Local hospitalized in St. Paul, benefit planned

Brandon Malsam worked out of the Ipswich Valley office. He was taken by ambulance from Ipswich to Aberdeen on January 18. He was flown by helicopter to St. Paul, Minn. later that night.

Brandon had emergency surgery in St. Paul around 1:30 a.m. on January 19 to replace a shunt that was put in Brandon's brain last March due to the fact that it was discovered his brain wasn't properly draining and a shunt needed to be put in his brain to correct the problem. It was discovered during the emergency surgery on January 18 that the original shunt had malfunctioned and needed to be replaced.

On January 21 Brandon had another surgery to put in an external valve to his brain to help with the draining of the fluid because the doctors weren't sure if the new shunt was controlling the draining of the fluid in his brain.

On February 3 Brandon has another brain surgery to replace the shunt that was put in on January 19 because the new shunt wasn't working properly. Then on February 5 Brandon had to have emergency surgery to replace a valve to the shunt that was blocked.

Brandon has been relying on a feeding tube to feed him since he got to St. Paul. On February 15, they actually put a feeding tube into his stomach to feed him so that he would not have to deal with the inconvenience of a feeding tube in his nose.

On February 21 it was discovered that Brandon had blood clots in his left leg going all the way up his leg into the pelvic region and to his lung. On February 23 he had surgery to suck out as much of the blood from the blood clots as possible because the doctors were worried about the blood clots spreading farther into his body. They put Brandon on a blood thinner to hopefully control the blood clots.

Brandon has been dealing with multiple medical issues caused by the malfunction of the shunt in his brain. He has been battling to win this fight and come back home for over six weeks. Brandon has been in Allina Health United Hospital in St. Paul, Minn. since January 18. Most of that time has been spent in the ICU Unit of the hospital. When Brandon is able to come home he will require extensive therapy so that Brandon can return to a normal life.

Brandon's father, Conrad Malsam, has been in St. Paul with him since January 29.

A benefit for Brandon is planned on Sunday, March 13 in the Roscoe Legion. Bingo begins at 1 p.m. and supper begins at 5 p.m. An account has been set up at the First State Bank of Roscoe for monetary donations.