Help Dan Konarski Recover from Cancer

Hi everyone, my name is Stephanie Konarski, and Dan is my older brother. Dan is a wonderful, caring person I love with all my heart. It's been heartbreaking to see him endure sudden serious medical emergencies, but I'm so grateful he is alive and fighting with all his strength to survive. He is currently recovering from the effects of being in a coma and will also be starting cancer treatments soon.

Dan has a beautiful optimism, quiet strength, and courage that can carry him through his coma recovery and cancer treatments. However, the medical bills are beginning to pile up. Dan has been unable to work since his health problems began. His wife, Natasha, has not left his side since the onset of his medical issues. She has been the constant and consistent support he needs. Since she has devoted her time to caring for Dan, she has been unable to work either. Any financial help for Dan and his wife Natasha is greatly appreciated. He has a tough battle ahead of him, and medical bills shouldn't prevent him from getting the care he needs or add any additional stress and anxiety while he is doing everything he can to fight for his life. With your help, Dan can afford his necessary medical treatment.

The costs for his medical treatment so far have been astronomical. The hospital bills for the hospital stay and the testing have amounted to more than $35,000. Bills for the surgery and the rehab stay will be coming in shortly. We expect the total cost for the lifesaving medical treatments he has had so far will amount to more than $50,000. And he still needs to go through cancer treatments. Any little assistance you can spare would help Dan and Natasha immensely.

Dan's Story

On July 14th, Dan had a sudden seizure early in the morning. He had no history of seizures, so this was very alarming. He was rushed to the hospital, where they found bleeding on his brain. By doing an MRI, doctors found that he had two tumors on his brain. Brain surgery was quickly scheduled to remove one of the tumors to prevent an even worse and more deadly seizure and to test for cancer. Four days after the seizure, on July 18th, Dan was taken into brain surgery. The doctor was able to remove one of the tumors successfully. But two days later, Dan fell asleep and wouldn't wake up. On my birthday, July 22, Dan was officially in a coma.

The doctors tried different ways to get him out of the coma. My family and I were in agony, waiting to see if he would even survive. They gave him a 50/50 survival rate at one point. Then while he was still lost in this deep sleep, we received the results of the biopsy from the tumor. It was stage 4 melanoma. All of us were shocked and distraught. We didn't know if he would even survive the coma but knowing he had a massive battle against melanoma after he woke up was incredibly heart-wrenching.

But Dan is a survivor. Dan is a miracle, as the hospital staff would say. About a month after he was first sent to the hospital, Dan squeezed his wife's hand. He was starting to wake up from the coma. I learned that waking up from a coma is nothing like in the movies or on TV. It's very slow and even just being able to lift a finger is an amazingly encouraging sign. Dan spent almost two months recovering from the coma in the hospital before moving to a rehab center in Greenport to focus more on physical, speech, and occupational therapy. Dan had to relearn how to walk, talk, eat, and do various "simple" tasks I never even thought of daily.

Now that Dan is growing stronger physically and gaining back the weight he lost in the coma, the next step is for him to be able to finally go home and then start his cancer treatments. Dan will continue physical therapy to increase his ability to walk and complete everyday tasks while also going through cancer treatments to fight melanoma. Dan has a tough road ahead of him. But his optimism through all of this truly amazes me and helps us all believe he can make it through this.

Dan, myself, my parents, my brother Kyle, Dan's wife Natasha, and everyone else who loves Dan greatly appreciate any donation you can spare. He's a fantastic person with a caring heart who deserves this chance to survive.

I appreciate your support!