David's Denture's

     My brother David is 6'9 tall and is 250 lbs over weight. A little intimidating when you are standing in front of him, but he is the kindest, most gentle hearted giant you would ever meet. The Canadian health care system will pay for extractions but not appliances. I have turned to crowd funding as a last resort to help him get upper and lower dentures as he is of limited means. For the last eight months, he has been fighting infected teeth, and has been in the hospital three times because of them.

     Why not just get him to a dentist and be done with it, you say? Well, transporting such a large person is most difficult. Several problems arise. He simply cannot get in most vehicles. An ambulance could be used but the government does not pay unless it’s “facility to facility”. Then there is the dentist chair not being strong enough to hold him and so on, you get the picture.

     Our youngest brother found an older vehicle in which to transport him. David was able to inch his way into the front seat that was in a completely reclined position, and with the help of a seat belt extender, secure him self in.

     As we had just found an oral surgeon who was willing to care for his needs, my brothers then embarked off to his appointment, in Kelowna 2 1/2 hours away. The kind Surgeon was able to extract the five problematic teeth and take impressions for dentures, all from David's WHEELCHAIR.

     As he already had many teeth missing, he is now in desperate need of dentures, both upper and lower. The jaw pain and headaches he is experiencing, because of this, are effecting his ability to continue on his path of recovery.

     Recovery from what, you ask. Well, two years ago his trailer burnt to the ground. He saw the front porch was on fire from his chair in the living room, stood up, grabbed his walker and accelerated down the hallway to the back door, which took about 60 seconds. The flames had already reached the ceiling in the hallway and David’s head and back were badly burned. Once on the back porch he jumped off and re-injured his hip, back and arms upon landing, and as he tucked and rolled, the flames were snuffed out. Thankfully, he managed to get out with his life.

     He spent three months in the Vernon Jubilee hospital recovering from his physical and psychological wounds that one has when dealing with such a tragedy. Many family and friends rallied around David to keep his spirits up, which I'm so grateful for. In addition, many thanks go out to the volunteers and hospital staff who took such excellent care of him and also found him an assisted living facility in Sicamous.

     At that point, David decided that he wanted to live life to the fullest and lose weight so he could be a full member of society again. He began walking laps in the hallways slowly building up muscle. He has lost 100 lbs since his stay in the hospital. Soon after Covid-19 hit his teeth became infected and it became increasingly hard for him to stay on track.

     If anyone's heart is moved to help him with this, he would be most grateful and so would I. If by some chance we get more money than is required for his dentures, I will use the money to buy material and sew him more clothing. As you can imagine he is not able to buy clothing off the rack due to his height and extra lovely size, so I have been sewing them for him for several years now.

     Thank you for taking the time to read my Dear Brother David's story. He is an extrordinary person and has so much to life for. I am so grateful he is still with us, and has this new lease on life and is moving forward.