Anibal's Funeral Expenses
Donation protected
Greetings,
I'm writing on behalf of my father, Anibal Gutierrez, who was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in August of 2015 . He had surgery to remove the cancerous mole. Unfortunately, prior to this he had just lost his job which means that he also lost his insurance coverage and the initial operation costed $13K which was paid out of pocket. After recovery of the surgery, he was able to find another job and obtain medical insurance through the new company. Shortly thereafter on a follow up exam it was determined that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes and had 15 lymph nodes removed under his left axilia followed by radiation, then 8 lymph nodes removed under the right axilia followed by radiation to fight the cancer.
On October 2016 he was told by his oncologist that his cancer had metastasized into his lung, liver and bones which put him at stage 4. It wasn't until then that he was finally put on a clinical trial for an immunotherapy drug ipilimumab at Kaiser, administered intravenously. At the end of November and during this first round of chemo, his job switched insurance companies causing delays, stress and even complications with his session of treatments. Upon petioning his new insurance to allow my father to continue with his treatments at Kaiser we were denied. This forced my father to find a new oncologist to continue treatments.
On January 20th, the tumors in his lung caused pleural effusion, a medical condition that causes liquid buildup in his left pleural space (next to lung) requiring us to seek immediate medical attention under the new medical group. Eventually it was required to have a tube inserted into the pleural space. A month passed where my father was receiving no treatment to deal with the cancer while battling the insurance companies to continue with Kaiser and working with the new insurance group to obtain approval of a more aggressive chemotherapy.
It was during this month of inactivity waiting for the insurance companies that I was constantly looking at other options and we decided to look at alternate forms of treatments and ran across a former stage 4 cancer patient, who recommended The Immunity Therapy Center in Tijuana Mexico. Since it is in Mexico, and because it is considered alternate forms of treatments, beyond conventional medicine, it is not covered by insurance. We live in LA, California and decided to get a consultation with the medical director. We have started treatment and are in our third week. We feel this is our best hope to fight this cancer and to save my father's life. The treatment costs are very expensive and run about $19K for 3 weeks. Because of the advance stage of the cancer we will require additional weeks of treatments and we were hoping for some help to cover some of the past and on going medical bills.
I will be ever so grateful to all of you who stop by and take the time to support my family. Thank you all and God bless you!
I'm writing on behalf of my father, Anibal Gutierrez, who was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in August of 2015 . He had surgery to remove the cancerous mole. Unfortunately, prior to this he had just lost his job which means that he also lost his insurance coverage and the initial operation costed $13K which was paid out of pocket. After recovery of the surgery, he was able to find another job and obtain medical insurance through the new company. Shortly thereafter on a follow up exam it was determined that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes and had 15 lymph nodes removed under his left axilia followed by radiation, then 8 lymph nodes removed under the right axilia followed by radiation to fight the cancer.
On October 2016 he was told by his oncologist that his cancer had metastasized into his lung, liver and bones which put him at stage 4. It wasn't until then that he was finally put on a clinical trial for an immunotherapy drug ipilimumab at Kaiser, administered intravenously. At the end of November and during this first round of chemo, his job switched insurance companies causing delays, stress and even complications with his session of treatments. Upon petioning his new insurance to allow my father to continue with his treatments at Kaiser we were denied. This forced my father to find a new oncologist to continue treatments.
On January 20th, the tumors in his lung caused pleural effusion, a medical condition that causes liquid buildup in his left pleural space (next to lung) requiring us to seek immediate medical attention under the new medical group. Eventually it was required to have a tube inserted into the pleural space. A month passed where my father was receiving no treatment to deal with the cancer while battling the insurance companies to continue with Kaiser and working with the new insurance group to obtain approval of a more aggressive chemotherapy.
It was during this month of inactivity waiting for the insurance companies that I was constantly looking at other options and we decided to look at alternate forms of treatments and ran across a former stage 4 cancer patient, who recommended The Immunity Therapy Center in Tijuana Mexico. Since it is in Mexico, and because it is considered alternate forms of treatments, beyond conventional medicine, it is not covered by insurance. We live in LA, California and decided to get a consultation with the medical director. We have started treatment and are in our third week. We feel this is our best hope to fight this cancer and to save my father's life. The treatment costs are very expensive and run about $19K for 3 weeks. Because of the advance stage of the cancer we will require additional weeks of treatments and we were hoping for some help to cover some of the past and on going medical bills.
I will be ever so grateful to all of you who stop by and take the time to support my family. Thank you all and God bless you!
Organizer
Erick Gutierrez
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA