Main fundraiser photo

In the hospital about 4 weeks so far amazing costs

Donation protected
Going on my 5th week in hospital with atleast 3 weeks to go. I am crowdfunding for assistance after 10 years of surgeries beginning with a surgical accident in 2010 when I had three major nerves severed. I am also currently about to spend about 1-2 months in the hospital beginning next week and trying to cover some expenses. The initial surgery all happened my first semester of law school. I finished law school but sitting for the bar became impossible due to pain after having sat initially. The original surgery was performed November 2010 and further surgeries since equaling 12 surgeries overall. When first the hernia repair surgery was performed the surgeon decided an open hernia repair with mesh was appropriate. During the incision phase he made the cut across my lower abdomen and did not mark the nerves or attempt to leave the nerves intact and therefore severed three major nerves. My understanding is that care should be taken to keep specific nerves intact and in this case they were not. The nerves began causing me pain immediately and months later while still in pain the surgeon just told me that pain for months after was normal and long term pain was also possible. I ended up at a surgeon from Harvard in Boston, whom was able to recognized the nerves had been severed. Then I went to Pain Management therapy multiple times, and received injections into my nerves on multiple occasions (which is very painful itself), and it did not help the pain. During this time, I was in law school and about transfer schools to Seattle, which I did and was referred to a surgeon at in Seattle. I then had a surgery performed at to remove a portion of the the severed nerves, at which time the surgeon could only remove a portion of two of the nerves as the other (third severed nerve) is in a much more dangerous location to get to. Following the surgery at Virginia Mason, I was placed in a clinical trial, due to the still on going pain. In the clinical trial I had a nerve stimulator implanted in my lower abdomen to attempt to lower the pain from the severed nerves that still existed even after the surgery to remove some of the severed nerves. During this trial, the implant was done without the use of any pain type of pain relief while I was complexly awake (as it was the first time of an implant for my situation) The stimulator was then a year later removed (surgically) as it did not give any relief as expected. The following is when issues in Washington took place. I next went seeking help and they found a inguinal hernia in my left side, likely due to the weakness from all the trauma I have had in my abdomen. Another surgery was performed at Polyclinic using a mesh. (The mesh would later need repair and then be taken out later by at UCLA with a finding that the mesh has folded over.) December 2015, I go to a hernia specialist at the University of Washington. They determined that I had inflammation on my abdomen due to the mesh along with the nerve pain from the severed nerves. On December 30th 2015 I had surgery to have the original mesh removed and removal of scarring in my abdomen. They further found that there was a piece if fat coming through the mesh placed in the surgery at Polyclinic which resulted in a separate surgery to correct that issue on my left. I next see a surgeon at Overlake and she schedules surgery, but after a review of my records to replace the mesh with a biological product decided not to proceed due to the complexity of the issues and request I make plans to go to a specialist at UCLA. A few months later due to cost and scheduling, I go to UCLA and meet Dr. Chen in May 2017. I have Surgery to remove and replace right mesh in August 2017. Operative report and conversation with Dr. Chen suggest that the surgery was much more difficultly the originally thought and a lot more complicated. Dr. Chen finds remaining mesh not removed during surgery at UW during first mesh removal and replacement. Dr. Chen. Removes and replaces second mesh in December 2017 and finds mesh completely folded in half. Dr. Chen explains it as having clamshelled. Something was wrong with the surgery when it was implanted at Polyclininc. So, at this point I still have pain on a constant basis but have received some relief from the removal of the old mesh again, although the nerve pain still exists at a constant 8 up to a 10. The surgeries were so complicated that Dr, Chen at UCLA as the only person experienced in my issues. Later I ended up having  to have an single Orchiectomy due to scarring and nerve damage. On top of that is the hell of the mental aspect of all of this trauma was one reason I was agreed to do this. I am crowdfunding as a way to just get life moving after 13 surgeries and lawsuits against the mesh manufacturers that seem to be going on forever. Crowdfunding will assist me in being on track with my upcoming hospital stay and with massive bills and life in general. I never though I’d do this but its amazing how surgeries change things.

Organizer

Jeffrey Hogan
Organizer
Seattle, WA

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the GoFundMe Giving Guarantee