Casey Martin Medical Bills

Hello, my name is Casey Martin, and I’m reaching out for your help.

In November of 2021 I suddenly began experiencing intense headaches and vomiting while visiting family in Grand Junction, CO. These symptoms were so intense that I was hospitalized over the week of Thanksgiving. The doctors ran many tests, but were unable to ascertain what was wrong. They sent me home, at which point the symptoms became increasingly worse. I was hospitalized again over Christmas week and nearly died from the mystery illness. The doctors were unable to determine what was wrong and instead referred me to the medical facilities at University of Colorado Anschutz in Denver. In January 2022 the specialists there were finally able to diagnose my illness as cocci meningitis.

Cocci is a fungus that grows in the soil. With the rising global temperatures, especially in the American Southwest, cocci flourishes. And so, when the wind blows, dirt containing cocci can make its way into an individual’s lungs where it disseminates and spreads throughout the body. In my case, the cocci disseminated to my brain and attacked the ventricles that help drain excess cerebrospinal fluid. The cocci severely damaged my ventricles, meaning that the cerebrospinal fluid continued to build up in my skull. This was the cause of both the intense headaches and the vomiting. This is what nearly killed me.

The doctors gave me a prescription to treat the cocci, and I slowly began to recover. Unfortunately, in the fall of 2022 the medicine I was prescribed failed and I was once again hospitalized. The doctors determined that it was necessary to do a brain surgery to place a vp shunt on the right side of my skull. The shunt helps drain the cerebrospinal fluid from my skull to my stomach. Unfortunately, I was hospitalized again over the Christmas week of 2022 due to a complication with that operation. I required additional surgery to repair the shunt and then began an intense iv treatment targeting the cocci.

Over the last few months, I have been taking an experimental drug from Europe that has greatly helped stabilize my health. Hopefully, it will provide a long-term solution that I wasn’t able to receive from the original medication.

The medical and pharmaceutical bills I have incurred over the last two years have been utterly devastating. Before all of this, my wife and two dogs and I moved to Los Angeles so I could begin a PHD program at UCLA and continue to pursue my teaching career. This unexpected and destructive illness has nearly killed me twice, delaying my education dreams and pushing my family to a financial breaking point. Now on the hopeful road to some kind of recovery, I am eager to again chase my passion and finish my PHD. I wonder if you might consider contributing to my “gofundme” so that I may begin to put the pieces of my broken life back together again. Thank you.