PLEASE SUPPORT JAEJIN'S JOURNEY TO FUNCTIONALITY

Our dear friend Jaejin Kim was violently rear-ended in two motor vehicle accidents that occurred within one month of each other.

She sustained concussions and neck/back injuries but had no idea that she would face an unending nightmare of severe, complex health issues.

A humble person by nature, Jaejin wouldn’t bring herself to ask for help, but as two of her closest friends (since psychology graduate school in 1998), we are reaching out on her behalf as she is currently fighting life-threatening illnesses and desperately needs help.

Both times, she sustained concussions and neck/back injuries. A doctor told her to rest and maybe shift some of her responsibilities, but she was not told to stop working so she continued full-time work. It wasn’t long before she noticed that her hearing and vision were off and she began experiencing frequent, severe headaches. She was also losing her ability to focus and her memory began to fail. She would forget that she had groceries in the back of the car and would constantly burn food, wasting plenty.

When she saw an Earns, Nose, and Throat (ENT) doctor, she was told that she had irreversible moderate to severe hearing damage; she would require hearing aids. Her ENT insisted that she stop working immediately because of the seriousness of her injuries from the back-to-back concussions.

Her first hemiplegic migraine was terrifying. She felt a painful, electrical sensation cover her head and move into her eyes, then her vision went completely dark. Half of her body wouldn’t function. She blindly dragged herself to bed. There, she became nauseated, passed out, and woke up disoriented, wondering whether she had had a stroke. [It would be years before she was appropriately diagnosed with hemiplegic migraines. Hemiplegics can result in further brain damage, stroke, coma, and, in some cases, death.

Her most recent hemiplegic migraine caused extensive neural damage to her brain, face, and eyes. She was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Vision Syndrome, and multiple other eye disorders including misalignment (vertical and horizontal heterophoria), exotropia (her eye(s) alternately and intermittently turn outwards), and deficient smooth pursuit eye movements which makes it difficult for her to track what she’s seeing or reading. It has diminished her ability to comprehend written information (she reads 4-7x slower than the average person now) because her eyes unintentionally skip lines of text. Her vision is usually blurry and double vision occurs frequently. Her depth perception, balance, and coordination are all quite poor now. She feels dizzy and nauseated every single day. Most people with similar vision disorders require about 20 weeks of vision therapy, but but she was informed that she will need at least twice that number of sessions.

Virtually every system of Jaejin’s body has been affected, which led to an eventual diagnosis of Dysautonomia, an incurable autonomic nervous system disorder caused by Second Concussion Syndrome. The most serious aspects of her condition involve the aforementioned hemiplegic migraines, tachycardia (rapid heart rate), liver disease (she may eventually require a transplant), hearing and vision loss, dizziness (falling hazard), cognitive dysfunction, gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction, immune system dysregulation (chronic, severe allergies, skin disorders, chronic sinus infections) and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Furthermore, her concussions caused an inability to socialize as she used to which has led to crippling social anxiety and isolation. She is also dealing with heavy depression and believes that her personality has changed due to brain damage.

Jaejin has yet to find a decent doctor in the Greater Denver area - or beyond - who can treat her case correctly. She may need to relocate out of state so she can obtain proper care for this neurodegenerative disease that has ravaged her well-being and her functionality.

Before Jaejin developed Dysautonomia, she was a mentally sharp, physically fit mover and shaker. She held job titles such as the Director of Business Development and Director of Operations. She even took on a job working with Lou Dobbs in New York City. She began working on a book about her mother titled Little Bird, which has fallen to the wayside since her existence has been turned upside down. Now she is barely able to move about her apartment. The American Health Care System has proven to be convoluted, to say the least. Securing proper medical care for herself has been daunting and exasperating.

This fall, increasingly severe GI issues have come to the forefront, including the development of C-DIFF, a stubborn intestinal bacterial infection that can become life-threatening. C-DIFF is extremely expensive to cure ($5K and up for a single curative pill), despite Jaejin having Colorado health coverage. This GI complication is the direct result of medical negligence by a Colorado physician who treated a chronic sinus infection of Jaejin's. After being inappropriately prescribed the antibiotic Vancomycin, DRESS syndrome ensued (Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms), with "Red Man Syndrome" as an expression of it. Jaejin now has a painful, unsightly rash on nearly every part of her weak body. With the severity of her issues, she is unable to eat much food at all now.

We write this because the time is now to help this downtrodden, disabled friend of ours. We would greatly appreciate any contribution that you can make. Your support can make a huge difference in her fight to regain some semblance of health. She could be cured of C-DIFF and the threat the infection poses to her survival. Every donation will go toward helping her access the care she so desperately needs. Even if you can only give a few dollars, that would still place her on the right path.

Without adequate treatment, Jaejin's death could become a fast-approaching reality. As it is, her quality of life has diminished to nearly nil.

Throughout this hellish ordeal, Jaejin still displays a big, beautiful heart. She took care of each of her ailing parents in the final chapters of their lives. Despite her struggles, she supported one of her friends through breast cancer treatment.

October is Dysautomia Awareness Month. Please share Jaejin's story and this campaign as widely as appropriate.

For more on Jaejin's story and information about Dysautonomia, please read the upcoming article in the Hollywood Times written by her friend Amy Diana Ramirez: October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month: The Struggle of Living with an Autonomic Nervous System Disorder.

https://hollywoodtimes.net/october-is-dysautonomia-awareness-month/

Thank you for your curiosity and compassion.