Please help me to help Thomas

Hi, my name is Lorena and I am fundraising for Thomas which had some real bad years, 6 years to be exact, which eat up all his saving and limit him to also generate new income.

He and I are old friends with some common interests.

In a nutshell:

He is now at the end of his options, alone with no family or relatives in his home country or his current place of residence and I alone supported him about 14 month with rent and food assistance (he does rent inexpensive, nothing fancy), but can not swing it anymore.

Same I supported groceries and some medication for him and food for his cats.

Here is the full story:

Thomas is a retired scuba instructor and nature guide now living in La Paz, Mexico, originally from Germany. He has no family or relatives, and since the beginning of his ordeal, friends and social contacts from his 10+ years living in SoCal have also faded away.

I need to go back some years to an event that is not the reason for his current health issues but does influence the healing process. The residual effects of that illness have been impacting the current situation ongoing, and he is in need of assistance.

In 2009 Thomas had an severe life-threatening pulmonary embolism caused by damage to valves in his main vein at left leg, most likely the results of excessive scuba diving of 25+ years, including some years as commercial diver.

He did not have sufficient insurance coverage, and that situation already ate up most of his savings. He had to close down his business, participate in online retraining to become a certified system administrator and SEM analyst.

There have been some initially some limitations/issues, and he had to take blood thinners as many DVT patients have to do, originally taking Warfarin and/or Eliquis but experiencing side effects such as teeth breaking off. He ended up with Daflon 750 he takes since until today. In general, things looked good, he went back to reasonable health and began building up his small enterprise working online.

Fast forward to January 2017, the cause is unknown; it could have been some cactus sting or a spider bite. Within 24 hours, his leg turned bad (see image), the same leg he had the blood clotting issues prior.

Five out of six doctors suggested amputation above the knee. The situation has turned into a devastating nightmare. A circulation specialist stepped in and, with a radical procedure, literally removed all the impacted bad tissue deep into healthy tissue, and later, ongoing for several months, antibiotic infusions costing about $800 per week. The leg was saved.

He cannot be vaccinated due to underlying conditions, so since March of 2020 he is very much isolated due to Covid.

In 2021, he additionally contracted scabies norvegica, a very nasty illness/parasite, on his left leg despite all professional treatment, which impacted the still ongoing healing process due to immune system weakness."

The healing process has been very slow, but it healed.

He generates small amounts of income with translation work, yet more misfortune occurred.

He had to move to another residence; there were not many options as he is on a very low budget (current rent $300 US).

So, upon finding a place, it took another 14 months (!) to get the phone company to install a fiber-optic line with reasonable speed for him to work.

So, for 14 months, he had no income. By this time, he ran totally out of funds and has since relied only on support provided by me and another individual.

2023 was very challenging.

Firstly, the refrigerator malfunctioned, requiring repair.

Then, the air conditioning unit was not serviced by the landlord in time, indirectly causing his computer to overheat and consequently fail, with both the graphic card and hard drives giving out, leaving him without a functioning computer.

Following this, Hurricane "Norma" inflicted severe flooding damage (video below).

During cleanup efforts, spending a day in the wet environment led to him falling ill again, experiencing a flare-up of scabies and a potent influenza, possibly even COVID-19, as indicated by five tests, three of which returned positive results.

There was an elevated need for medication as well tests and laboratory work did eat up his monthly grocery funds.

The goal now is to secure enough support for him to take a break for 2-3 months, focusing on eating well, adhering to medications, and allowing time for recovery. This is essential to prevent a constant struggle between purchasing food or medication.

Funds donated will be solely allocated towards these necessities, and Thomas is eager to maintain communication with donors, providing updates on his progress.

Thomas, now in his mid-60s, still possesses resilience, determination, and the accumulated wisdom to navigate through challenges and create sufficient income to live a simple life.

He is in title to the minimum German pension every citizen gets, even when living uproad but that is still a few years away.

With a family history of longevity, spanning generations into the high 80s and mid 90s, he is hopeful that he carries the same genetic resilience.

Having hesitated for too long to seek assistance, largely due to difficulty in sharing his pain publicly, Thomas now urgently requires your support.

Thank you for taking the time to read his story. Please consider donating and sharing his plight with those you believe may offer help and support.

Before leg injury and faces could talk:

2015 - To clarify: Thomas has sold all his vehicles (SUV, motorcycle, MTB), any valuables as electronics, jewelry. Everything he could turn into cash to pay for his treatment and medication.

He has no outstanding debt with hospital or otherwise.

2016 prior leg injury 100kg/220 at 1.85m/6.2

2019 90kg/195

2021 80kg/175

Oct. 2023 75kg/165

End January 2024

Video below he sent last year to Vizekonsul Till Feldman at German Embassy in Mexico with application for welfare as it is granted by German law to every citizen.

Unfortunately he did not hear back from this people.

They basically want to blackmail him to return to German despite having an medical certificate that he can not fly due to DVT AND is with Scabies Norvegia infested (which would endanger other travelers to become affected) AND is not vaccinated.

They ask for a second medical certificate he can not afford, he saved 4 month to pay for the one he send them along.

He would go to any doctor yet ask them to pay for that and arrange the transport - their answer: crickets! (ie silence).

It appears to me, looking at their FB they are only interested to hire qualified personal away from my country which are missing for our people and create cheap/inexpensive deals for the German industry.

Taking care of their own people = zilch!

In Germany he be homeless and would not even know where to go!

Plus his passport is expired he clearly stated that yet they ask for a photocopy of his current passport and they indirectly refuse to issue a new one as he would have to fly to Mexico City to apply for one which he not can.

They are aware of that.

That was the first flooding, about 2, 3 weeks BEFORE hurricane Norma

6th October 2023 - Tropical storm Lidia made quite an entrance in La Paz, drenching the city with a generous dose of rain – somewhere between 55.2 and 97.5 mm of it, to be precise.