Assistance to Cover Medical Fees & Consult Costs

Hi folks, I’m Angus T. Smith.

 

I have been facing tricky medical circumstances over the last 17 years.

I’ve been diagnosed & partly treated with several outlined medical conditions, so please bear with me.

 

I have a rare condition called MALS (Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome), where a ligament was removed surgically from my chest in September 2019, which was closing off the celiac artery supplying oxygenated blood flow to several digestive organs for around 17 years; everytime I exhaled from my Thoracic Diaphragm; causing immense pain after eating. I have been told the artery is still damaged & occluding from my last MRE. 

 

The Median Arcuate Ligament essentially acts like a hammer and the celiac axis acts like an anvil, compressing the take off of major vessels and squeezing Ganglion Plexus nerves in between. See Picture Below.

 

The pain was so bad it caused me to avoid eating (called food aversion), which leads to weight loss (often more than 9KG); in my case 12KG this admission. I would bring up around 150ml of Bile each morning (Nausea/Vomiting), Diarrhea & Delayed gastric emptying (a delay in food moving from the stomach into the small intestine). I've been told I have anxiety & eating disorders (bulimic) by people & doctors leading up to the complete diagnosis in 2019 - after 17 years of not being able to gain any weight since I was 16, I am now 33 years old. This has only been partly treated.

 

 

 

 

The MALS ligament surgery wasn’t completed correctly within the public health system; a large Celiac Ganglion nerve group within my plexus wasn’t removed and coincidentally landed me back in hospital for 18 days from the 8th March - 25th March 2022; losing 12 kgs, a large sum of wages & will require some heavy surgical intervention over the coming months, which will require multiple fundraisers.

A Mesenteric Lymphangioma, is a lymphatic tumour within the lymph system of the mesenteric sack holding my digestive organ's in-place with adhesions to the bowel wall; disrupting my digestive system multiple times a day & on occasions causing Small Bowel Obstructions for my small intestine, causing Intussusception, bleeding & immense pain which can only be solved by hospitalisation, this is rare in adults & is more commonly a pediatric issue faced by children & infants. This remains untreated.

 

I have lost $7'000+ of my full-time wages from being hospitalised & now unable to work; with no sick leave accumulated; there are also ongoing private consult costs, flights & private surgical costs ahead for the surgeon to trim or remove this nerve group from my chest, which was why I was recently hospitalised amongst a Small Bowel Obstruction & Internal Digestive Bleeding from an unknown location in my Upper GI tract, with 11 days of Melena which is considered a medical emergency as it arises from a significant amount of bleeding. This was untreated by the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital - QLD.

 

Any donation that can be put forward would be appreciated working towards a faster surgical procedure rather than waiting in the public system, which we all know can be tedious and longer than expected.

 

All the surgery costs are estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars and shall be raised at a later stage. I am not expecting this target to be reached in one fundraiser, so I'm doing these one at a time based on what is required, any assistance towards my consults and costs leading up to the larger surgeries would be greatly appreciated, hence the $20'000 target.

 

The $20'000 being raised in this initial fundraiser, is going towards my Upper Gastrointestinal scopes on the 5th of May 2022 through a private clinic to one of the best Gastroenterologists in Queensland; covering the clinics fees + anaesthetist fees + surgeon fees + my loss of wages for bills; they're attempting to identify any damage or lesions for the bleeding I sustained for multiple days leading up to my 18 days of hospitalisation which the public system overlooked and left me in the state I am now; my mental and physical health has been drastically affected.

 

I really need some assistance here.

 

Kindest Regards,

Angus T. Smith