Ari's Much Needed Medical Needs
Donation protected
This is a picture of my son before his brain was damaged. When he was able to enjoy his brother and sister, when he could enjoy a day riding a bike and playing tennis. It has been almost two years since he has been able to participate in life on any level. He is the handsome young man in the middle.
I am making a plea for my son Ari who is in desperate need of cutting edge medical treatments for a traumatic brain injury sustained. Insurance will not pay for the treatment he needs and he needs it quickly. We have no where else to turn. His father and I are afraid he will end his suffering on his own terms.
When Ari was born 22 years ago, it was the happiest day of my life. My first child, healthy and beautiful. I instantly was madly in love. He was a typical rough and tumble boy, taking chances that would make any mother cringe. He broke his arm when he was 2 after climbing on top of his Little Tykes truck and jumping off, but mostly it was just the typical skinned knee, bump on the head, that kind of thing. When he was 10, those daring antics had farther reaching consequences. On Halloween of 2002 , I was busy finishing up the gore and grime that I had prepared for the classroom party. I heard him call my name,”Mom?” It was a different Mom than I had heard before. We lived in a split level and there was a small ledge above the stairs leading to the lower level. He had swung on it many times and I had warned him many times of the dangers. As usual, it fell on deaf ears. This time he swung and fell and landed on the hard stairs with him right arm underneath him. When I got to him, it was obvious that his arm was badly broken and the bones and blood were sticking outside of the skin. I instantly wrapped it and rushed him to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. They had to pin his arm back together. Twelve weeks later, he was as good as new. A few months passed without incident.
It was an early spring day and I was busy doing my errands after his Dad got home and was able to watch the other kids. I got a call from him saying that the village had issued a “Boil Order” for the water. It had been contaminated. He told me that he was starting to boil some water. When I got home a little later, I proceeded to boil some additional water. I then attempted to explain to the children why they should not drink the water from the sink or from the dispenser on the refrigerator door. Ari being the jokester that he always was, made a joke to his siblings that if they drank the water they would die and he proceeded to fall on the floor as if dead. At that very moment I was carrying a container with boiled water to place inside the refrigerator. Just as Ari fell on the floor the bottom of the container broke and the boiling water spilled all over his back. I immediately removed his t-shirt, screamed for his Dad to call 911 and rushed him to the shower to rinse him with luke warm water. The skin was already hanging off of his back. It was a truly horrifying moment He was rushed to a hospital where they got his vitals under control and then transferred to a hospital that had a burn unit. I waited alone at the hospital in the middle of the night waiting for his prognosis. An intern came out to speak with me. I was sick to my stomach. He told me that Ari had suffered 3rd degree burns on about 20% of his body. He told me that the greatest danger in the next few days was kidney failure and he could die. Fortunately, he did not die but the treatment of this type of burn is even more horryfing than the burn itself. The debriding process he had to go through was like the worst kind of torture. Ironically, this treatment saved his life. His painful recovery was about 4 months from beginning to end.
That was 12 years ago….his body recovered from those events but he ultimately carries both physical and mental scars.
He is currently in a battle for his very self. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in the Spring of 2014. He had taken some synthetic drug from China with some of his friends. Thankfully he did not die as many of these first time users of this junk do. He was rendered unconscious however and when he woke up he had blood on the back of his neck. We believe he fell during this incident and that this is when the TBI occurred. We didn’t know at the time that he had fallen. He never said anything until later. He started having intense episodes of paranoia. Thinking that people were watching the house and wanting to kill him and his family. He felt as if something or someone was listening in on his thoughts. These episodes came and went and were not too regular. We attributed it to smoking marijuana. Over a few months his symptoms became worse. Manic episodes and a suicide attempt. He went to 4 different psych wards only to be discharged in a week or less with no diagnosis and a handful of prescriptions. The more we delved into this the more we realized that he was having major mental issues. He was not using drugs and he was still having these crazy episodes. He has been convinced that a tiny implant was put into his brain while he was unconscious and that someone can control him through a device, kind of like a video game. He has researched this extensively and has actually found a lot of support on the internet for this notion. We got all the usual tests and of course no implant was found. He has constant chatter in his head, he experiences excruciating pain, he is unable to socialize, unable to work. His life is hell. I do my best to manage the manic episodes at home with him. I am getting better at it now. The last place we want him to go is back to the hospital where it seems no one knows how to treat him. They just rush him through the system because the insurance doesn’t pay very much.
We found a specialist who is a neuro psychiatrist. He has been wonderful. He did some tests that confirmed moderate to severe brain damage and also confirmed that the symptoms that he is experiencing are a part of the brain damage. We have been seeing him for 8 months and he has tried many different pharmacological approaches that have not worked. Ari has become hopeless, He can’t imagine living the rest of his life like this. I wake up in the night and check to make sure he is still breathing, praying everyday that he does not take his life to escape this hell he is in. He used to love to play the guitar and make music on his key board. He and his brother and sister would jam in the basement. He would hang out with his girlfriend. He would go to a local coffee shop and play his guitar and sing, he would hang out with his friends, play pool, make a bonfire in the backyard, have deep conversations about life with me while we prepared dinner together. He now sees no friends, has lost his girlfriend, can’t play his guitar, rarely eats dinner with the family, can’t work. The constant chatter in his brain has taken over his life. The pain associated with this is sometimes unbearable. He told me that sometimes the pain of his burn is recreated on his body.
His doctor has recommended a cutting edge treatment that has helped many people with this condition. It is called transcranial magnetic stimulation. His insurance will not cover it. It is $14,000. It is a 6 week program five days a week, an hour a day. They use very strong magnets to stimulate the area of the brain that is not functioning properly. Many people have had great success with this treatment. We are unable to pay for this treatment for him. His father and I can not stop until we know that we have exhausted every possible treatment to help him have a life again.
Please help if you can. We are desperate to get our son back. He needs this treatment as soon as possible. If we can see the sparkle in his beautiful blue eyes again we will be forever grateful.
Thank you for reading our story. Ari's Mom
I am making a plea for my son Ari who is in desperate need of cutting edge medical treatments for a traumatic brain injury sustained. Insurance will not pay for the treatment he needs and he needs it quickly. We have no where else to turn. His father and I are afraid he will end his suffering on his own terms.
When Ari was born 22 years ago, it was the happiest day of my life. My first child, healthy and beautiful. I instantly was madly in love. He was a typical rough and tumble boy, taking chances that would make any mother cringe. He broke his arm when he was 2 after climbing on top of his Little Tykes truck and jumping off, but mostly it was just the typical skinned knee, bump on the head, that kind of thing. When he was 10, those daring antics had farther reaching consequences. On Halloween of 2002 , I was busy finishing up the gore and grime that I had prepared for the classroom party. I heard him call my name,”Mom?” It was a different Mom than I had heard before. We lived in a split level and there was a small ledge above the stairs leading to the lower level. He had swung on it many times and I had warned him many times of the dangers. As usual, it fell on deaf ears. This time he swung and fell and landed on the hard stairs with him right arm underneath him. When I got to him, it was obvious that his arm was badly broken and the bones and blood were sticking outside of the skin. I instantly wrapped it and rushed him to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. They had to pin his arm back together. Twelve weeks later, he was as good as new. A few months passed without incident.
It was an early spring day and I was busy doing my errands after his Dad got home and was able to watch the other kids. I got a call from him saying that the village had issued a “Boil Order” for the water. It had been contaminated. He told me that he was starting to boil some water. When I got home a little later, I proceeded to boil some additional water. I then attempted to explain to the children why they should not drink the water from the sink or from the dispenser on the refrigerator door. Ari being the jokester that he always was, made a joke to his siblings that if they drank the water they would die and he proceeded to fall on the floor as if dead. At that very moment I was carrying a container with boiled water to place inside the refrigerator. Just as Ari fell on the floor the bottom of the container broke and the boiling water spilled all over his back. I immediately removed his t-shirt, screamed for his Dad to call 911 and rushed him to the shower to rinse him with luke warm water. The skin was already hanging off of his back. It was a truly horrifying moment He was rushed to a hospital where they got his vitals under control and then transferred to a hospital that had a burn unit. I waited alone at the hospital in the middle of the night waiting for his prognosis. An intern came out to speak with me. I was sick to my stomach. He told me that Ari had suffered 3rd degree burns on about 20% of his body. He told me that the greatest danger in the next few days was kidney failure and he could die. Fortunately, he did not die but the treatment of this type of burn is even more horryfing than the burn itself. The debriding process he had to go through was like the worst kind of torture. Ironically, this treatment saved his life. His painful recovery was about 4 months from beginning to end.
That was 12 years ago….his body recovered from those events but he ultimately carries both physical and mental scars.
He is currently in a battle for his very self. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in the Spring of 2014. He had taken some synthetic drug from China with some of his friends. Thankfully he did not die as many of these first time users of this junk do. He was rendered unconscious however and when he woke up he had blood on the back of his neck. We believe he fell during this incident and that this is when the TBI occurred. We didn’t know at the time that he had fallen. He never said anything until later. He started having intense episodes of paranoia. Thinking that people were watching the house and wanting to kill him and his family. He felt as if something or someone was listening in on his thoughts. These episodes came and went and were not too regular. We attributed it to smoking marijuana. Over a few months his symptoms became worse. Manic episodes and a suicide attempt. He went to 4 different psych wards only to be discharged in a week or less with no diagnosis and a handful of prescriptions. The more we delved into this the more we realized that he was having major mental issues. He was not using drugs and he was still having these crazy episodes. He has been convinced that a tiny implant was put into his brain while he was unconscious and that someone can control him through a device, kind of like a video game. He has researched this extensively and has actually found a lot of support on the internet for this notion. We got all the usual tests and of course no implant was found. He has constant chatter in his head, he experiences excruciating pain, he is unable to socialize, unable to work. His life is hell. I do my best to manage the manic episodes at home with him. I am getting better at it now. The last place we want him to go is back to the hospital where it seems no one knows how to treat him. They just rush him through the system because the insurance doesn’t pay very much.
We found a specialist who is a neuro psychiatrist. He has been wonderful. He did some tests that confirmed moderate to severe brain damage and also confirmed that the symptoms that he is experiencing are a part of the brain damage. We have been seeing him for 8 months and he has tried many different pharmacological approaches that have not worked. Ari has become hopeless, He can’t imagine living the rest of his life like this. I wake up in the night and check to make sure he is still breathing, praying everyday that he does not take his life to escape this hell he is in. He used to love to play the guitar and make music on his key board. He and his brother and sister would jam in the basement. He would hang out with his girlfriend. He would go to a local coffee shop and play his guitar and sing, he would hang out with his friends, play pool, make a bonfire in the backyard, have deep conversations about life with me while we prepared dinner together. He now sees no friends, has lost his girlfriend, can’t play his guitar, rarely eats dinner with the family, can’t work. The constant chatter in his brain has taken over his life. The pain associated with this is sometimes unbearable. He told me that sometimes the pain of his burn is recreated on his body.
His doctor has recommended a cutting edge treatment that has helped many people with this condition. It is called transcranial magnetic stimulation. His insurance will not cover it. It is $14,000. It is a 6 week program five days a week, an hour a day. They use very strong magnets to stimulate the area of the brain that is not functioning properly. Many people have had great success with this treatment. We are unable to pay for this treatment for him. His father and I can not stop until we know that we have exhausted every possible treatment to help him have a life again.
Please help if you can. We are desperate to get our son back. He needs this treatment as soon as possible. If we can see the sparkle in his beautiful blue eyes again we will be forever grateful.
Thank you for reading our story. Ari's Mom
Organizer
Carolyn Russell
Organizer
Deerfield, IL
