Gerbil needs emergency dental surgery

Dearest friends and family,

It is with great humility and no shortage of [insert feelings here] that we request your help. Gerbil (Jeremy Medeiros) is in desperate need of emergency dental surgery. What remains of his teeth, has a pretty significant infection that has spread to his mandible bone (the lower jaw bone). Infections like this pose a significant health risk and he’s already displaying symptoms of systemic infection throughout his body (pain in the back, insomnia, joint pain, depression, inability to focus on work, ect.).

We saw a dentist last week for x-rays and they recommended immediate extraction of every tooth in his mouth along with some bone graphs. We asked if there was anything to do for the infection and the response was that antibiotics will be ineffective until the cause of the infection has been expelled.

We’ve booked said appointment for April 15th, 2024 (that’s a little over a month from now - the doctors wanted to book it for March 18th - if that gives ya’ll a sense of how important, and the sense of immediacy the doctors feel that this issue is). Of course we can’t get the surgery if we can’t pay for it, so gambling the month to acquire the funds/ credit lines/ insurance is the best we can do.

For transparency, what this means is:

Initial surgery - full extraction + bone graphs: $16,406

Temporary dentures: $2400

Now, it should be noted that those prices are without insurance. The cost with insurance is less, but acquiring that insurance is still a subject to be addressed. We imagine the insurance he will be able to get in time for this will cover a few thousand - that said, we also then have to contemplate time off working (at minimum 3 weeks), medication, food, and any other fun stuff that pops up. For various reasons he is without insurance at this time. We are trying to rectify that as quickly as possible. Insurance may cover up to $6000 of this initial cost. That said, we can't wait.

Following that we’ll consider implants and semi-permanent dentures. Those, in and of themselves, will probably cost us an additional $10,000 or so, regardless if we do those in town (we’ll definitely have insurance for him by that time) or fly down to mexico. Both of those things can’t be accomplished for 6 more months (full healing time), so that’s down the line.

Ultimately we’re looking at a bill of roughly: $30,000

[edit: due to some incredible up front donations we've managed to cover the initial surgery costs with-in 12 hours. Absolutely stunning. What remains will go towards the implants and final dentures. Thank you all so much!]

Gerbil has been a fundamental part of the Gate, Perimeter, Exodus team at Burning Man for 20 years. He has gone above and beyond for the people and strangers he has met in his life and has never truly asked for this kind of help before (and nor does he want to).

For those of you who have not met Gerbil but love his fiance, Gystilyn, just know this man is one of the good ones - he has and will go above and beyond for what anyone needs at any time.

We also understand if the want is there but, finances are not. The American economic system has created some real hurdles for us all. We also absolutely appreciate soup recipes, as that’ll be the diet for some time to come.

Anything, even a dollar, that can be donated to helping him and his lady cover these bills and stay afloat would be a kindness beyond measure. Thank you all so very very much. We love you.