Andrew Thompson is a well-known and respected chef in the MOV and I consider him a friend. He’s a hard-working, family man with a wife and four daughters at home. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Andrew aka Chef Drew over the past year. It’s difficult to watch him and his family struggle. I’m asking for any help that you can offer at this time. It goes directly to him and his family so he can spend this time healing and focusing on his health.
In the past few months, Chef Drew has essentially, been fighting for his life and doing everything he can to support his family while doing so. I’ve seen him in the kitchen many times over the past few weeks, trying to assist the staff in making things happen while it is obvious that he’s in pain and needs to be resting. He’s missed a lot of work over the past few months due to being in the hospital so frequently. As we all know, we don’t live in a world that allows us to not work with a family that counts on us.
In March of this year, Drew was taken to the Emergency Room in severe pain and it was discovered that he had a perforated bowel, he had gone septic, and had “the most severe case of Diverticulitis the doctors had ever seen in someone his age”. At the end of April, Andrew had appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery to have it removed. Proceeding that was 12 days of outpatient antibiotics through a PICC Line but it did not get rid of the infection nor could they figure out what strand of bacteria was causing it.
Doctors told Andrew that the only way to move forward with the infection still in his intestines was to have surgery to remove the infected area. On May 30th, he underwent a 5 hour surgery due to the damage and adhesions inside. He was released two days later and everything seemed fine until he started having extreme pain and spiked a fever on June 3rd. They determined the anastomosis (intestinal connection) had failed and he was leaking fluid into his abdomen. His small intestines were paralyzed and he was septic again. He underwent another 3 hour surgery that again was not successful. He’s currently in the hospital but doctors say it will be another 8 weeks before they’re able to try the surgery again.
Thank you for taking the time to read his story and supporting the Thompson family!
Prayers for Chef Drew and his family.
