Bre Avery Zacharski
Stratford, New Jersey. Jon Aquino is an award-winning nurse, dad, and husband who worked for the Jefferson Stratford Hospital in New Jersey before he became very sick.
Jon tirelessly worked through the pandemic, and his coworkers have called him a truly “incredible nurse.”
He has won an award for the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year as well as another award for providing outstanding care to all of his patients.
It was over this summer on August 25th that Jon and his family were on vacation at the Jersey Shore when he developed an extremely bad fever.
Jon had to be airlifted over to the Cooper Hospital in Camden, where doctors diagnosed him with streptococcal meningitis that had turned into septic shock.
“He had a brain bleed, was in liver and kidney failure, and had to be intubated and sedated,” Maria Giangiulio, a friend of Jon’s, wrote on a GoFundMe page.
“On September 2, Jon regained consciousness, but his journey was not over. As a result of the sepsis, BOTH of his hands AND feet had turned black and needed to be amputated.”
“On September 18th, Jon underwent surgery to have his hands amputated. Just four days later, he was back in surgery to have his feet amputated.”
GoFundMe; pictured above is Jon with his children
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