Crystal Bowersox needs our help!

Hi, my name is Shaun and I'm fundraising for Crystal Bowersox and her family. Crystal is an amazing mother to her two children; Tony and Piper. Tony has suffered a medical emergency that is life-changing for him and the family.

The name Crystal Bowersox will be familiar to many of us through her music career. I started to follow her career when I first saw her on American Idol. Crystal was the runner-up on the ninth season of American Idol in 2010. She is a touring musician. That is how she pays her bills and takes care of her family. Tony's medical emergency has halted her ability to tour. Please help if you can. Any help is appreciated. As a mother, I cannot imagine the pain Crystal is enduring watching her baby suffer. The last thing she needs to do is worry about how to keep the lights on.

So, what happened to Tony? I'll tell you.

On the night of February 15, Crystal found Tony in the bathroom in agonizing pain. He was rushed to the hospital where they found a hole in his large intestine. That is life-threatening and requires immediate emergency surgery. That would be surgery one of many more to come. Tony developed an infection, high fever, high blood pressure and heart rate. He was near sepsis. Tony has undergone multiple surgeries since Feb. 15 and now has a stoma and an abdominal wound vac. Crystal has suspected for many years that Tony may have Ehlers-Danlose Syndrome and has had to fight to get the medical team to listen to her. A mother's instinct is rarely wrong. EDS is a genetic condition that affects the body's production of collagen and so many other symptomatic issues. Tony has been diagnosed with Vascular EDS (vEDS) which is a rare type of EDS and is often considered to be the most serious. It affects the blood vessels and internal organs, which can cause them to split open and lead to life-threatening bleeding. This is exactly what happened to Tony. So now they know why his large intestine suddenly opened up. This disease is a connective tissue disorder as well which means it's hard to heal. Surgery after surgery and Tony is still in the hospital and will be for at least 2 more weeks. Crystal has not left his side, of course. Tony and Crystal have a long, long road ahead. Tony is still not out of the woods as he is high risk for infection and complications. He is still faced with months of healing and then hopefully a stoma reversal surgery. The medical bills for this will be astronomical. They're looking at a month or longer for this one hospital stay, multiple surgeries and more to go.

Any extra donations will go the Ehlers-Danlose organization - www.ehlers-danlos.com.

So much is still unknown, but the one thing I know for sure is this family needs our help.