Help Ana's parents pay for her neck surgery.

Hello,

My name is Mitch Arden, and I am setting up a fundraiser to help Ana's parents pay for her Neck surgery. The Van Dusen family is born and raised in Colorado, and reside in Longmont, Colorado.

Ana, 15 years old, was recently diagnosed with a spinal injury which occurred back when she was six or seven years old. She had been asymptomatic until she was recently involved in an auto accident, and the injury became apparent through an X-Ray. She has a separated piece of vertebrate in her neck, that fits into the base of the skull, next to the brain stem, which requires surgery to reconnect to the base of the skull. It became completely detached and has been floating next to her spinal cord. In essence, she has had a broken neck for half her life. Without the surgery her family has been informed that she could become paralyzed. Her parents have only catastrophic insurance as they are both self-employed. The money being asked for is the cost of the hospital facility charges, not including surgeon, anesthesiologist, and travel fees to the University of Iowa.

Her surgery is scheduled for March 18th. Ana's condition is very rare, and the family was lucky enough to find a surgeon at the University of Iowa that is 80 years old and has successfully done 1500 of these surgeries. After the initial visit to the University of Iowa, Ana has been fitted with a neck brace to prevent any injury prior to surgery.

We have known Ana's family through 4-H since she was 8 years old. She has been in the 4-H dog program with my daughter for 7 years, training dogs. The family has had their share of large medical expenses in the last year including Beth, her mom who had a serious leg infection that required a costly hospital stay.

I am hoping this will reach far and wide, and if you can share this story with your community, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you so much!