Stephen's Eye Surgeries
Donation protected
Help save Stephen’s eyesight!
You may not know that Stephen Ditchfield has already lost the vision in his left eye despite numerous surgeries over the last 7 years, due to his propensity to form scar tissue causing his retina to detach repeatedly. He was having problems with the vision in his right eye as well, and in March of 2016, Stephen’s right retina began detaching, so he underwent emergency surgery to save the retina. In order to promote the best possible healing, a silicone oil was left in his eye, on the understanding that it would eventually have to be removed. They also anticipated that a small cataract growing in his right eye would at some point need to be surgically removed as well. Unfortunately, that time has come much sooner than we thought! Last week, the doctor found the cataract aggressively growing as a result of the last surgery, and Stephen’s vision is getting cloudier by the day.
Due to extenuating circumstances, Stephen and Bernice currently have no health insurance, and Stephen is two years shy of qualifying for Medicare. But Stephen needs two more eye surgeries right away to save his vision. He is scheduled to have the silicone oil surgically removed on July 6th, after which he can be assessed and measured for cataract and lens implant surgery, which we hope will restore the vision in his right eye to as good as, or possibly even better than it was before the detachment.
Those of you who see Stephen on a regular basis know how challenging the last 7 years have been for him, learning to function with only one eye, and dealing with the frustrations of an excessive number of floaters and varied distance vision in his “good eye”, wearing contact lenses and several different strengths of reading glasses, depending on whether he was trying to read, work on the computer, or work on the electronic equipment in his music studio. He has had tremendous patience and perseverance up until now. At this point, he is visually non-functional, and really needs our help to get both surgeries done as soon as possible and allow him to get back to preparing music for our upcoming Christmas Shows this year!
As his family, we thought perhaps you would like to send Stephen a note of encouragement and a token of your appreciation for any way that he has blessed your life. No gift is too small…every donation will be much appreciated! We have an immediate need for nearly $6,000 to cover the first surgery on July 6th, and the final surgery to restore his vision will follow as soon as it’s physically and financially possible.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for helping to provide a miracle for Stephen!
Minimum estimated costs for both surgeries: $12,000
You may not know that Stephen Ditchfield has already lost the vision in his left eye despite numerous surgeries over the last 7 years, due to his propensity to form scar tissue causing his retina to detach repeatedly. He was having problems with the vision in his right eye as well, and in March of 2016, Stephen’s right retina began detaching, so he underwent emergency surgery to save the retina. In order to promote the best possible healing, a silicone oil was left in his eye, on the understanding that it would eventually have to be removed. They also anticipated that a small cataract growing in his right eye would at some point need to be surgically removed as well. Unfortunately, that time has come much sooner than we thought! Last week, the doctor found the cataract aggressively growing as a result of the last surgery, and Stephen’s vision is getting cloudier by the day.
Due to extenuating circumstances, Stephen and Bernice currently have no health insurance, and Stephen is two years shy of qualifying for Medicare. But Stephen needs two more eye surgeries right away to save his vision. He is scheduled to have the silicone oil surgically removed on July 6th, after which he can be assessed and measured for cataract and lens implant surgery, which we hope will restore the vision in his right eye to as good as, or possibly even better than it was before the detachment.
Those of you who see Stephen on a regular basis know how challenging the last 7 years have been for him, learning to function with only one eye, and dealing with the frustrations of an excessive number of floaters and varied distance vision in his “good eye”, wearing contact lenses and several different strengths of reading glasses, depending on whether he was trying to read, work on the computer, or work on the electronic equipment in his music studio. He has had tremendous patience and perseverance up until now. At this point, he is visually non-functional, and really needs our help to get both surgeries done as soon as possible and allow him to get back to preparing music for our upcoming Christmas Shows this year!
As his family, we thought perhaps you would like to send Stephen a note of encouragement and a token of your appreciation for any way that he has blessed your life. No gift is too small…every donation will be much appreciated! We have an immediate need for nearly $6,000 to cover the first surgery on July 6th, and the final surgery to restore his vision will follow as soon as it’s physically and financially possible.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for helping to provide a miracle for Stephen!
Minimum estimated costs for both surgeries: $12,000
Organizer
Taylor Ditchfield
Organizer
Sarasota, FL