Help Simon Fields Live with Type 1 Diabetes!

Greeting! My name is Alicia McNulty and I would like to introduce you all to my nephew Simon Fields.

Simon was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Simon is ten years old and is the third of four children. He loves to be outside running amuck, feeding the family’s animals, swimming and literally climbing walls. To get him to slow down is nearly impossible. He is such a firecracker and knows what he wants, hence the mullet he is sporting. In the past month, Simon was exhibiting some abnormal behavior, which was attributed to starting middle school and the stress involved with that. Then he started not to feel well. Of course, he was tested for COVID, which was negative, he was sleeping more, drinking a lot of fluids, headaches, chapped lips, and the list goes on. After about 5 days of this, his mom took him to the doctors to find out what was going on. The doctor’s office took his blood and came back with Type 1 diabetes. They immediately went to the ER and were deemed Level 2 Critical.

Like with most adolescent patients, this disease went unnoticed and until his symptoms were off the charts. The initial assessment of Simon was a severe case of ketoacidosis, he had lost 13lbs and his A1C was at 16%. Normal A1C for a child is 7%. The hospital in their area was not equipped to handle a pediatric case like his, therefore he and his family had to be flown two and half hours from home to the Pediatric ICU in Sacramento, CA. where he spent 2 days in the Pediatric ICU and 3 days in the ICU. Another caveat to this whole thing is that Simon was born with one kidney. That was a huge concern, but our fears were put at ease by the doctor in Sacramento. He said if he sticks to a healthy lifestyle, there is no reason he will need a new kidney in the future. Simon will be testing his blood 3 times a day and using insulin manually, but he will eventually have a monitor/pump implanted.

Now that he is out of the hospital, he and his family have a long road ahead of them. For the next few months, they will have to travel to Sacramento twice a week for checkups and education, which is a 300-mile roundtrip. Like most families these days, both parents work full-time and beyond to provide for their children. With this diagnosis comes extra expenses: the travel twice a week, medication, time off work, deductibles, etc. Everyone has enough to worry about at this point, they shouldn’t have to stress out about not being able to pay bills and put food on the table.

The goal is to raise at least $40,000 to help cover the ER visit, 2 ambulance rides, medical flight, 3-day ICU stay, 2-day Pediatric ICU stay, gas, medication and unforeseen expenses in future. The co-pay for the hospital in Sacramento is $3,000.00 alone. If we all come together, I know we can make this happen. He has a big loving family that will do anything for him. We appreciate anything you can give whether it be $1, $5 or $500 to help us reach our goal.

We would like to thank everyone in advance for their donation and a big thank you to all the staff that watched over our sweet Simon during this ordeal.