Help Mel Recover from Emergency Spinal Surgery

We have made this fundraiser to help support our friend Mel through the new realities of disability due to a severe back injury that took place in January 2024. Mel sustained a spinal cord injury and had emergency spinal surgery. They spent about 6 weeks in hospital healing and relearning to walk. Mel’s surgeon estimates 2 years until we know what the permanent damage is, but they are left with severe muscle weakness, pain, nerve damage and mobility issues. This has been a very traumatic ordeal for Mel - both physically and mentally.

Your donations over these months have been instrumental in helping Mel make ends meet while they missed work, due to their back injury, cut work hours, and stress-related health issues concurrent with the former mentioned issues. Mel returned to work very soon after their injury (March). In May they had an emergency root canal (under anaesthesia, as the freezing didn’t work). In June they had to miss a month of work, due to extreme vertigo and hearing loss in their left ear, caused by vestibular neuritis and very high doses of steroids (to prevent total hearing loss). They have also recently been diagnosed with a skin condition connected to stress, and their surgical scar that has cost more out of pocket to treat, and is still not yet resolved. Mel was never able to return to their pre-injury work hours due to circumstances out of their control, and they now have been fired from their work without cause.

It has been an extremely trying time, Mel will now be searching for new employment on top of dealing with a number of legal cases that have come about due to some of the issues described above. No more mutual aid is needed in this moment as Mel’s legal funds are currently covered by some generous donations, but we would like to leave this gfm here for future support as Mel continues to navigate this system fraught with ableism.