Assistance in receiving a life saving surgery.

Hi, my name is Stephanie Luna and I am wanting to reach out to the community for help. Since I was 15 I have encountered so many unexplained illnesses. In and out of our hospital, needing IV antibiotics and hospital stays for tissue infections that would come and go.

People who know me, know that I have worked in Healthcare for years, all through COVID up until now. I was always around all kinds of illnesses including strep that became a huge fear to be around once doctors started to see this in my deep tissue infections. I have been fighting for my life every year. My body does not get sick from strep like everyone else's body. It has been localizing in my body and causing life threatening, deep tissue infections.

In 2020 I was diagnosed with Necrotizing Fasciitis in my left thigh. I became severely septic and taken to St. Mark's Hospital in UT. There I would receive 3 surgeries to remove dying tissue to save my leg and my life. I would go on spending a month in the hospital attending therapy to gain my strength and wound dressings. I would go home to heal with a wound vac.

Doctors were unsure how this had happened since I did not have an open wound when I contracted the NF but cultures showed Streptococcus.

In between then and now, I have become severely septic 6 times. Contracting Necrotizing Fasciitis a second time in December 2022. This time, Streptococcus and Pneumonia were found after removing a large portion of my abdomen. My surgeon who saved my life twice, wrote a letter to my insurance to approve the weight loss surgery as have my PCP's.

I have been applying for weight loss surgery for the past 7 years to no avail. Once my previous employer switched insurances after being approved initially. The new insurance plan did not cover the surgery. Another time, the doctors office when asked to provide what the insurance company needed, did not have sufficient BMI evidence for the consecutive 5 years required. We just rechecked this very recently. I need this surgery to save my life at this point. I get up every morning and go to work. I have done everything to assist my weight loss while waiting for the insurance companies over the years. Dropping this weight will reduce the deep tissue infections that are becoming more and more frequent. I want to live a normal, healthy life.

I thank all of you for taking the time to read this and I thank you all so much for any prayers and support given.