Couple Joey and Casi Rott felt like they were on top of the world after successfully delivering the three new addition to their family of four.
But two days after returning home, according to a PEOPLE story, Casi experienced a sharp pain in her chest, and her heart started racing.
Her husband Joey rushed her to the hospital then to have tests done. A CT scan revealed that blood clotting had occurred in her lungs, so she spent two days at the hospital.
Minutes after she returns home, however her chest pains returned, and when it didn’t subside, they drove to the hospital again.
On their way there, with Joey in panic behind the wheel, Casi lost consciousness.
“I was trying to wake her up,” he recalled. “The [doctors] worked on her for a long time, but there wasn’t a whole lot they could do.”
Casi died that day.
Life as a single parent
Four moths after his wife’s death, Joey now raises their five children as a single parent.
Life isn’t easy for him and his family, but Joey said that things are starting get better each week.
He wakes up at 6:30 in the morning with his eldest daughters Tenley and Chloe. By 7AM, his mother Barbara drops by to help with running the household. Meanwhile, his father Chuck also comes to lend a hand.
“I just want to make sure I raise them all well, but I know I will because of the help I have,” said Joey. “I can’t do it on my own.”
Weeks after Casi’s death in February, Joey went back to work so he could pay the bills, but every day looked forward to coming home at 5 and be a father to his children.
Photo credit: PEOPLE
“The moment he walks through the front door, he goes into dad mode, changing diapers, mixing formula and breast milk (donated from other women) and soothing his babies to sleep,” said the PEOPLE story. “To stay organized, he keeps track of the exact time each baby is fed.”
The Rott’s friends also set up a GoFundMe page to help ease the family’s financial difficulty.
The campaign’s target was $10,000.
In three months, friends and family and random strangers all over the world had raised $160,415.
“The support has been unbelievable,” Joey says. “Everyone has come forward.”
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