Family’s dream vacation to Hawaii turns into 3-month nightmare after husband hospitalized

HONOLULU (KHNL/Gray News) - A family’s dream vacation to Hawaii turned into a three-month nightmare after a medical emergency left them stuck on the island.

Ellen Ennis Smith, her husband, PJ Smith, and her adult son, Geoffrey, arrived in Hawaii from North Carolina on April 9, excited for what they called the “trip of a lifetime.” The vacation started off with wonderful memories, but months later, the family is making tearful visits to the hospital and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and soup in a hotel room, KHNL reports.

Ten days into the family’s trip, PJ Smith was hospitalized for a severe fungal lung infection and put in a medically induced coma. He went into kidney failure and needed dialysis. He also caught pneumonia and had to be intubated.

“I can probably count on one hand how many nights I’ve slept through the night in this last three months. I just can’t sleep,” Ellen Smith said. “There have been many nights where I thought he [PJ Smith] was going to die in Hawaii. The doctors thought he was going to die in Hawaii.”

The ordeal has also taken a toll on Geoffrey, who has cerebral palsy and is missing his own physical and emotional therapy, including riding horses as part of the North Carolina equestrian team, a spot he could lose if he doesn’t return soon.

“I can see his gait has changed as he’s not had therapy in three months,” Ellen Smith said. “I can see emotionally he’s breaking down more.”

But going home is not going to be easy.

PJ Smith is no longer on life support, but he is still too weak to take a commercial flight. Medical transport from Kuakini Medical Clinic to a hospital in Durham that can care for him will cost $140,000. Only $50,000 is covered by the family’s travel insurance.

Now, Ellen Smith is left with a tough decision: whether to go home without her husband.

“One of the things that scared me is if I leave him here without the support, he’s gonna just give up. And I’m gonna lose him here in Hawaii, but this time I won’t be here,” she said. “I feel like if I leave PJ here, I’m a bad wife. If I don’t get [Geoffrey] back, I’m a bad mom. It’s just been very emotional, very hard.”

PJ Smith is a fighter, his wife says, a trait honed from his days as an Air Force pilot, and she’s a fighter, too, finding strength through people who want to get them home. Donations to a GoFundMe have raised nearly $80,000 for the family.

“Now, because of just the graciousness and kindness of people, where the tunnel was dark, I’m seeing light that we might pull this off. We might be able to get him [PJ Smith] home,” Ellen Smith said.

The family says any donations to their GoFundMe above the original goal of $70,000 will go to PJ Smith’s continued expenses for medical care and rehab. He may need one to two months of rehab, even if no complications arise during his anticipated travel and recovery.