After her condition worsened, her sister, MSU alumna Kelly Blakeslee, started a GoFundMe website this past week to collect donations for Stacy’s medical bills and the many expenses that come with recovery. Friends from high school, neighbors and even complete strangers have been reaching out to help.

In the short time the website has been up, the community response has been inspirational.

“You might know the person, or they might be someone anonymous who just wants to donate money, which is rare to see these days,” her fiancé Brandon Childers said. “It really restores your faith in humanity.”

Stacy’s condition started during her interview in early December for her dream job at Paws With a Cause, a non-profit organization that trains assistance dogs for those with disabilities. Childers said he knew something was wrong when she told him she felt shaky during the two-hour interview process.

She was taken to urgent care a few days later on Dec. 7 with flu-like symptoms. When those symptoms were still persistent the next day, Stacy was sent to the emergency room, where it was discovered her platelet count — blood particles that help with a person’s blood clot — was dangerously low at 9,000 platelets per microliter. The normal count is 150,000 to 400,000 platelets per microliter, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s website.

“She could have bumped her arm or bruised her head and bled out,” Childers said. “They said, ‘We don’t know what’s wrong, but we know this is wrong. You’re going to have to go to a bigger hospital.’”

Stacy and her mom, Patricia Blakeslee, went by ambulance to the University of Michigan Health System hospital in Ann Arbor. Childers joined them the next morning. Stacy was put on antibiotics, but only continued to get weaker as time went on. She didn’t even have the strength to itch her nose, much to her frustration.

Her body then went into septic shock from an infection, prompting doctors to heavily sedate her and put her on a ventilator. Stacy’s mom said the tangle of IVs running up her arms at that point made them look like Christmas trees.

“The next couple of days were really hard because nobody understood what was going on,” Childers said. “Nobody knew what she had.”

The doctors soon discovered that Stacy had a severe staph infection that damaged one of her heart valves. Every time her heart beat, the infection spread to other areas of her body, including her brain. This caused a number of aneurysms to form in her brain. Stacy would need surgery to repair the valve, but doctors decided to wait due to the risk of her bleeding out.

They instead took her off the ventilator, and her condition seemed to improve. She was writing and using sign language to communicate with her gathered family. This improvement lasted until Dec. 24, when she experienced a massive stroke because of a burst aneurysm, Childers said. Doctors rushed her into surgery that night, and what followed was silence.

“It was about two weeks of her just laying there,” Childers said. “You couldn’t get anything out of her.”

The past week and a half has given the family new reasons to hold on to hope: Stacy has been able to open her eyes slightly and look around more, as well as yawning more often. These little things could lead to better results — the doctors told the family that yawning is a sign of the brain resetting itself.

Her father, Dale Blakeslee, swears that she waved at him with her foot.

As she continues to grow stronger, her family and fiancé have found unrelenting support in each other. Someone always makes sure to be by Blakeslee’s side when the others have to return to their lives, no matter the commute. At least five days a week, Dale Blakeslee drives from Lansing to Flint, Mich., for work, then from Flint to Ann Arbor to stay with his daughter through the night.

The Spartan community also has shown its support. Men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo sent her a signed photograph and a letter, and her professors have sent emails wishing her well. When they found out about Stacy’s condition, which began right before her last finals week at MSU, they said not to worry about final exams.

She officially became an MSU graduate while lying in a hospital bed.

Childers described his fiancé as a loving, bubbly person who always finds a way to connect with people, usually through her passion for dogs and other animals.

“She’s going to be freaked out when she wakes up,” he said. “All of these fundraisers and news stories and people just coming at her.

“It’s gonna scare her because she doesn’t like being the center of attention, but I think she’ll get over it.”

Outside of the website, Kelly Blakeslee has made t-shirts in support of her sister. The family will also be hosting various events, including a dinner event at the end of January and a “polar punch” event in March. While donations will hopefully continue to help, everyone shared appreciation for the numerous prayers and good thoughts that have been sent their way.

“People all around the country are praying for her,” Patricia Blakeslee said. “Even people we don’t know. … It’s comforting to stand around Stacy and pray together.”