Three years ago, Ben started to develop what has become a serious life-threatening eating disorder. Two months ago, severely malnourished  and weighing just 92#, Ben’s heart almost stopped in the ER. He was stabilized and on 11/3/15 transferred to an eating disorder facility. Ben is presently on a feeding tube and is slowly and steadily making progress. He has a chance for a full recovery, but, without this very specialized care, this awful disease will surely take his life.

Ben is a wonderful, kind-hearted young man with a gentle soul. He is an accomplished and respected musician and guitar teacher and is very proud of his Bob Dylan tribute band “Positively 4th Street .”




Ben has a strong will to live and looks forward to someday, God willing, enjoying life once again. He is working very hard to recover and credits any progress to his strong faith and the love and support of family and friends.

It is a fallacy that only women develop eating disorders. Men with eating disorders are under diagnosed, under treated and under-researched. Most men who suffer from this disease are unaware of the symptoms and are often not taken seriously by medical professionals until they require emergency medical help. These men report that they are often told by a doctor to "man up!"

Because of his medical issues, his income has been limited, and he was placed on Medicaid here in Illinois. However, either Medicaid would not cover the facility -- or the facility would not accept Medicaid patients.  He was therefore admitted as a "self-pay" @ $30,000 per month plus lab, etc. expenses.  He will likely need this continued treatment for several more months.  Ben's friends and family would appreciate any financial help that you could provide.

Please help us get Ben back to what he loves most - his bandmates are waiting!