Good day and God bless,
I would like to start by thanking everyone in advance for your consideration, and for any assistance you might be able to provide.
My story is very simple. I was born into a very well to do family. My father has earned three PhD‘s and was knighted to be one of the Knights of Malta and I had a huge shoes to fill. I began my life with my wife in San Diego, where we had two amazing wonderful daughters are you got into the mortgage business and I shortly after that started my own mortgage company until 2016 where I suddenly one day woke up without any advance, warning or illness or disease woke up completely blind in both eyes, this coming from a completely healthy and active lifestyle to 100% blindness in both eyes was the scariest most petrifying moments of my life especially because there were no symptoms and the doctors were not able to properly diagnose it. I was admitted to the neurology center at UCI in Irvine California where i remained completely blind for approximately seven months so doctors attempted multiple experiments and treatments were provided to me in hopes that the doctors can attempt to save my vision, which was partially correct.
until today I am still completely blind in my left eye, and partially blind in my right eye, where I can see large objects and light, but everything is blurred.
About six months after the first event, I had a second attack, which was complete and total paralysis of my left side, and I became immobilized in a wheelchair and legally blind, at this point when the doctors ran a CT scan and an MRI on my brain, and my spinal cord, they initially missed diagnosed the mass found in the right side of my brain as terminal tumor, and I was given a diagnosis that I have perhaps a couple of weeks to live shortly after that, a surgeon came into my room at the hospital and apologized to me explaining that the mass in my brain was not a tumor and it was actually an extremely rare form of multiple sclerosis, at that point in my life, I was beginning to lose any. Hope I had for the exception of my two amazing and supportive and beautiful daughters I continue to fight and stay strong for them. The doctors finally had a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, and at this point, they began multiple treatments and blood transfusion through the plasma I was also placed on a highly expensive medication called Copaxone, which were injections that I have to give myself three times a week and just to give you an idea the cold packs and medication for the 12 shots every month that I have to take costs approximately between seven and $8000 per month for the 12 shots.
at this point, besides losing my vision and my mobility on the left side, I also had to close my business because I could no longer manage or run the day-to-day operations, so I was homebound and completely dependent on everyone around me. The stress of dealing with these issues caused a heart attack which I received two stents in my arteries and was released back home, I continue to work extremely hard to attempt and regain whatever I could, out of my mobility and learn how to live with this gnu disability at the age of 48 years old all that stress cause friction between myself and my wife of 16 years to a point where I was out of the house at the hospital for two days and my brother had flown to California to be with me so upon my return out of the hospital back home I walking to my house to find out that my wife of 16 years have abandoned me, packed up the house and the kids and left without explaining anything to me discussing anything with me or even showing any kind of respect for what I was going through.
My family insisted that I move to Vienna, Virginia, so I could be assisted and taken care of by then since I was now alone in California. That was a huge challenge for me because I could never see myself living anywhere on this planet that is far away from my two amazing daughters. I am still clawing in any manner trying to get back to California to be with them however, that is not realistic with my disabilities until i.e., I am somewhat cured and can work in any field at this point so I can at least earn money to pay rent and have a place to live.
I had an incredible relationship with my father, my entire life, where he was my mentor, my best friend, and a leader, whom I looked up to shortly after my move to be in Virginia he suddenly began explaining his kidneys, and two weeks after my arrival to his home, he passed which was another devastating blow for me so the last 3 to 4 years have been a challenge that I don’t think anyone would be able to deal with
The reason why I am asking for help is because number one the last year without work living off of a simple income, which is disability, all my money is spent on my daughters for their needs growing up, which both are driving now, one is in college, and the other one will be in college next year so with that said, I have racked up almost $35,000 in credit card debt and personal loans that I had to take out of desperation, so predatory lenders jumped on me like a pack of wolves and unfortunately I couldn’t say no because of my desperate situation, so besides trying to get rid of all that outstanding debt that I am in the main reason I am requesting funds is that I am in hopes of getting a stem cell treatment that is showing a great deal of success in repairing the outer shell of the optic nerve that was damaged during my episodes of multiple sclerosis and that was what caused the blindness. Trust me when I say that not being able to see is one of the hardest and most challenging things any person can go through, especially if you become blind at the age of 44 or 45 and are not born with it and that’s all you’ve known your entire life but having 2020 vision and then all the sudden out of nowhere, you can’t see a thing literally is devastating, so I am praying to God that I am able to somehow raise these funds necessary to get the stem cell treatment for my optic nerve and attempt to regain as much of my vision, as possible to return to somewhat normal life and be able to move back to California so I can be with my daughters and be involved in their lives. This year I didn’t even get to see them for Christmas or Thanksgiving or New Year’s and that has absolutely destroyed me.
I know that this statement is extremely long, and a lot of information was provided. I ask for your forgiveness for any grammar or word positioning mistakes. It’s because I cannot type with my blindness, so anytime I have to provide a statement or a document or a letter, I have to speak it into my smartphone and it types it for me.
So with all that said, if you have any questions whatsoever, I am not sure how old but you are more than welcome to contact me through the email or the phone number that I had left on my account in this page so please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns, or if there was anything on clear in my statement, and you would like me to clarify and explain for you. I would be absolutely honored and pleased to do so, so please let me know, and I pray to God that you do not judge my ability to dictate a document, but it is very difficult when I cannot even see the writing on the screen
I think you in advance for your consideration and for any amount of help that you can find it in your heart to assist me with, and I am willing to provide anything you wish from medical records to contact with all the physicians that have worked with me. I am also willing to provide document pictures when I was in the hospital and any kind of proof that you were acquire prior to making any kind of financial commitment so please let me know, and I will be more than happy to provide you with anything that you need in the hopes that I could achieve this one goal, so again I do think you I am very humbled and honored that I am able to do this. A friend did help me find this website and this entire document has been dictated by me verbally through my phone, so I am here and willing to do whatever I need to do to accomplish this goal , so I can hope for one day to see normal again