Lincoln Park father may never walk or talk after nearly dying from asthma attack

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - A father in Lincoln Park is in need of help after he nearly died when he suffered an asthma attack. He's spent the past three weeks in the hospital, but the road to recovery is uncertain.

Dean Blackburn was with his son Chad on Nov. 26 when he suffered the asthma attack.

"He's at home (and) he says ‘dad I think I need to go to the hospital’ and he's basically turning blue," Dean said. "He says, 'I think I'm going to die.' I said not if I have anything to do with it – and his heart stopped."

Dean immediately started CPR on his 34-year-old son.

"I started doing chest compressions on him and called 911," he said. "They worked on him for 20 plus minutes."

Chad was rushed to Oakwood Hospital where he was intubated and sedated. He's been there ever since.

He suffered brain damage and the loss of his fine motor skills. The father and a carpenter by trade can't walk, talk, or move his arms.

What happened to Chad Blackburn?

Dean said before his son collapsed, he went to a nearby urgent care because he couldn't breathe – but he was turned away.

"I guess he had a little bit of an infection in his lungs so his inhaler was not working, the nebulizer was not working. So he come up here to the urgent care clinic to seek help," Dean said. "They said your insurance is inactive, so we can't treat you unless you have a $100."

Dean says Chad didn't have the cash so he went home and did another nebulizer treatment - which didn't work.

"They could have made all the difference in the world if they would have just checked his oxygen level or dialed 911 for him," Dean said.

A doctor at the urgent care tells FOX 2 they have protocols to treat anyone in distress, regardless of ability to pay. The urgent care is looking into what happened.

What's next?

Dean says Chad is being moved from the hospital to a rehab facility where, hopefully, they will be able to teach him to walk and talk again. But they don't know how much he will recover.

"We're carpenters, so we can build a ramp if we need one, but we don't know what the future holds at this point - it's kind of scary," Dean said.

How you can help

The family set up a GoFundMe to help with Chad's expenses. 

"We don't like to ask anybody for help if we can avoid it. I don't know what else to do," Dean said.

You can help Chad Blackburn and his family on their GoFundMe page here.