for her family.
"Never in a million years did I think that it could be permanent damage and that there wasn't a getting better," said Stephanie.
The Pesterfield family has an online fundraiser set up to help with the unexpected medical bills.
If you'd like to help the Pesterfield family, you can donate toward this verified fundraiser.
On the page, Stephanie wrote, "All funds will be used to balance our family during this time and I will only use the money if I absolutely have to. Any money left over will be used for a family trip of Lonnie's choice once he is healed."
