Life Saving Surgery for Nelson Perez
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Elise Perez and I am here to speak about my dear father, Nelson Perez. Nelson is a loving husband of 40 years to his wife Frances Perez and a devoted father of one daughter- myself.
While my mother was away for a mother-daughter weekend visiting me in Atlanta in April 2019 my parents' neighbors found my father collapsed on the floor of their home and rushed him to the hospital. After months of doctors telling us he was simply suffering from kidney stones we found out the life changing news that he was now in end stage renal failure. Since his diagnosis he has been receiving dialysis 3 times weekly and keeping up with his new medications and medical plans but it has been been a turbulent treatment process with a number of complications.
His doctors recommended he try a fistula in his arm so that he may receive dialysis at home, where he would not have to move quite as often (he has difficulty after treatment), he can receive it more often, and my mother who is in poor health as it is does not have to drive an hour each way 3 times a week. Unfortunately, after receiving dialysis the first time through the arm at the dialysis center we learned he had steel hand syndrome and was receiving extremely little blood flow to his hand and needed emergency surgery to close it. The surgery was hard on his body and during it his doctors said they saw that the amount of damage the renal disease was having on his blood vessels was extensive, he needs a kidney now.
In December 2019 after a particularly bad day at dialysis he took a nasty fall causing a nasty back fracture around his cervical and thoracic vertebra, he now has a spinal cord injury leaving him with little to no movement in his legs. In February 2020 he was hospitalized again because he lost complete movement of his legs and now we are currently in the process of finding options of where to go from here. While he is there they are looking into the extent of the damage the kidney failure is having on him. They believe there is either some sort of leakage in his heart and some other failure of his other organs.
Before all of this my father was born and raised in New York City where he has worked all his life in the service of the city he loves. He worked small jobs here and there fixing computers, programing them, was an auxiliary city Police Officer then made a career as a member of the emergency services department of the New York City Housing Authority. He and my mother worked hard, working over time and extra jobs at times to take us out of a city housing complex in Manhattan, where my uncle was shot, slowly step by step to an amazing neighborhood in Queens where I was about to attend private schools that most kids dream about. They never once told me about the horrors they faced at work every day in emergency services and rarely bragging about all the good they did. They hid their tears when times were hard, even when the worst event happened right before their eyes, September 11th, 2001. They were present as the towers went down, they helped in the recovery efforts for months of disheartening work (they paid for this with lung problems down the line), and they still live with the nightmares.
Words cannot truly express how much I look up to my parents and what heroes they are not just to me but to those around the world. In the months after we received thank you letters, teddy bears, tickets to concerts for first responders (the picture below is us at one called United We Stand).
Unfortunately, his emergency services career was ended prematurely when on a call he arrived before the fire department and a member of the FDNY in full equipment fell down a flight of stairs on him causing a lower back fracture. Throughout their lives my parents have never had enough money to own their own home in New York and had such big dreams for their retirement. Years later my mother was able to retire after 25 years of hard work as a NYPD detective and their dream of owning a home in Florida came true. 2 years later tragedy struck and my father has quickly deteriorated. Luckily, I was already engaged to the man of my dreams and we were able to move up our wedding a year so that my father could walk me down the aisle and dance with me at my wedding. It was such an emotional day for my family to have him there, despite how tired he was.
Having my father's dream come true of living with his beautiful wife, finally retired together in their first purchased home of their own in Florida after working hard for all of their lives breaks my heart. Making this GoFundMe page has been a hard decision for my mother and I but in his current state we see no other option. He has been taken off the donor list because we cannot show our financial ability to pay for the operation and the medication he will require. We ask for your help because we have exhausted every other option.
While my mother was away for a mother-daughter weekend visiting me in Atlanta in April 2019 my parents' neighbors found my father collapsed on the floor of their home and rushed him to the hospital. After months of doctors telling us he was simply suffering from kidney stones we found out the life changing news that he was now in end stage renal failure. Since his diagnosis he has been receiving dialysis 3 times weekly and keeping up with his new medications and medical plans but it has been been a turbulent treatment process with a number of complications.
His doctors recommended he try a fistula in his arm so that he may receive dialysis at home, where he would not have to move quite as often (he has difficulty after treatment), he can receive it more often, and my mother who is in poor health as it is does not have to drive an hour each way 3 times a week. Unfortunately, after receiving dialysis the first time through the arm at the dialysis center we learned he had steel hand syndrome and was receiving extremely little blood flow to his hand and needed emergency surgery to close it. The surgery was hard on his body and during it his doctors said they saw that the amount of damage the renal disease was having on his blood vessels was extensive, he needs a kidney now.
In December 2019 after a particularly bad day at dialysis he took a nasty fall causing a nasty back fracture around his cervical and thoracic vertebra, he now has a spinal cord injury leaving him with little to no movement in his legs. In February 2020 he was hospitalized again because he lost complete movement of his legs and now we are currently in the process of finding options of where to go from here. While he is there they are looking into the extent of the damage the kidney failure is having on him. They believe there is either some sort of leakage in his heart and some other failure of his other organs.
Before all of this my father was born and raised in New York City where he has worked all his life in the service of the city he loves. He worked small jobs here and there fixing computers, programing them, was an auxiliary city Police Officer then made a career as a member of the emergency services department of the New York City Housing Authority. He and my mother worked hard, working over time and extra jobs at times to take us out of a city housing complex in Manhattan, where my uncle was shot, slowly step by step to an amazing neighborhood in Queens where I was about to attend private schools that most kids dream about. They never once told me about the horrors they faced at work every day in emergency services and rarely bragging about all the good they did. They hid their tears when times were hard, even when the worst event happened right before their eyes, September 11th, 2001. They were present as the towers went down, they helped in the recovery efforts for months of disheartening work (they paid for this with lung problems down the line), and they still live with the nightmares.
Words cannot truly express how much I look up to my parents and what heroes they are not just to me but to those around the world. In the months after we received thank you letters, teddy bears, tickets to concerts for first responders (the picture below is us at one called United We Stand).
Unfortunately, his emergency services career was ended prematurely when on a call he arrived before the fire department and a member of the FDNY in full equipment fell down a flight of stairs on him causing a lower back fracture. Throughout their lives my parents have never had enough money to own their own home in New York and had such big dreams for their retirement. Years later my mother was able to retire after 25 years of hard work as a NYPD detective and their dream of owning a home in Florida came true. 2 years later tragedy struck and my father has quickly deteriorated. Luckily, I was already engaged to the man of my dreams and we were able to move up our wedding a year so that my father could walk me down the aisle and dance with me at my wedding. It was such an emotional day for my family to have him there, despite how tired he was.
Having my father's dream come true of living with his beautiful wife, finally retired together in their first purchased home of their own in Florida after working hard for all of their lives breaks my heart. Making this GoFundMe page has been a hard decision for my mother and I but in his current state we see no other option. He has been taken off the donor list because we cannot show our financial ability to pay for the operation and the medication he will require. We ask for your help because we have exhausted every other option.
Organizer
Elise Katherine Perez Aurelia
Organizer
San Antonio, FL