All,
I spoke with Warren today and got his reluntant permission to post this. My previous post on his condition didn’t tell the complete story.
Warren has Cystic Fibrosis (follow this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystic_fibrosis). He's been in the hospital many times over the past years fighting off pneumonia and has beaten the odds by reaching the age of 57 years. This stay at St Paul hospital in Dallas has convinced him to finally become a candidate for a lung transplant which can ultimately lead Warren back to full health. Dr Rosenblatt (I believe the lead transplant doc) tells him that his other systems, heart, digestive, etc are in good order and he should be a good candidate.
There are two problems, time and money. The procedure will cost $400,000 to $500,000 and Warren is without insurance. The hospital will not consider him for a transplant or even the screening process to get on the list without the ability to finance it. He has some assets that can be sold to offset 30 – 35% of the cost, but that is not enough to get St Paul’s attention. The next problem, and this is much more critical is time. Warren’s Dr tells them that he expects time will run out for our friend in 3 to 4 months.
His sister Pat recently retired from her civil service job to care for Warren and act as his full time caretaker/advocate. Over the past few weeks, she has been weaving her way through the medical/health care system to find a way to get the transplant surgery paid for. She is currently checking into the Medicare/Medicaid system, bet we fear that the enrollment and qualification process may take too long.
Warren needs your help. Doctors, attorneys, medical case workers or others that know the system or have resources, please speak up and help our friend get through this.
If you have ideas, I can be reached by PM on the board, email (I only have email access in the evening)
mark@markwilson.net, or by cell at 214 - four seven eight - 7272 or at work 214 - eight five nine - 6696.
OK, we are in full fundraising mode for Warren. The official paypal fundraising account for Warren is
mark@markwilson.net. Paypal website is
https://www.paypal.com/. (paypal froze Kurt's account -we can use mine temporarily)
For those of you that want to send a check you can make it out to Kurt Valentine (KurtV) and he will deposit it into the Warren account. Here's the info you need:
Kurt Valentine
1100 Swifts Hwy
Jefferson City, MO 65109