By creator to www.concordmonitor.com
In uncommon moments of solitude, Invoice Burpee footage that infectious smile that so usually crossed his daughter’s face and made others gentle up, too.
He can see Jennifer handing out slices of cake at her nieces’ birthday events and ensuring the pinata, storing a mountain of sweet, was positioned excellent for the following baby to take a swing.
“She was all the time my buddy, my pal,” stated Invoice, a Harmony resident. “I had no clue there was any person round, somebody who she was attempting to steer clear of. After I requested, life was all the time nice, however I used to be all the time suspect there was one thing extra taking place.”
9 months in the past, 45-year-old Jennifer Burpee was discovered useless inside her Manchester house. Prosecutors allege her boyfriend, Damien Seace, broke in and beat her with a chunk of furnishings simply minutes after she frantically known as 911. That July night time wasn’t the primary time police had responded to a report of home violence towards Seace, who data present beforehand threatened to kill Jennifer. Seace now awaits trial in Hillsborough County on prices of first- and second-degree homicide.
Invoice stated he’s numb from the emotional shock of dropping his oldest daughter, who he so usually refers to as his finest good friend. He acknowledges that he has not but correctly mourned Jennifer’s loss of life as a result of his consideration so rapidly turned to his 43-year-old daughter, Amy Burpee, who fell gravely in poor health and now wants a liver and sure a kidney transplant.
The onset of Amy’s signs got here with out warning and the precise reason for her speedy organ failure is a thriller medical doctors are nonetheless working to resolve. She can’t depart Massachusetts Common Hospital in Boston, the place she awaits surgical procedure throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
“It wasn’t lengthy after Jennifer was killed that Amy began having medical points,” Invoice stated in a latest interview. “Shedding a toddler out of the blue, that was horrific. I don’t know that I let myself give it some thought sufficient or as a lot as I ought to. I discover myself excited about it extra in these occasions when there’s a probability that I may lose my different daughter.”
Amy’s identify was added to the transplant ready record early final week. After a sequence of lab exams that concluded in mid-April, medical doctors used a scoring system, referred to as Mannequin for Finish-Stage Liver Illness or MELD, to evaluate the severity of her case and her success price.
“They spent the previous three months attempting to get her energy again as much as get her out of the hospital, even when she was nonetheless on dialysis. The coronavirus is so prevalent that they’re nervous about publicity,” Invoice stated. “However three months later, she continues to be there. She isn’t properly sufficient to go house.”
After surgical procedure, Amy will want a number of weeks of acute aftercare. Invoice, who gives senior in-home care as a licensed nursing assistant, stated he isn’t naive to the challenges forward. Nonetheless, he’s dedicated to doing no matter is critical to assist guarantee Amy can return house to her 4 kids, who vary in age from 12 to 24.
“I’d hand over my well being if I may give it to her, and I’d take care of her medical issues instantly,” Invoice stated. “We’re ready on a miracle now. They instructed me to be ready to get the decision at three a.m. or midnight or at any time when in regards to the surgical procedure. It’s one thing that might occur tomorrow or subsequent month.”
Since Amy’s hospitalization months in the past, Invoice has cared for 2 of his granddaughters, together with the youngest who’s 12. He stated the household has not been in a position to go to Amy on the hospital however that they keep up a correspondence by means of cellphone and video calls at any time when potential.
Invoice stated Amy, a Harmony resident for almost twenty years, stays hopeful and needs to precise her gratitude to everybody who has supported her household by means of a interval of tragedy and uncertainty.
Since childhood, Amy has lived with signs of spinal stenosis, an irregular narrowing of the spinal canal that causes strain on the spinal wire or nerve roots. However that decrease again ache had been the extent of her medical points up till this previous summer season. Attempting to pinpoint precisely why her well being spiraled has been troublesome.
Addison’s illness, a dysfunction during which the adrenal glands don’t produce sufficient hormone cortisol and generally aldosterone, hasn’t been dominated out. Amy was taking medicine for thyroid illness and celiac illness – which causes an irregular immune response to gluten – however these therapies didn’t enhance her situation. Finally, she suffered kidney failure and was placed on dialysis at Harmony Hospital.
“Harmony acknowledged the seriousness of the scenario and stated she wanted to go to right down to Mass. Common due to the probability that she would want a transplant,” Invoice stated. “It was do or die at that time.”
Whereas Invoice understands the extent of aftercare that Amy will want in these vital three months put up surgical procedure, he wrestles day by day with how his household will cowl the prices. Amy would require somebody together with her 24/7 for weeks after the surgical procedure, and Invoice stated he is able to make his house in downtown Harmony out there to her however being on the second-floor presents many challenges. He’s hopeful a first-floor choice in the identical constructing will open up for Amy, who throughout the previous yr has lived in Epsom.
He stated Amy will want a wheelchair-accessible van to take her to her dialysis appointments and in-home nursing care every day.
“At 66, I nonetheless reside week to week, and we don’t have the wherewithal to pay for the whole lot she might want to give her the absolute best end result,” Invoice stated. “I in all probability have a few months of payments put aside however that may solely get us thus far.”
In early April, Invoice launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign with a fundraising aim of $15,000 to assist pay for Amy’s post-surgery bills. The fundraiser has had a gradual begin, bringing in simply over $1,000 within the first few weeks.
“Getting the phrase out at a time when everyone seems to be in a really troublesome place financially has been arduous,” he stated. “I do know it’s quite a bit to ask however I’ve no different.”
Invoice works 40 hours every week as an LNA for the house care company BrightStar Care primarily based in Bedford. A former building supervisor, Invoice joined the well being care area about 10 years in the past as a strategy to give again to his neighborhood. Now, he stated, he’s offering an important service to the state’s most susceptible inhabitants throughout a worldwide pandemic – one thing he by no means may have imagined.
“The truth that there are individuals of their properties in want is what dictates that any person be on the market to assist them. They’re not taking over a mattress in a nursing house, and through this time, we’re attempting to ensure that’s a spot they don’t should go,” Invoice stated.
“I see them battle with having to speak to a member of the family from far throughout the room or exterior the window. However I take that further minute to strike up a dialog, to spark fun or maintain a hand as a result of it makes all of the distinction for them and for me, too.”
Invoice spent about two years caring for his ailing mom in Massachusetts earlier than she moved right into a nursing house. She died shortly earlier than Jennifer was killed this previous summer season.
Invoice stated his job has been a welcome distraction. He’s reminded day by day that he’s not alone in his ache and struggling.
“Being attuned to different individuals’s well-being and their growing loneliness throughout this pandemic helps retains my thoughts busy and jogs my memory that there’s a entire world of individuals on an identical journey of loss,” he stated. “I usually assume that these individuals have helped me greater than I’ve helped them.”
With all jury trials on maintain because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Burpee household awaits information on whether or not the homicide case towards Seace will likely be heard as deliberate in July.
Seace has been detained because the night time of the homicide, when police discovered him hiding in Jennifer’s toilet. Metropolis police had been accustomed to Seace and had beforehand arrested him twice for home violence towards Jennifer, together with in October 2018 when it was alleged he choked her and left crimson marks on her neck.
That felony assault case was in the end dropped by the Hillsborough County Legal professional’s Workplace 5 months earlier than Jennifer was killed. County Legal professional Michael Conlon rapidly got here underneath fireplace after admitting that he was not conscious a prosecutor within the workplace had chosen to not transfer ahead. Colon stated Jennifer had recanted.
The case and others led the New Hampshire Legal professional Common’s Workplace to imagine management of all felony prosecutions within the county final September.
Invoice stated final week he didn’t know Jennifer was courting anybody and had by no means heard Seace’s identify till the identical day he discovered his daughter was useless.
“You need to consider that what you’re listening to isn’t the case and that it has another which means behind it,” he stated.
Months later, Invoice wrestles with whether or not his information of the abusive relationship may have made a distinction.
“I don’t know what I may have carried out however I’d have tried one thing,” he stated.
As a potential trial nears, Invoice stated he intends to be there for Jennifer. He stated Amy all the time deliberate to attend, too, and he’s hopeful that her present medical scenario will enhance so she will.
“I notice I’ve to sit down again and let the wheels of justice flip in their very own time,” he stated. “I simply should hope and pray for one of the best end result.”
For extra info on the net fundraiser, go to the “Assist Us Save Amy Burpee” GoFundMe web page at https://bit.ly/2W6tJdV.
In case you or somebody you already know has skilled home violence, advocates can be found 24/7 to offer free and confidential help by means of the statewide hotline at 1-866-644-3574. You don’t should be in disaster to achieve out.
