DAYTONA Fla. – An Edgewater man is in need of a lung transplant and the family is calling on the community to share their fight to help him come home.
Bryce Griffin, 32, is suffering from a severe COVID-19 infection and is undergoing physical therapy to become a candidate for a double lung transplant.
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Griffin’s wife stands beside her husband’s bed in Daytona 12 hours a day.
“We’re just trying to get him stronger, we’re a team him and me, he’s everything to me. He’s my light,” Hailee Griffin said.
Bryce is currently on an ECMO machine. He is not able to speak, but he can mouth words.
Hailee explains the father of two daughters started showing symptoms on July 30.
A few days later he had to be hospitalized and later intubated. Doctors said lung transplant is needed after Bryce’s lungs filled up with dangerous levels of CO2.
He was not vaccinated before contracting COVID-19, which the Edgewater family said is what makes this situation worse because they were already taking steps to get the vaccine.
“It’s a dose of reality, you know, you hear how bad it is and I guess you never expect it to happen to you … we’re doing anything and everything we can, you know we are getting vaccinated as soon as he can handle it and whatnot, so whatever it takes to keep our family strong and together,” Hailee Griffin said.
Bryce’s father said he is frustrated due to several hospitals showing hesitancy, he said, although some are showing interests time is of the essence.
”It’s horrible this is our only son that is in the hospital that needs lungs and if he had the lungs he would be great again,” Randy Griffin said.
Hailee pleads to anyone watching their story to spread her husband’s fight so he can get home.
“If we are given this chance, he is going to make it … he is going to go home. The rest of him is perfect, his brain, his heart, liver, kidneys, he is great … He is willing to fight and do whatever it takes to get home to his girls,” Hailee Griffin said.
Griffin’s family has set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help pay for his medical expenses.