Omar's Quality of Life Fund

Hi, my name is Carmen Baez. This is my story about my son’s health.  I have two children, my 34 year’s old daughter and my 37 years old son, my hero.  My son Omar was born with a congenital heart condition called Single Ventricle, he also had transposition of the great vases. He did some home schooling and has spent most of his life at hospitals. His first open heart surgery was at 6 month old.  He had another three open heart surgeries before his first heart transplant in 1998 and a second heart transplant in 2011.  During his second transplant he got a very dangerous infection. The antibiotics used to save his life were so strong that resulted on permanent kidneys failure.  Previously, my son also overcome an “flesh-eating infection”, known as necrotizing fasciitis. Because of the multiples operations he has too much scar tissue, resulting on occlusion of all the veins in his body.  He only has one access in one of his legs that is used for the dialysis, if he loses it, that’s it.  Because of the medications used to avoid organ rejection he has lost the cartilage in his joints on his knees, arms, and hips. This causes him major pain due to the bones friction against each other.  Now he needs replacement of both hips, but because of his health status, they can’t do it for now.  These are only some of his health challenges, he has others that causes a lot of pain as well.  Omar is a fighter, he finished high school at home, has some community college, he was able to work for some time, and he is a natural artist. He taught himself to play the guitar and the piano and writes music and stories. Lately, his body has deteriorated a lot and according to his doctors is expected to get worse.  He walks with difficulty and though it is too painful, he try his best.  At this moment I am trying to make him as comfortable as I can. I have a townhouse with the rooms upstairs and it is very painful for my son to go upstairs to his room, so I am trying to convert my garage in a room for him. 

Last week, I found out that my coworker and friend had spoken to my manager about raising money to help me with my son’s situation.  When I first heard about it, I said no, I felt embarrassed.  After speaking with her, I realized the real reason for saying no was my pride. My son, however, is more important than anything else and if I can get help to make his life a little more comfortable, I will continue to do so. As a mother, I had to put my pride aside and I said yes. I am telling you a little bit of Omar’s story; a young man that has been an inspiration to many and is currently suffering a lot due to his disability. I am humbly reaching out so that my son can get what he needs. His basic needs at the moment are the room downstairs and a special bed that is not covered by Medicare. I am still short around $8,500 to make this happen. Every cent counts and I am just grateful for your help, whatever it may be.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless!