Family Asks For 'Prayers And Shares' For Ailing Palos Pastor

PALOS HILLS, IL — If you needed help paying your bills, a wise mentor, or a building to store donations for people left homeless by a fire, the community of Palos Hills has always been able to turn to Pastor Don King, the long-time pastor of New Beginnings Church, 11111 S. Roberts Road.

Now, Pastor Don’s family is asking for “prayers and shares” for the ailing preacher, who is recovering from a difficult open-heart surgery. With heart disease running in his family, Pastor Don conscientiously went in for annual cardiac check-ups. Before the holidays, he received some troubling news from his last doctor’s visit.

“Doctors essentially found some abnormalities,” his daughter-in-law, Danielle King, told Patch. “He went in for a cardiac catheterization and found three blockages. They put a stint in. When he got out of all that, he was told he would need to have open-heart surgery.”

>>> GoFundMe: “Having A Heart for Pastor Don”

The 64-year-old pastor went under the knife on Jan. 17 at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. During surgery, doctors found a fourth blockage. Pastor Don was sitting up in bed after the surgery, talking to his wife, Pam. A few hours later, the chest output tube was filling with blood, an indication of internal bleeding.

The next morning, his chest was reopened, and the bleeding was stopped. For anyone who has undergone open-heart surgery, it is a brutal operation. Surgeons cut through the sternum (breastbone) and spread the ribs, a procedure sometimes called “cracking the chest.”

Since the second procedure, Pastor Don has needed to be on a ventilator, and undergone multiple cat scans, blood transfusions, sedation and rounds of antibiotics. His doctors currently believe he has pneumonia and is going to require a tracheostomy. He has a long road ahead of him but is fighting daily.

“He’s sedated right now,” Danielle King said, who is married to the pastor’s son, Donley. “The sedation can only be lowered so much before he starts to feel pain. Unfortunately, he has never been able to get fully off the ventilator.”

After the trach, the pastor will remain in the ICU for the next several weeks.

“Doctors told us that he’s moving in the right direction, but he’s not out of the woods yet,” his daughter-in-law said. “We just have to be patient.”

The goal now is to get Pastor Don breathing on his own and off sedation. He will most likely have to go to a long-term acute care, or LTAC, facility, that takes acute care patients before they are able to go home.

“He’ll need extensive rehab,” Danielle said. “We have to be assessed before we are accepted.”

Following last year’s Green Tree Christmas Day fire, Ald. Donna O’Connell said Pastor Don opened the New Beginnings church building to serve as a collection point where community members could drop off clothing and household items for the 12 families displaced by the fire.

“He has such wonderful engagement with our community,” O’Connell said. “He’s helped the community out a lot. He and Pam are very giving and kind-hearted.”

Pastor Don has served as New Beginnings' pastor for 17 years and has an extensive extended family around the country. His daughter-in-law said many people who regularly interacted with Pastor Don were unaware of his current health issues. The church offers a benevolent fund to help families facing financial difficulties, and supports the Operation Blessing food pantry; Salem 4 Youth, a residential program for at-risk young men; and PASS, a pregnancy crisis center. In addition, New Beginnings offers its parking lot for student parking and other events at Stagg High School.

Pastor Don’s family has started a GoFundMe campaign to help with his long-term medical costs with a goal of $150,000. They are asking for “prayers and shares.”

“He has given so much to others throughout the years and is now in need. We do not believe Pastor Don's work for the lord is finished, and we hope to help lift the financial burden while he undergoes further financial treatment,” his son Donley wrote on GoFundMe. “If he has touched your life in any way, please repay the favor by sharing or donating what you can. We also ask that you lift him up in prayer.”

To make a donation, visit “Having A Heart for Pastor Don” on GoFundMe.