Please Help Young Whang and Jane Ricciardi

Dear Friends and Family of Young Whang and Jane Ricciardi, 

CANCER SUCKS! And Life Implodes at an incredibly fast rate.

This fundraiser has been set up to assist Young and his wife, Jane Ricciardi, with a) the sudden, unexpected, and overwhelming costs of Young’s medical care due to newly diagnosed, aggressive cancer; and b) additional funds for living expenses while they are without income.

COVID had already enacted its own destructive havoc on their full-time job situations when late Tuesday evening, early Wednesday (Aug 10/11) morning Young was rushed to the ER with a massive G.I. bleed. He needed more than a dozen transfusions and it was questionable as to whether he would make it through the day. They were able to stop the bleed, but discovered stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had metastasized to his liver. The prognosis was dire. Young initially showed some improvement and recovery from the emergent situation, but as of this writing (8/15) he has retreated back into unconsciousness and is unresponsive, and his organ systems (e.g., kidneys) are shutting down.

He is in the intensive care unit of St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, IL, where he remains intubated and will receive palliative care moving forward.  To be blunt, and none of us can believe we are even having this conversation, Young will leave us soon - and the emotional, psychological, and financial devastation in the wake of this rapid, momentous turn of events will be unfathomable.

Beloved Uncle Young...

Family is everything...

Jane will need help paying for any uncovered ambulance services, emergency medical care, the ICU stay and all its testing/treatments; as well as upcoming funeral and related expenses. We also want to make sure that she is able to stay in their home without the burden of financial worry: giving her time to grieve and take care of all the necessary tasks that accompany the death of a loved one, without also trying to get established in a new job.

You all should also know that before Young was rushed to the ER, he suffered from severe abdominal pain for one month. His insurance company delayed, for more than three weeks, the authorization of the tests that he needed to determine the cause of his pain.

If you would like to help Jane and Young with their financial burden, any donation will be deeply appreciated. Every dollar raised will go directly to payment of Young’s medical bills, and to ensuring Jane can cover living expenses and other bills during this very difficult time. 

Thank you for your generosity and for keeping Jane and her husband in your thoughts and prayers. We will provide frequent updates on this page.

*My name (Trish) is associated with this simply because the system can take only one name; consider it representative of the names of the many people who asked to launch this for them.

**Young is an extremely talented artist, industrial designer, and craftsman - in addition to being a whiz at computers and technical toys. I found a link to his portfolio from a previous job and have included it to show off his amazing skills.

"I have found the one whom my soul loves," April 8, 2000