Amanda Needs Your Help Now!
I met Amanda and her family several years ago. I was asked to MC a fundraiser in Guilford for the Preschool. Amanda was shoring up loose ends in a hundred ways - all at the Local Dudley Farm.
Amanda's family is a loving, spiritual, hard working family that anyone would aspire to become. She and her husband are raising 3 sweet children, Ivy a 7 yr old, Jack a lovable and lively special-needs son and Claire a very bright eleven year old girl.
In the recent past Amanda started having some auto-immune issues that appeared and essentially dissolved connective tissues of great importance in her body. Soon, this manifested to where she had to wear a neck brace to hold her head up so it would not fall over and crush or severely injure her spinal cord. All this plus the need to wear a special metal exoskeleton device to keep he fingers from extending and bending in the wrong way due to hypermobility... or worse, for her head and neck to pinch off vital nerves.
Frequently, this disease, Ehlers-Danlos, can lead to death via the the loss of these tissues. Further, a complication can occur that makes skin, muscles, tendons and organs malfunction. An example includes the inability to eat foods without suffering anaphalaxis from almost any intake! In the past two weeks Amanda has gone through 5 epi-pens just from trying to eat a single meal.
Amanda has had to go out of state for a radical surgery at Cornell-Weill Hospital. The doctors have fused her spine and head to allow it to stay frozen vertically! Thus, on a good day this is at the loss of flexible motion to her head and spine. Perhaps you can imagine what this discomfort might be like.
Following the surgery, which should have had a less than a one-half percent negative outcome... Amanda's sight was seriously impared due to some aspect of the surgery. This was further compounded with the fact that she picked-up MRSA at the hospital. Now Amanda was subjected to two-weeks of Antibiotics as a drip into her neck and risked the damage to her spinal fluids as well.
Can this story possibly get worse? Yes!
Now the doctors have completed a second surgery to try to clean out the infection within her body in an effort to eradicate the MRSA. Should this fail, the worst case is this could mean the installation of a HALO for one year to allow her spine and neck to heal AND THEN TRY IT ALL AGAIN!! Keep your fingers crossed that the MRSA goes away NOW.
Amanda is remaining valiant and strong during all of this. Could you? SHE AND HER FAMILY NEED YOUR HELP. It costs about $400 per day for her husband to rent the out-of-state hotel room to be with her. This is not covered by insurances.
Extra child care, household care expenses and so much more are needed. PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN. Help this worthy family!
If you haven't got even $1 to send - PLEASE SHARE THIS LINK and let's get this family the support that I know is out there.
SEND MONEY TODAY. SHARE THE LINK NOW
Love to you all.
Tommy Varzos