As they visited their daughter at St. Luke’s Hospital in Milwaukee Friday, parents Anita and Thomas Bruton were left relying on hopes and prayers.
“The doctors don’t even think she’s gonna make it til Christmas,” Thomas said. “She wants to go way beyond that.”
Thomas reached out to TMJ4 News for help because he wanted to make sure his stepdaughter, Ande Kaczynski, knew she wasn’t alone.
He’s asking community members to join him for a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m. on Saturday near the hospital at Grace Church on 32nd and Oklahoma.
The Brutons told TMJ4’s Tahleel Mohieldin that 38-year-old Kaczynski has been fighting an infection for weeks that despite treatment only seems to be getting worse.
Watch: Mother of five determined to live despite only being given weeks to live
“I already lost my son. I can’t lose my daughter too,” Anita said through tears. “We want to encourage her to fight, to keep fighting. Her kids need her.”
The mother of five told Mohieldin off-camera that she doesn’t want to give up.
Her stepdad said when Kaczynski was given the option to die peacefully she chose to keep fighting through the pain.
“To do everything that they possibly can, no matter how much it hurts and even if it costs a limb,” he explained. “That’s what she chose and what she keeps telling me: it's because of her kids."
He also said though the 38-year-old has struggled with homelessness and drug use she was working on turning her life around. Now Thomas is worried she may never get that chance.
“She is fighting but it’s very easy for her to lose hope because all she keeps hearing every day is it’s not working, it’s getting worse,” he said.
So, to fight the odds the Brutons are praying for a miracle.
“I want to do everything I can to try to keep her here,” Thomas added. “We think that if we have enough people that show her that she’s not alone, that maybe, just maybe, a miracle can happen."
After a community prayer on Saturday, Thomas is also asking people to stick around to sing Christmas carols for Kaczynski. He’s hoping she’ll be able to see people through a hospital window but will also be on a video call to cheer her up.
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