DO iT FOR D!

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Donna Patel had a very sudden and RARE illness occur in October of 2018. She is an extremely active, hardworking, and outgoing elementary teacher that has completely lost her ability to work! She spends her year working in the states and her summers teaching abroad and traveling. In October of 2018, she was diagnosed with Varicella-Zoster Meningitis, which was found after a lumbar puncture and it indicated that she had 388 White Blood Cells in her cerebral-spinal fluid. Neurologists begin to worry when the white blood cell count is at 10!!

Her infectious disease doctor has clearly stated that she could have been paralyzed or died if she didn't get to the ER any sooner! Between the various infectious disease doctors and multiple neurologists that have looked into her case, NONE of them have seen a case like Donna's before. In other words, she basically grew shingles in her brain! As of now, doctors are still trying to figure out how to treat the patient's rare form of Varicella-Zoster Meningitis, but with very little literature/studies done on this diagnosis, it has been difficult.

Most patients with Meningitis are treated for 7-10 days with IV antibiotic, but Donna is currently at 37 days of aggressive treatment through a picc line to her heart with routine doctors visits. Her RARE form of Meningitis has caused more complication with her case. Recently, she was diagnosed with Left Hemiparesis and TRANSVERSE MYELITIS (VERY UNCOMMON), which was caused after a mini stroke on 11-16-2018 and she was admitted to the Neurology unit at IMC. She has spent a total of 30+ days in the hospital, continues to make trips to the ER, (due to nerve damage) among other things, and has lost her mobility on the left side of her body. As well as, having difficulty with immediate memory loss, sensitivity to light (explains the sunglasses), and fine motor skills (can not text for longer than 10 minutes or write with a pen). She is currently on home health nursing, has trouble keeping food down, is using a walker, has occupational therapy, physical therapy, behavioral health counseling and continues IV treatment, among several other daily prescription medications. She went from teaching and traveling around the world to save/protect animals to being a girl that's trapped in an "old man's body," as she would say. On top of everything else, she is losing all of her hair and we all know how beautiful her naturally long hair is and how much she LOVES it. She's been a warrior through all of this, but losing her hair has been tough! Along with missing the entire holiday season, starting with Halloween and now we are almost to Christmas but things are not looking up. Missing Halloween was a hard pill for Donna's creative self to swallow, since she has two awesome costumes for this year, but having to go to the ER on Thanksgiving was even more earth shattering for her. It was bad enough that she did not get to spend her Thanksgiving cooking up a storm as usual, but even worse with the nerve pain and the inability to even sit down or to hug anyone due to the extreme pain she is enduring!! Her birthday is coming up in just a few days and this will be her worst/saddest birthday to date. The holiday season will pass her by and although she continues to stay as positive as she can, we all know this has jaded her spirit. Please send positive vibes her way! We need all the love and support she can get!

As of now, DP is drowning in medical bills and is physically and mentally (memory loss) unable to work. Losing her ability to work has most certainly hit her hard because she LOVES her job more than anything else in the world. It is now up the neurologists and Donna's rehab recovery progress for the coming year. She is a young female living in the state of Utah where she is not able to collect any kind of short term or long term disability due to her age and is not making any income at all. She has no idea how she is going to pay for her next health insurance premium, phone bill, car insurance, rent, or even utilities. Getting Medicaid has been a serious issue in the state of Utah! There is no specific timeline on how long her disabilities will continue, but the doctors at Johns Hopkins, in Maryland, have suggested that it should take 6 months. We are praying for a full vision, physical, and hopefully full brain recovery as well! D's memory and concentration loss has been the most difficult part of this process for her. ANY AND ALL HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED AND DP WOULD BE FOREVER GRATEFUL FOR YOU! At this point she has spent all of her savings to pay for her health insurance premiums, which are super high and has no financial support in other ways. PLEASE help us RAISE 'TM' AWARENESS and DO IT FOR D!!!! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! --WITH LOVE, P.S.

The funds from this Campaign will be withdrawn to get D through physical therapy and pay for her rent while she is unable to work.

My name is Zar and I am D’s significant other, I have been helping her through this healing process and I will be facilitating the funds to her.