Tammie's Treatment & Recovery Fund

One of my closest friends, Tammie Stanford (a wife and mother of 3), suffered a traumatic brain injury in a freaky accident last year.  Tammie has had many medical problems because of the accident.  Currently, she is leaking spinal fluid and is on permanent bed rest until they can fix her problem. 

Even though we live among the best hospitals in the world.  The only specialists who could potentially help her are located across the country.

This is her story in her own words...

"It's supposedly very difficult to find these leaks sometimes. It's called spontaneous cerebral spinal fluid leak. They think mine is somewhere in my spine, not the skull. MRI shows my brain is collapsing in on itself, sagging and pressing on top of spinal column, and low on fluid. MRI can only locate these in 20% of cases. Have had many other tests - CT's, CT myelograms, radionuclide cisternograms, spinal taps, blood patches... Nothing helps. If they can find the location they can glue/patch it or do surgery. So much agony. Spinal headaches, neck pain, double vision, hearing loss, nausea, loss of balance, numb arms and hands, and more. I can't get out of bed for more than 5-10 minutes for weeks. Cannot do a thing around the house, can't work, drive, etc. Trying to get blue cross to ok me to travel to Philadelphia for experts in this condition to look at me. Boston hospitals are out of answers. Isn't that ridiculous?! The world renowned experts are in LA at Cedar Sinai and Duke University, but we cannot afford to travel those places and I don't know if I could fly even if we could. Will take weeks to even get an answer. Everyone makes CSF fluid continuously. It bathes the brain, makes the brain "float", takes waste away and distributes nutrients. It is reabsorbed through veins that take waste out and is replaced by new fluid constantly. But a leak takes it away too quickly for it to be replaced fast enough. This all started over a year ago when I had a head injury. They think it's been a slow leak until 3 months ago when it got worse. I'm so sick. I'm so scared and discouraged. This is a nightmare. My poor family is so stressed."

"IF" Tammie's insurance approves her she still needs to pay for travel for herself and someone else to stay with her the entire time.  Her Dr's told her she has to have someone with her at all times.  This is going to cost the family a great deal of money.  Not to mention she is not able to work her full time job in Advancement and Alumni Relations at Regis College. (Tammie is one of the hardest working people I know.  She just wants to get back to being a functioning wife, mother and professional.)

Thank you so much for helping!  Your generosity and kindness are extremely appreciated. 

She doesn't know I am doing this but seeing I can't fix her medical problem for her...this is something I can do to take a little stress off of Tammie and her family."

I believe in the power of prayer.  Please say one for Tammie. 

Thank you again!