Brandi's Vision Restoration

Hello, my name is Deb and this GoFundMe account is for my daughter, Brandi Swedlund.  She is 23 years old and her vision has been a huge set-back for most of her life.  We discovered her vision was not what it should be when she was seven years old.  She was put in glasses and as she got older we had many trips to the eye doctor to alter her prescription as her eyes just continued to worsen.  She has gone through corneal refractive therapy when she was 10 for almost a year with little to no improvement.  Next the doctors suggested rigid gas permeable contacts to help slow the degradation of her vision, again with no improvement.  Her vision has worsened enough that she is no longer able to buy any type of contacts in her prescription, and her glasses have to be custom made and run around $1,000.00 each time they need to be replaced.

A few years ago she had a consult for Lasik surgery to see if we could restore her vision that way.  We were told that due to the severity of her eyes she was not a candidate for Lasik because her corneas are not thick enough.   Internal lens implants is the next option.  This surgery is where they inject a contact lens into the eye to correct vision.  She had a consultation with doctors for this surgery and was approved.  This surgery is not covered by any insurance companies and cannot be financed with any loans or credit lines.  The original estimate was that she would need two surgeries, but after the consultation was informed that she will need a total of 6 surgeries with a total of more than 20 appointments to restore her vision.  This is obviously a lot more than anticipated.  The procedure costs around $9,000 dollars which is not a sum of money many people have in reserve.  We are looking for help to cover the cost of the surgery as she is currently working full time and just finished her bachelor’s degree, so she is not able to fund the surgeries on her own. She is at the point with the health of her eyes that if she does not do the surgery now it could result in retinal detachment or further complications.   The funds will go completely to helping her restore her vision to where she will be able to see normally for the first time in many years.  If anyone has any questions please feel free to get in touch with myself or Brandi and we will be more than happy to answer any you may have.  Thank you all very much for your time and support for Brandi!