Support needed for family following rare medical crisisDate: 9/19/2023 LUDLOW — When Joe Codding took a break from his job as a gunsmith at Smith & Wesson in Springfield, he went to the vending machines and ran into a fellow employee he had never met. She spoke three words that would change his life — ”I like Twinkies.”
“She was trying to get a Twinkie and it was stuck. We just got to talking and then we went on a couple of dates and here we are,” he said.
Joe and Kali Codding of Ludlow were married six years ago, and last December she gave birth to their baby boy. But by May, Kali was feeling run down. She had a hard time breathing, started coughing and was weak. She suffers from asthma, so she thought it was that, plus the exhaustion that comes with caring for a newborn. But her health kept worsening.
“What really made me nervous was the chest pain. I went to the emergency room at Baystate Medical Center and they told me if I had come an hour later, I would have gone into cardiac arrest,” she said.
Kali spent a week in Baystate, where she was medicated, stabilized and sent home. The 35-year-old mother of three was suffering from post-partum cardiomyopathy, a rare heart condition triggered by the birth of her third child. The affliction causes heart muscles to weaken until it stops beating.
When she returned home, Kali hoped her life would return to normal, but the worst was yet to come. She continued to decline and turned to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Doctors told her she had three months to live unless she stayed in the hospital while they continued her care.
“In my mind, I’m like, ‘Hell no. I’m not going to be away from my kids again,’” Kali Codding said. “The doctor cornered my husband and said, ‘If you don’t convince her to stay here, she’s going to die. She’s not going to make it.’ My husband convinced me to stay in the hospital. He said, ‘Would you rather be away from the kids for a little while or forever?’”
Four days after that conversation, doctors told the couple Kali’s heart was beyond repair. She heard the news in person. Her husband heard it on a video call he took from his work bench. Joe was at work because he had used all of his 12-week family leave benefits when their son was born.
“I watched the doctor reach over to comfort my wife and that’s what I should be doing. I should have been there, and I had to watch someone else comfort her. I’m grateful the doctor was there to do that, but it was very difficult to see,” said Joe Codding.
The medical staff began considering their options. A heart transplant was ruled out because her antibodies were so aggressive, they would reject the life-saving organ. Doctors had another idea. They recommended open heart surgery to attach a left ventricular assist device to her heart, relieving stress on the organ by helping it pump blood.
Kali had the surgery and is now home doing as much as she can to take care of the family, cook, clean and be a mother — all while carrying around 7-pound batteries that power the LVAD during the day and recharge overnight though a cable that passes through her stomach.
The family is incurring massive bills for everything from mortgage payments, food and diapers to the skyrocketing cost of medical care and medicine that insurance won’t cover. Joe said it’s impossible to pay for it all on his salary and Kali is not working, so his brother, Mike Codding, is stepping in to help, launching an online GoFundMe campaign and planning a fundraiser for the family.
“Catastrophic illness like this is the number one reason for homelessness and bankruptcy in the country,” said Mike Codding. Numerous studies, including one from Washington University and Physicians for a National Health Care Program, have found this to be true.
“I don’t want that to happen to my brother and family,” he said.
Joe said family members are helping care for the children, people have dropped off food and the GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $50,000, only a fraction of what the family needs to finance Kali’s life-saving care.
Joe isn’t comfortable receiving what he calls “handouts,” but he recognizes the family’s dire financial straits. “We had mixed feelings about the fundraising but it’s really helping my family,” said Joe Codding.
Kali says her husband is the social one in the family, playing football when he attended Ludlow High School and more recently coaching the school’s varsity team. Quick to make people laugh, she said Joe is a big, likable guy well-known in this close-knit community.
“All of the help we’ve received blows my mind. People really do care. They’ve shown us their humanity. I never in a million years would have expected the amount of support and love we’ve gotten. It’s humbling. I’m so touched by it,” said Kali Codding.
A gym teacher in Springfield, Mike is older than Joe and is doing what he can to help his brother.
“My family means everything to me,” said Mike Codding. “I don’t want them to go walk this terrible road alone.”
Mike is organizing a fundraiser to take place at Vanished Valley Brewing, 782 Center St., Ludlow on Oct. 22. There is no admission charge. The brewer is donating a portion of proceeds from food and beer sales to the Codding family. There will also be a 50-50 raffle along with drawings for other prizes. The event runs from noon to 7 p.m.
The GoFundMe page is still live. Donations can be made by visiting GoFundMe.com and searching for Help the Codding Family or https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-codding-family. Anyone with questions can email them to codman25@yahoo.com.
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