Fund Life Changing Surgery

Hello, my name is Autumn Skylar Dolinger. I am 23 and I have dreams of being a working Actress, Singer, and Model someday. I was working towards those goals when a month ago everything changed.

You see, I am disabled. I have been since the age of 16 when I had my very first neurosurgery. I had it emergent for a condition called Chiari Malformation. It's a skull deformity that makes it so the bottom part of the brain has no room to go and slowly drops further and further down. The diagnostic criteria is a 5 mm discent. Mine was 28 mm. So very severe. However, surgery didn't help and I got worse.

For many years we had no idea why, until I got diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Hypermobile and Craniocervical Instability. The Craniocervical Instability required surgery, a cervical fusion that went up to my skull.

This helped keep symptoms at bay for a while, but I continued having relapses where I'd end up back in a wheelchair or a walker and have to work my way back to a cane and then back to nothing. These flare ups would be random and I'd have no clue when one would occur or, when it did, if it'd just be a day of needing my chair or months.

We didn't find an answer as to why, again, surgery didn't work, until a month ago. After a day on set of commercial work I went into the shower and something in my neck popped. For the passed few months things had been popping in my neck, like the sound of cracking your knuckles, but this time was bad. It traveled down my spine and made it so, like so many times before, I was needing to use a wheelchair. I went to the ER at the advice of my psychiatrist, saying she didn't feel comfortable treating me until we ruled out something serious going on, and that's where we found it. A break in one of the fusion rods.

Weeks later at my appointment with a spine surgeon we were told the rest: my first surgeon, during my craniotomy, took more skull than should ever be taken from the skull. This made it so my Craniocervical, which was probably already an issue, became instantly worse and worse. Not only this but since so much skull was taken it left not enough room for my fusion plate to be fully screwed in, so the fusion didn't take.

All this time, I blamed myself. But, there were reasons I didn't get better. We don't know when the rod broke exactly, but know it's been within the last 14 months. So now, you'd think the story would be cut and dry. I need surgery and I get it, right? Wrong.

My insurance company refuses to cover surgery done by the specialists at Weil Cornell. Instead, it's expected for me to go to a random hospital in Pennsylvania and trust in their "Center Of Excellence" when, in reality, the doctors who know my odd conditions reside at Weil Cornell. So here comes the issue: We can't afford this surgery out of pocket. I am going to appeal, but even if the appeal works only 50% will be covered at most and me and my parents don't have that kind of money.

I'm asking for whatever can be offered to help fund this surgery. The longer I have to wait the more likely damage that is permanent is being done and the worse I will get. Currently, I spend most of my day upstairs moving as little as possible to avoid hurting myself, but more days than not its impossible not to and I flare. I spend so many days in bed crying in pain begging for it to be over. If you can, even a very very small donation or just sharing this fundraiser will help. I just Want my life back, and want the chance to have my dreams of being a star come true.

Thank you