Patricia Anne Thompson {Patty}

Hello! My name is Claudia Jordan Baldwin and I'm fundraising for my lifetime friend, Patty. It's hard to believe how time has passed, this year completing 40 years, since Patty and I met in her transient quarters in Balboa, Panama, R.P.

Patty is an Atlantic sider, graduating from Cristobal Jr/High School in 1984 and transferring to the Pacific side to attend PCC. This is where our paths first crossed.

Little did we know how much our lives would be intertwined. She later went on to meet and rent a room to my late husband, Joel. Patty, becoming the godmother to our only child, Cali.

In Patty's own testimony, she struggled with drugs and alcohol for years and survived two abusive marriages. After leaving Panama, for Texas, she moved for Memphis, TN in order to restore relationships with her immediate family and help care for her aging mother.

As the years progressed, Patty endured a myriad of challenges due to medical complications with a tumor and diabetes, weight struggles, unemployment and lost wages, loss of insurance, and inability to sustain continuity of medical care. She continued to persevere and had sustained faith.

Currently, Patty faces her most painful, challenging, and unpredictable time. Through loss of employment and consistent medical insurance, she was unable to obtain her needed medications. Due to lack of insulin, it is believed she sustained an erosion of her bones. This in effect caused bone collapse and foot dislocation causing a condition known as "Charcot foot".

Baptist Hospital at Memphis is currently treating her with pins and rods and external hardware. However, she is expecting to have another surgery tomorrow at 5:30 am to remove the hardware, replace it with a metal plate and fuse it together and place her in a cast. Patty faces months of unemployment, rehabilitation, and no insurance.

I have always known Patty to be a humble and proud person. She rarely, if ever, has asked for help. However, she is nearly always first to help someone in need. She is one of the most kind, caring people I have ever known. Not to mention, she is an amazing prayer warrior, host, cook, and gives the Best hugs! Patty is a positive ray of sunshine and is loved by many! She has a genuine fighter spirit, a great sense of family, love of country and culture and a contagious smile! She is also a hard working woman, an avid volunteer in her community, a woman of tremendous faith and a wonderful aunt and friend to many!!

If you feel it in your hearts and you are able to help a fellow Pana-zonian (or human), please donate here. If you are unable to, I hope you feel compelled to perhaps share her story and pass this forward so that others may help in our cause. And if you are unable to do that, perhaps you can join me in agreement to pray for my girl, Patty. We will accept all the positive vibes we can get!

Every amount is a step towards a positive. Thank you for your humble consideration, compassion and patience in hearing Patty's story and my quest in helping to save my friend...