Help Faris Overcome Chronic Pain and Hardship

My name is Faris, and I’m 31 years old. As many of you may know, in 2014, when I was only 22 years old, I was sitting in a sidewalk cafe in Miami when a car plowed through the tables, driving directly into my back. The shocking surveillance footage of the crash can be found here . The force of the impact ruptured my spleen, and caused a serious back injury that has plagued my life ever since.

After the accident, I was in constant back pain, and tried every non-surgical option available to me: physical therapy, acupuncture, cortisone injections, nerve blocks, medication trials, etc. In 2021, I made the difficult decision to have lumbar surgery, in the hopes that I might once again experience a pain-free, non-disabled life. The odds of the surgery succeeding were good: there was a 70% chance that the surgery would eliminate or decrease my pain, a 20% chance that it would have no effect, and only a 10% chance that it would worsen my pain.

The surgery lasted 8 hours. They placed a metal cage in the front through my stomach, and one through my back:

Here I am learning how to walk again, two days after the procedure:

Devastatingly, the surgery made my pain exponentially worse. I can still feel the hardware in my spine. I was forced to leave my job because I could no longer sit or stand for 10 minutes without experiencing excruciating nerve and muscle pain. Since the surgery, I have tried multiple medical interventions to recover: further physical therapy, a second lumbar surgery in 2022, several epidural injections, a spinal cord stimulator, and intradiscal injections, as well as further medications and nerve blocks. Nothing has helped enough to allow me to live something close to a normal life, or to return to work. I am still in constant pain.

My pain has left my mental health in shambles. Simple tasks like doing dishes, cooking, driving, walking, and sitting have become torture. I have panic attacks when I know I need to do something that will make my pain worse, like sitting in a chair in a doctor’s office, or driving to a friend’s house. I worry that I will never escape this pain, and be forced to live a life of dependency, fear, and suffering.

Unsurprisingly, my medical bills are high. I lost the health insurance I had through my job, and have been forced to sign up for private health insurance in Florida with massive out-of-pocket maximums. My options for medical treatment are running out, but the treatments that I can still try—a special kind of spinal neurostimulator, a pain pump, etc.—are either uncovered or only covered only partially. I don’t qualify for disability payments because the government requires disability beneficiaries to have worked for a certain number of years, and I didn’t meet that requirement because I was disabled so young. I was awarded a very small sum in the lawsuit following the accident, but the money was only enough to cover my medical bills through 2018.

I am running out of options, so I am turning to my friends and extended community for support. My elderly parents are struggling to find ways to continue to financially support me and my sister, who is also disabled and unable to work due to a brain injury. I need money for housing and living expenses, to cover my unpaid debts (currently $25,000), and to pay for future procedures, which will also cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Please give whatever you can to help me as I continue to try to heal. Your support means a lot.