Medical Expense Fund
Donation protected
In December 2017 I was in a motorbike accident. A white BMW went through a red light, hit me, and ran away. I never saw the car, and police were unable to identify the license plate from the camera. Witnesses saw the car run the red light, but he took off to fast for them to get the license plate. I smashed both my Tibia and Fibula bones into several pieces, and completely dislocated my ankle.
I always intended to write a Thank You message to everyone who has supported me financially and in other ways since then. The idea was to fully recover 100% and then write the message. Unfortunately, I am still not well and have a long journey ahead of me. I think it's time I write this message to thank and update everyone. Many of you are up to date from talking to me or messaging me. Thanks to everyone who has continued to check up on me. I also want to thank everyone who checks up on my status when they say me. Often I have been sick and tired of constantly updating people. Please understand that I'm asked about my leg multiple times a day everywhere I go. I do appreciate your concern though, and I apologize if I ever came across in any other way.
So here is the story summed up to the best of my ability:
I have had a total of 6 surgeries, around 25 nights in the hospital, been to the hospital well over 300 times, and have spent over RM100k (25k USD) - just on hospital bills. This does not include thousands spent in related expenses.
- Surgery 1: The first surgery was to put the bones back in place supported by titanium plates both on my Tibia and Fibula.
- The surgical wounds healed and scabbed up over the course of roughly a month. When the wounds were almost completely sealed, I broke out with a MRSA infection on my Tibia. Note that my fracture was a closed fracture, and the only time it was uncovered/unprotected was when I did cleaning/dressing at the hospital. It is definitively clear that I obtained MRSA at the hospital.
- Surgery 2: The second surgery was to remove the plate on my Tibia (you cannot kill MRSA on a foreign object in your body), and to do debridement (cutting away all infected flesh and any infected bone shrapnel). This involved staying in isolation in the hospital for several days on IV Drip Antibiotics. The doctor also installed an External Fixator to support the bone in replacement of the removed plate. This fixator had a total of 5 metal rods drilled into my bone.
- I wore this fixator for over 3 months and the bone never healed. I constantly tested positive for MRSA. Eventually the MRSA infection ate away at the bone near one of the pin sites from the fixator. This resulted in the fixator rod being loose - causing me extreme pain. I was unable to move my leg at all, and even with my wife helping I would be in tears. The doc had no choice but to remove the fixator. We did this as a minor operation not in the operating room. I was wide awake with no pain killers. It was painful but not as bad as you might think.
- Two weeks after removing the fixator I broke into a very bad MRSA infection which put me in the emergency room.
- Surgery 3: The third surgery was to do debridement again. After almost completely healing the wound from the last debridement surgery, I now had another gaping hole in the size of my leg. Both times these holes were wide enough to stick a small fist inside, and deep enough to see my bone. As you can imagine, it was quite discouraging to have this wound again. It was even more discouraging that my bone had not healed much. Bones WILL NOT heal while you have an infection. While operating on me, the doc noticed that the outside of my fracture began to heal, but that the infection had ate all bone marrow in the area.
- At this point we were planning surgery 4 to fix the bone marrow issue, but before doing so the doc had me on a long antibiotic course involving extremely expensive antibiotics. We needed to be sure the MRSA was gone before doing the next surgery. Almost 2 months passed and I seemed good to go. The wound was healing up nicely and there were no signs of infection. I also tested negative for MRSA more than once.
- Surgery 4: The fourth surgery was to do bone grafting. The doc took bone marrow from my illiac crest (hip bone) and inserted it into my tibia. I also had to use an alograft from the USA to supplement the bone marrow. I did not have enough in my hip bone for the operation. This cost quite a bit.
- After this surgery I actually healed up very fast. My bone fully healed. My wound fully healed. I had no signs of infection for roughly 4 months. I started to work again. I came back to work with an almost non-existent client base (I'm a Personal Trainer), but was able to have my best sales month ever that first month. When everything seemed to be going very well, I completely fell apart. In the morning I felt something odd inside my leg. By that evening my leg was double the size, flaming hot and red, and I was in extreme pain with a bad fever.
- At this point I searched far and wide for alternative treatments. I had already been on a perfect diet to combat MRSA infections. I had already tried many supplements, herbs, etc... I invested quite a bit in essential oils and other remedies to try and heal me up. People donated various 'miracle' supplements that did nothing. I'm not saying those supplements do not work, but they DO NOT work for MRSA infections.
- Surgery 5: Surgery 5 was to do debridement again. After this surgery I was knocked off my feet and was unable to walk. I had a new problem with extreme pain on my Anterior Tibialis Muscle.
- Surgery 6: Two weeks later I went for surgery 6 to remove the plate on my fibula. The doc believed my problem was caused by the plate.
- After this surgery the doc put me on a 6 week antibiotic course involving two types of antibiotics. As long as I was on the antibiotics I was fine, but I never did fully regain my ability to walk as I did after surgery 4. We did a blood test that had extremely good results - showing that the MRSA was gone from my body. The doc did warn me that it's not 100% though. Literally 3 days later I broke into an infection. Since then I have broken out with several infections - more than I can keep track of. Every time an infection breaks out I am in extreme pain (MRSA is ranked 9/10 for pain), have a high fever that won't go away, and nausea.
- The doc told me I need to take more extreme measures, but at this point my wedding was coming up very soon. The doc and I decided to buy me time to get through the wedding and the honeymoon.
- I broke out with an infection 1 month before the wedding, a week before the wedding, and on the last day of my honeymoon.
I am diagnosed with Chronic Osteomelytis MRSA. This is well beyond all of the worst case scenarios I read about on the internet. This basically means that my bone is infected with MRSA and that I will continue to have these breakouts. MRSA can be deadly and needs to be treated very seriously.
So the plan now is completely remove my fracture site and reconstruct the bone. This involves 3 surgeries, an external fixator, and 6 months without walking.
- Surgery 7: Remove fracture site, insert cement packed with antibiotics.
- Surgery 8: Remove cement, join bone, separate bone higher up, bone graft from both hips into this area, and install external fixator. I will adjust the fixator daily by 1mm until I reach 30mm. I then need to let the bone harden for 2 months. I then begin partial weight bearing exercises and physio.
- Surgery 9: Minor operation to remove the fixator
Sue and I have looked at our finances, and we have enough to survive six months on a very tight budget. We do not have enough to cover the medical bills. My doctor is not charging me his fees, but I still have to pay the hospital and anesthesiologist fees. I have more than one job opportunity lined up for me once I can walk. I have also been working off-and-on as a Personal Trainer when I've been able. Seriously, thank you to all of my clients who stuck by me and supported me while I trained you on crutches and cancelled on you many times due to being in to much pain.
In December 2017 I was able to raise over RM50,000. Gym members, gym management and staff, people from my church, friends, and people I barely know have been so incredibly generous. Some of you really shocked me with your generosity.
I am not eligible for Social Security or any other federal program from the USA. Adventist charity only supports Malaysian citizens. If I do the surgeries at GH I will be waiting for months. The longer I wait the less money I have to survive.
I am once again in the position that I need to ask for help. There are TWO ways you can help me:
The estimated costs are:
1st surgery - RM 4,000 to 5,000
2nd surgery - RM 7,000 to 9,000 (Doc has a free fixator for me)
3rd surgery - Uknown, minor op.... less than RM 2,000 probably.
Total: RM 11,000 to 16,000
Sue and I are greatly appreciative of ALL the support we have had since 2017, and appreciate any further assistance. No amount is to small.
I always intended to write a Thank You message to everyone who has supported me financially and in other ways since then. The idea was to fully recover 100% and then write the message. Unfortunately, I am still not well and have a long journey ahead of me. I think it's time I write this message to thank and update everyone. Many of you are up to date from talking to me or messaging me. Thanks to everyone who has continued to check up on me. I also want to thank everyone who checks up on my status when they say me. Often I have been sick and tired of constantly updating people. Please understand that I'm asked about my leg multiple times a day everywhere I go. I do appreciate your concern though, and I apologize if I ever came across in any other way.
So here is the story summed up to the best of my ability:
I have had a total of 6 surgeries, around 25 nights in the hospital, been to the hospital well over 300 times, and have spent over RM100k (25k USD) - just on hospital bills. This does not include thousands spent in related expenses.
- Surgery 1: The first surgery was to put the bones back in place supported by titanium plates both on my Tibia and Fibula.
- The surgical wounds healed and scabbed up over the course of roughly a month. When the wounds were almost completely sealed, I broke out with a MRSA infection on my Tibia. Note that my fracture was a closed fracture, and the only time it was uncovered/unprotected was when I did cleaning/dressing at the hospital. It is definitively clear that I obtained MRSA at the hospital.
- Surgery 2: The second surgery was to remove the plate on my Tibia (you cannot kill MRSA on a foreign object in your body), and to do debridement (cutting away all infected flesh and any infected bone shrapnel). This involved staying in isolation in the hospital for several days on IV Drip Antibiotics. The doctor also installed an External Fixator to support the bone in replacement of the removed plate. This fixator had a total of 5 metal rods drilled into my bone.
- I wore this fixator for over 3 months and the bone never healed. I constantly tested positive for MRSA. Eventually the MRSA infection ate away at the bone near one of the pin sites from the fixator. This resulted in the fixator rod being loose - causing me extreme pain. I was unable to move my leg at all, and even with my wife helping I would be in tears. The doc had no choice but to remove the fixator. We did this as a minor operation not in the operating room. I was wide awake with no pain killers. It was painful but not as bad as you might think.
- Two weeks after removing the fixator I broke into a very bad MRSA infection which put me in the emergency room.
- Surgery 3: The third surgery was to do debridement again. After almost completely healing the wound from the last debridement surgery, I now had another gaping hole in the size of my leg. Both times these holes were wide enough to stick a small fist inside, and deep enough to see my bone. As you can imagine, it was quite discouraging to have this wound again. It was even more discouraging that my bone had not healed much. Bones WILL NOT heal while you have an infection. While operating on me, the doc noticed that the outside of my fracture began to heal, but that the infection had ate all bone marrow in the area.
- At this point we were planning surgery 4 to fix the bone marrow issue, but before doing so the doc had me on a long antibiotic course involving extremely expensive antibiotics. We needed to be sure the MRSA was gone before doing the next surgery. Almost 2 months passed and I seemed good to go. The wound was healing up nicely and there were no signs of infection. I also tested negative for MRSA more than once.
- Surgery 4: The fourth surgery was to do bone grafting. The doc took bone marrow from my illiac crest (hip bone) and inserted it into my tibia. I also had to use an alograft from the USA to supplement the bone marrow. I did not have enough in my hip bone for the operation. This cost quite a bit.
- After this surgery I actually healed up very fast. My bone fully healed. My wound fully healed. I had no signs of infection for roughly 4 months. I started to work again. I came back to work with an almost non-existent client base (I'm a Personal Trainer), but was able to have my best sales month ever that first month. When everything seemed to be going very well, I completely fell apart. In the morning I felt something odd inside my leg. By that evening my leg was double the size, flaming hot and red, and I was in extreme pain with a bad fever.
- At this point I searched far and wide for alternative treatments. I had already been on a perfect diet to combat MRSA infections. I had already tried many supplements, herbs, etc... I invested quite a bit in essential oils and other remedies to try and heal me up. People donated various 'miracle' supplements that did nothing. I'm not saying those supplements do not work, but they DO NOT work for MRSA infections.
- Surgery 5: Surgery 5 was to do debridement again. After this surgery I was knocked off my feet and was unable to walk. I had a new problem with extreme pain on my Anterior Tibialis Muscle.
- Surgery 6: Two weeks later I went for surgery 6 to remove the plate on my fibula. The doc believed my problem was caused by the plate.
- After this surgery the doc put me on a 6 week antibiotic course involving two types of antibiotics. As long as I was on the antibiotics I was fine, but I never did fully regain my ability to walk as I did after surgery 4. We did a blood test that had extremely good results - showing that the MRSA was gone from my body. The doc did warn me that it's not 100% though. Literally 3 days later I broke into an infection. Since then I have broken out with several infections - more than I can keep track of. Every time an infection breaks out I am in extreme pain (MRSA is ranked 9/10 for pain), have a high fever that won't go away, and nausea.
- The doc told me I need to take more extreme measures, but at this point my wedding was coming up very soon. The doc and I decided to buy me time to get through the wedding and the honeymoon.
- I broke out with an infection 1 month before the wedding, a week before the wedding, and on the last day of my honeymoon.
I am diagnosed with Chronic Osteomelytis MRSA. This is well beyond all of the worst case scenarios I read about on the internet. This basically means that my bone is infected with MRSA and that I will continue to have these breakouts. MRSA can be deadly and needs to be treated very seriously.
So the plan now is completely remove my fracture site and reconstruct the bone. This involves 3 surgeries, an external fixator, and 6 months without walking.
- Surgery 7: Remove fracture site, insert cement packed with antibiotics.
- Surgery 8: Remove cement, join bone, separate bone higher up, bone graft from both hips into this area, and install external fixator. I will adjust the fixator daily by 1mm until I reach 30mm. I then need to let the bone harden for 2 months. I then begin partial weight bearing exercises and physio.
- Surgery 9: Minor operation to remove the fixator
Sue and I have looked at our finances, and we have enough to survive six months on a very tight budget. We do not have enough to cover the medical bills. My doctor is not charging me his fees, but I still have to pay the hospital and anesthesiologist fees. I have more than one job opportunity lined up for me once I can walk. I have also been working off-and-on as a Personal Trainer when I've been able. Seriously, thank you to all of my clients who stuck by me and supported me while I trained you on crutches and cancelled on you many times due to being in to much pain.
In December 2017 I was able to raise over RM50,000. Gym members, gym management and staff, people from my church, friends, and people I barely know have been so incredibly generous. Some of you really shocked me with your generosity.
I am not eligible for Social Security or any other federal program from the USA. Adventist charity only supports Malaysian citizens. If I do the surgeries at GH I will be waiting for months. The longer I wait the less money I have to survive.
I am once again in the position that I need to ask for help. There are TWO ways you can help me:
The estimated costs are:
1st surgery - RM 4,000 to 5,000
2nd surgery - RM 7,000 to 9,000 (Doc has a free fixator for me)
3rd surgery - Uknown, minor op.... less than RM 2,000 probably.
Total: RM 11,000 to 16,000
Sue and I are greatly appreciative of ALL the support we have had since 2017, and appreciate any further assistance. No amount is to small.
Organizer
Mark Dyhr
Organizer
