Staff writer
Cindy Taylor, owner of Cindy’s Family Cafe in Marion, is headed to New York Monday on what will be an expensive mission toward better health and less pain. But she needs a little help to get there.
Taylor has an abdominal hernia that’s far beyond commonplace. The rift in her abdominal wall is so large that her internal organs are no longer in the proper places. The shift is obvious in a large bulge on the left side of her abdomen. Her pain has increased to the point she’s had to cut back on her hours at the cafe.
The hernia stems back to 2004 when she had surgery to correct a back problem. The surgeon opened the front of her abdomen to reach her back and fixed the problem.
The hernia appeared three years ago.
“I went to Omaha and had mesh put in place,” Taylor said. “I came back to Marion and it was infected mesh.”
Her Marion physician said 75 percent of the mesh used to close the hernia was infected, and sent her back to Omaha to have the mesh replaced.
“Then I got out and I was still infected,” Taylor said. “Then I went to McPherson. They saved my life in 2013 when they took the mesh out.”
The emergency trip to McPherson required that Taylor be put into a medically induced coma. Physicians told her family she would likely live only 48 hours.
The toll on her family cost her brother’s life, Taylor said. He’d stopped drinking years earlier, but when he heard she would die within hours, he went home and drank so much that he died.
Searching online, she found a hospital in New York that can do the surgery for extensive repair she now needs.
“They’ll put everything back where it’s supposed to be and they’ll put a new type of mesh in there,” Taylor said. “I just want to get well so I can be the person I used to be.”
Her daughter will accompany her to New York for her initial consultation.
“This first time, I don’t know how long I will be,” Taylor said. “I’m taking my x-rays and CAT scan results with me.”
After the consultation, it may be that an opening in the operating room schedule can be found promptly, or she might have to come back to Marion and wait.
Since the hospital doesn’t have lodging available, she has located a hotel nearby. The cost of the room will be $400 per night.
Taylor’s friends and employees, Gretchen Bernhardt, Donna Lyons, and Andrea Hager, are staging a Saturday fundraiser for Taylor.
A buffet dinner featuring fried chicken and homemade lasagna will be offered from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Cindy’s Family Cafe. Following will be a silent auction. Live entertainment will be provided as well.
To donate items for the auction, call Bernhardt at (620) 381-0452, Lyons at (620) 381-0299, or Hager at (620) 381-0059.
A gofundme.com account also has been set up for donations.