GOAL MET!

UPDATE- we have met the goal for treatment. No more donations are necessary. THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME. It’s been so hard. Without you I would not still be here.

My name is Robyn Flanery, and I need your help to stay alive.

Nine years ago I was diagnosed with Stage 4 nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, known as NASH for short, a genetic disease with a terminal prognosis. At the time of my diagnosis, doctors told me I had just 2 years left to live.

Even though I've beaten the odds so far, my quality of life has become nearly unbearable. I have developed hepatic encephalopathy, which causes severe memory loss that feels like short bouts of Alzheimer's. I also have heart issues, kidney stones, gallstones, and diverticulosis. In addition, due to my broken liver's inability to clear toxins, I have to do colonoscopy prep everyday.

Despite all the fear and pain I've experienced, the worst part of my NASH journey has been the healthcare system's refusal to help me get better. I've spent nearly all of my life savings and sold everything I own on hospital bills and liver transplant evaluations. Doctors at four major U.S. hospitals approved me for a liver transplant; yet all four hospitals' administrators overturned the doctors' approvals - not because I wasn't dying of end stage liver disease, but because my MELD score, an imperfect indicator of disease severity, was too low. It makes no sense.

There is one other treatment that could save me: stem-cell therapy. But the type of stem-cell treatment I need is illegal in the United States. I've resorted to teaching myself stem-cell therapy and experimenting on myself with treatments like fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). But the only way to unlock life-saving stem-cell treatments is by traveling to a country like Panama, where stem-cell therapy is legal - which is why I've started this GoFundMe.

The money I raise from this GoFundMe will primarily go towards the healthcare cost of Auragens Stem Cell Treatment Center in Panama City, Panama, as well as the cost of traveling to the center. I estimate the likely cost to be $120,000.