The Fraternal Order of Police-St. Charles Lodge is holding a fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to benefit Deputy Nick Lege and his family.
Lege, a 17-year deputy, is battling heart failure linked to a genetic condition. Last month, he was transported to a hospital in North Carolina to await a heart and liver transplant.
Saturday’s fundraiser will take place in the parking lot by St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office training building at 220 Judge Edward Dufresne Parkway in Luling. Plates by Big Al’s Seafood will be available for $10. All proceeds will go to the Lege family. Jambalaya and white beans or shrimp and catfish plates will be served.
Arielle Lege, Nick’s wife, has stayed by Nick’s side, living in the ICU and rarely leaving the room. She has left the hospital only twice since they arrived on Sept. 5.
“I don’t want Nick to wake up to strangers,” Arielle, who also works for the sheriff’s office, said. “He’s been through so much. I just kind of want to be that comfort for him. I want to be the one that he sees so at least he’s not scared, not alone.”
Arielle had hoped that Nick’s transfer to Duke hospital would be the starting line of his recovery and improvement. But he has experienced several setbacks since his arrival. On Tuesday, he underwent tracheotomy surgery, which doctors hope will help his lungs and body heal enough for a dual transplant. Before the surgery, Nick had undergone several intubations because his oxygen levels declined rapidly.
The day of the tracheotomy surgery was also Arielle and Nick’s 14th wedding anniversary.
“We can celebrate later,” Arielle said of their anniversary. “You really learn what’s important in life when something like this happens.”
The couple share a son, 10-year-old Garin, who is currently staying with family and friends in St. Charles Parish while Arielle tends to Nick. One of the hardest moments so far was when Arielle and Nick had to say goodbye to Garin after his recent visit to North Carolina.
“Not knowing when the next time was going to be, when I would see him again, was hard,” Arielle said. “Because you live in a life of just uncertainty for everything.”
Doctors don’t know when Nick will be ready for a transplant. Arielle has prepared herself for at least two or three months of waiting.
“There’s that fear that I’m either leaving this hospital with him having a new heart and a new life, or I’m going back home as a widow with a ten-year-old,” Arielle said.
Arielle is trying to hold it together for Nick and her son, but she is also juggling the job of updating friends and family on Nick’s care, communicating with various teams of doctors and making tough medical choices when Nick can’t consent – like getting the tracheotomy.
“I’m very concerned, did I make the right decision?” Arielle said. “Would he consider this suffering? But ultimately his goal was transplant and he’s been through so much.”
Arielle sends updates to family and friends on social media. Nick has three adult children from a previous marriage, and Arielle emails updates to Nick’s son, who is currently in the Navy. Nick’s twin daughters visited him in the hospital in late September.
Nick’s health issues began in 2016, a year after Garin was born. It took years for doctors to get a genetic test, which showed that Nick had a genetic condition linked to heart failure.
“I feel if we would have had that sooner, we would have known how it would progress, because it’s a very fast progression, it’s not a normal progression,” Arielle said.
Arielle’s focus now is on Nick’s health, but she is also preparing for difficult financial decisions. After a transplant, doctors require that patients live 30 minutes or less from a hospital for at least the first 30 days. Arielle and Nick recently built their dream home in St. Charles Parish and Arielle hopes to keep it. Large medical bills are on the horizon.
“The fundraiser will be helpful just because we don’t know how long we will be [in North Carolina],” Arielle said. “We would also ask for prayers.”
She said she is thankful for the St. Charles Parish community.
“It’s a wonderful, wonderful parish,” she said. “They have been so supportive.”
The family is accepting donations online.
