Help Nick Rubino Fight Ulcerative Colitis

In the fall of 2020, Nick was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and anemia. In December 2020, these conditions caused Nick to take a leave of absence from his job of almost 9 years.

Over the past 7 months, Nick has had numerous blood transfusions to help to increase his iron level, to control his anemia. Once his iron levels were stable, Nick was able to start treatments for his Ulcerative Colitis. He started with an IV transfusion therapy to help treat the Colitis. In total Nick tried 3 different treatments to get the Colitis under control. However, Nick’s health continued to decline. Nick lost over 50 lbs and became severely malnourished due to the Colitis.

On Monday July 5th, Nick went to the hospital after his body became so weak he collapsed at home.

On Tuesday July 6th, Nick had emergency surgery to remove his colon. Nick’s Colon was terribly damaged by the Colitis and malnutrition that it become infected and perforated. The infection started to leak into his abdomen. This caused his limbs to swell, and fluid to build around his heart. Nick had a procedure to drain the fluid from around the heart in hopes that his blood pressure would rise and his heart rate would slow. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Ultimately his team of doctors felt the only option to stabilize Nick and save his life was to remove his colon. Nick is currently still in the hospital and has a long road to recovery. Once released from the hospital and/or rehabilitation facility, he will need additional time to recover before returning to work.

Nick shared a home with his father, who for the last 2 years, had been fighting stage 4 lung cancer. On July 28th, he passed away.

They worked together to pay the monthly household expenses, which has been difficult since Nick’s short term disability benefits have long expired. Nick has also had to pay out of pocket for his benefit premiums every month while out of work. Because he could no longer afford to pay these premiums the past few months, his family feared that he would lose his medical insurance coverage. Nick’s family was able to pay the 3 months of missed payments and continue his coverage.

In the meantime, due to his lack of income to pay his monthly bills or medical premiums, Nick desperately needs financial support to help with his living and medical expense. As you can imagine, this weighs heavily on Nick, and we don’t want his financial burdens to affect his recovery.

We ask that you donate to help Nick during this difficult time. Nick is anxious to recover and get back to his normal everyday life, after being ill for these many months.