Please Donate to Help with Medical Bills

Hi. My name is Shannon and I am fundraising for my husband Carlos. Carlos is battling kidney failure and liver cirrhosis from fatty liver disease. He's in the hospital and has no insurance, as he has been without work for the better part of five years. Read on to understand a bit about who Carlos is and how we came to be in this situation.

As anyone who knows him will attest, Carlos is a good man with a huge heart. He's one of those people who would literally give you the shirt off his back if you needed it - even if it were his only shirt. He's a devout Catholic / Christian, loyal to a fault to family and friends. He's a straight-shooter, no nonsense type of guy who would rather someone say what's on their mind than tip-toe around a topic to try to spare his feelings. He's always been strong and self-sufficient. He never met a stranger and can easily strike up a conversation with anyone he meets, quickly becoming fast friends. He loves to grill and barbecue, especially for large family gatherings. Loves hunting, fishing, cars, and sports, just to name a few of his passions. He proudly served 3 1/2 years in the U.S. Army during the Cold War, stationed in Frankfurt, Germany.

The photo above was from Mother's Day weekend, 2018 shortly after his father's cancer diagnosis (read below). In it, he's with his parents (kissing) and his sister (kneeling).

It is heart breaking to see him in his current condition - almost entirely dependent upon medical staff to assist with some of the most basic needs. It's possible (though as yet not certain) that he'll need both a kidney transplant and a liver transplant.

Ironically, shortly before he fell ill with fatty liver disease, he had begun to try to eat healthy foods and lose his excess weight. Had he begun that just 3-6 months sooner, he might have been spared this horrible dual disease.

How we got here:

Carlos has been an independent computer consultant for about 26 years, serving mainly small businesses and a few individual/home customers with their computer support needs. In May of 2018, Carlos's dad was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He promptly dropped everything he was doing to go spend time with his dad in the Dallas area. Naturally, that meant he wasn't working during that time. He spent several months with his dad, after which Shannon's mother passed away unexpectedly and he came home to be with her. They both traveled to Henderson, NV where her mom had lived with her brother.

After a few weeks in Henderson, Carlos and Shannon returned home. His dad was somewhat stable at that point, and he subsequently spent ten days a month with his dad, commuting and returning home for the remainder of each month.

It didn't take long for his father's condition to worsen, and he again spent more time away from home with his father.

During that time he lost all of his business. Shannon was providing the sole financial support at this point. His father passed away in February of 2020. He expected to be able to rebuild his business after that. However, along came Covid and lockdowns. Most of his small business customers didn't survive the lockdowns, and the few individual customers he had didn't want anyone coming into their homes during the pandemic.

It was impossible to rebuild a business during the pandemic.

It's been a difficult financial road since then, as Carlos never was able to rebuild or recover his business. Now he finds himself in the hospital with no insurance. Over the last five years, some bills and debts have accrued. Shannon and Carlos were working to pay those off before paying the several hundred dollars a month it would take to add him to her insurance. In one more year, it would've been done.

But fate had other plans. As of September 24, 2023, Carlos has spent a total of twenty days in the hospital. First from August 2 to August 7. Then again from September 11 to present day (September 24 as I write this). The bulk of that time has been in ICU.

He's had multiple expensive procedures, including multiple paracentesis procedures, multiple x-rays, multiple ultrasounds, one thoracentesis, and two rounds of dialysis - just to name a few.

Please help / donate whatever you can to assist with the rapidly mounting medical bills. We appreciate whatever support you can provide, including prayers and positive thoughts for healing.