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Air Force Veteran with Stage 4 Leukemia

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Sgt. Ethel Moorman  served honorably in the Air Force from 1969 to 1972, as a med tech during the Vietnam War stationed at Wiesbaden Air Force Base. She cared for our brave soldiers injured in battle.

Ethel married an Air Force Sgt. She had her first child in Germany, Wendy. And then returned stateside, and had her second daughter two years later. She attended Stephen F. Austin College and earned a B.A. in Science. 

After moving to Dallas, she attended University of Texas of Dallas  and received her teaching certificate in secondary education. Ethel taught at a private school Shelton.  After a couple of years there she went to work as a private tutor teaching the SAT and fell in love with the job.  Many of her students went to the best colleges in the country. 

 She has been tutoring SAT students for over 25 years.  9 years ago she became extremely ill and ended up in Parkland Hospital. After multiple tests, her doctor ordered two pints of blood to be administered and she was diagnosed with Primary Myelofibrosis  (Leukemia). 

Her doctor advised her to have the standard of care, and advised her that if she did not, her life expectancy would be 2 years. This was utterly devastating to say the least, and caused her to suffer from severe depression. Her daughter Wendy stepped in and learned everything about her prognosis and found out the standard of care killed 4 out of 6 patients.  Ethel asked if there were medical trials that could help her fight for her life.

Ethel has completed 5 different medical drug trials, with mixed results.  Some medicine helped, and she improved. Later, the drug was recalled by the FDA. Two days later, she had pneumonia causing her to go back into the hospital. Her doctor found her a new drug trial in Houston. After several drug trials and 20 trips back and forth to Houston and many hospital visits, the drugs stopped working.

Ethel went back to UT Southwestern in Dallas where her doctor put her on a drug holiday. After this, her blood had stabilized. Over the last 9 years Ethel has had had over a 21+ blood transfusions so far. She is very tired, she sleeps 16 hours a day and has not held on to a steady job in years. Her memory gets foggy every time her blood is low and has gotten very forgetful at times. She is a brilliant woman, but sometimes she struggles remembering things. 

Ethel's spleen has swollen to the point were she looks 9 months pregnant. It is squishing her liver and causing intestinal distress. Her physician Dr. Patel has done many tests on her. She has passed them all and has been told she is a perfect candidate for a bone marrow transplant and that the odds of survival have gone up dramatically in the last 9 years. Ethel has severe scarring in her bone marrow, and the chemotherapy they will be using on Ethel is the strongest one they have because of the heavy scarring. This could possibly make her live in a somewhat vegetative state (for recovery) for a year and a half to two years. The hopeful outcome is that she will be rid of her cancer. She will need round the clock care for a minimum of three months. 

The doctor made Wendy her daughter take 3 months off of work to take care of her or she wouldn't be able to have the operation.  

Any donations would go to back medical bills, expenses on transportation, rent, living expenses, food and expensive medicine Ethel will have to be on for the rest of her life.

Ethel is a valued member of her community and a proud Armed Forces Veteran. We are doing our very best to help her survive this horrible disease. Any donations will be greatly appreciated, and we would like for those of you who support her to share this with others. We will be giving updates on her progress and on her condition soon.

Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. Sgt. Ethel Moorman thanks you as well.
 
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Donations 

  • Audrey McBeth
    • $80
    • 5 yrs
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Organizer

Wendy Jenkins
Organizer
Richardson, TX

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