Urgent Lifesaving Surgery for Rachel

Meet Rachel, a remarkable woman whose strength and resilience shine through despite the hidden battles she faces daily. To the outside world, her disabilities may go unnoticed, but for Rachel, they are an all-encompassing reality. For years, she has bravely managed her wellness, juggling it like a full-time job after a devastating reinjury ten years ago that left her juggling an auto-immune condition, acquired brain injury, spinal stenosis, and undiagnosed brain stem compression as a result of atlantoaxial instability.

In April of 2022, Rachel encountered yet another daunting challenge when a transient ischemic attack, akin to a mini-stroke, took her voice and knocked her off her feet. However, in true warrior fashion, Rachel refused to yield, dedicating herself to meticulous rehabilitation to regain her strength.

Yet, in the past 6 months, those closest to her have been witnessing a startling neurological decline in Rachel’s health related to the now diagnosed, compounding symptoms of atlantoaxial instability relentlessly taking its toll on her as it compresses her spinal cord and brain stem. She works determinedly to manage the changes in her health, but her condition is far from graceful or forgiving. Her mobility has been rapidly slipping away, her visual field is narrowing, and she bears unimaginable pain with incredible bravery.

The weekly walks once shared with friends have transformed into bedside catch-ups, underscoring the profound impact of this relentless condition on her life. She is now experiencing a wide range of higher risk neurological symptoms including paralysis, vision loss, and loss of consciousness.

Rachel's journey is a testament to the power of resilience, but she needs our support now more than ever. Her unwavering dedication to her health is inspiring, but her symptoms are degenerating and persist, necessitating more urgent intervention. The fusion surgery recommended by her healthcare team offers a glimmer of hope, stabilizing her C1-C2 vertebrae and alleviating the neurological symptoms caused by compression on her brainstem and spinal cord. However, due to this being a highly complicated operation, with high and serious complication rate even our experienced neurosurgeons in Canada won't do this surgery except in cases where death would be imminent.

As if that weren't enough, even if she could get approved, the limits of physician neurosurgical practice at doing this operation and the current fusion methods used in Canada pose risky complications in the long run, including a higher rate of failed hardware, spinal degeneration, and adjacent segment disease, vessel compression and long term surgically related nerve damage.

Furthering that, Health Canada will instead manage symptoms with highly invasive surgeries like decompression to lessen the pressure the CFS fluid is having on her brain and bone removal to limit the compression that is on her spinal cord. All of these operations are simpler but highly invasive and will not address the root of these symptoms which originates in her C1-C2 vertebrae, putting pressure on her spinal cord and brain stem.

Her Canadian specialist has referred her to a neurosurgeon in Mumbai, who is the world's foremost expert in Craniovertebral Junction Instability whose expertise and experience to perform this critically complex operation can give Rachel a positive and life changing outcome. Her Canadian medical team has become so concerned about her declining safety that they wrote letters on her behalf to the Indian Consulate supporting the immediacy of travel and the required visa.

Because the calibre and expertise for this surgery is not available in Canada, Brian and Rachel are undergoing financial duress in order to save Rachel's mobility and ultimately her life. Although it takes the expertise of renowned Dr. Goel to ease Rachel's physical burden, we as family, friends and fellow humans can help ease the financial burden that they are facing - with the surgery costing well over $100,000 plus the cost of a specialized flight where Rachel can travel supine and accommodations until she is deemed stable for travel to return home. We acknowledge that the goal is very ambitious and so we are asking you to give in many ways to help build momentum, by contributing financially or by forwarding this page for Rachel on to others.

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