My Autoimmune Brother Eric Best

Hello everyone.. this is very hard for me to write.. I will tell the whole story the best I can. 2 months ago Eric thought he had Bronchitis, but he was loving his new job trucking and was on track to be the companies best driver, so he refused to slow down and thought that he could knock it out with antibiotics. A week and a half ago Eric collapsed at a truck stop and was rushed to a hospital here in California. After 5 days of testing, he was diagnosed with Advanced Interstitial Lung Disease, exacerbated so quickly by the undiagnosed autoimmune disease, Sjogrens Syndrome, which they believe has been destroying his lungs for about 10 years. Eric, being the tough guy that he is, never wanted to complain about all the pain he’s been feeling. The damage is irreversible and we are at the point where we have to get him to the Lung Transplant Hospital in Gainesville Florida, where a transplant doctor has accepted his case. Since he is a resident of Florida, and Mom and dad are there, they cannot put him on the transplant list here. Eric must remain on High Flow Oxygen, he cannot sustain life without it. We are researching every medical transport option we have to get him to Gainesville, and the cost will be about $38,000.00. Our family is scraping everything we can together and I am asking for your help. There is no amount too small. Mom and I have been here with him in California for the past week. We really thought he was making progress and that we would be able to get him on a regular flight with a regular oxygen tank, but the doctors now feel that he has reached a plateau and anything less than hospital high flow is no longer a possibility. I am asking for help, please, it’s the only thing I can do. I feel helpless about the rest of it. I finally got the perfect brother back, and now I’m going to fight to keep him. Thank you all so much for donations, prayers, thoughts, support, and encouragement. Love, Kelly