Derek Kovick
My name is Jamie Hall and I'm crowdfunding for one of the toughest individuals that I'll ever know. His Name is Derek Kovick. He was born with a rare congenital auto immune liver disorder called PSC in medical terms. He's fighting for his third life-time liver transplant, and even though he's at the top of the donor list, the hospital will not give him the operation unless he agrees to be injected with the COVID-19 vaccination. His long-time doctors are warning that the side-effects of this could lead to possibly lethal complications.. Please read on..
In 1999 Derek Kovick was a collegiate baseball player in Walla Walla Washington when he suddenly started experiencing an unusual amount of soreness and arthritic symptoms, so much so that he visited a local doctor and was told that his liver counts were very alarming and that he should seek a more advanced opinion. After driving to Boise, ID. to seek more in-depth testing, he was informed after a liver biopsy that he did indeed have a liver disease, although there were no specialists in Idaho that could identify and treat his specific condition. He was advised to contact Dr. Kris Kowdley at The University of Washington in Seattle, which he did. At that appointment, Dr. Kowdley informed Derek that he was afflicted with a rare congenital liver disease known in medical terms as PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis) and that, at some point, he would require a liver transplant in order to survive the disease.
Fast forward ten years after living every bit of advice given by his doctors, Derek's health began to deteriorate rapidly, and he found himself on a donor list nervously awaiting a transplant. Fortunately, he did get matched with a donor in time and received a transplant on January 20th 2009. However, very unfortunately, unknown to the surgeons, the liver was damaged in transport and within a matter of weeks Derek was jaundiced and deteriorating again.
By no small miracle he was matched with another donor the following year who had recently died in a freak bicycle accident in Seattle, and on September 4th 2010 Derek underwent his second liver transplant in less than two years.
Over the past ten years, despite living the specialist's advice to the letter, Derek has had to undergo numerous painful and expensive ancillary surgeries and a litany of medications including daily anti-rejection medications.
After 20 years of doing everything humanly possible to maintain optimal health, he again began experiencing acute symptoms, and by November 2020 he was back on the donor list. As a two, soon to be three-time transplant patient with an exemplary record of following all post-transplant protocols Derek was immediately at the top of the donor list for a third liver, especially considering the rate that his condition was deteriorating.
As he waited in early July, he was spending some outdoor time in central Idaho with his family when he experienced a 104-degree fever and had to immediately go to the local emergency room and then travel back to Seattle in order to receive a bile drainage tube placement in his abdomen to essentially buy him time while he waits to be matched with a donor. After receiving this surgery, he was released to return to his home in New Plymouth, ID. He was home for less than an hour before his temperature was again rising forcing his father to drive him an additional 75 miles on to St. Luke's hospital in Boise to find out that he had a serious, life-threatening blood infection. And this was Derek’s surgery, before the surgery...
This leads to the second part of Derek Kovicks' plight, as if it wasn’t already an incredibly difficult journey. As he awaits the fourth liver of his lifetime, including the one that he was naturally born with, he was informed in late July by the hospital administration that the Infectious Disease Department at The University of Washington had come to the consensus that any unvaccinated patients would not be able to undergo surgery until after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. This includes Derek, who is in a critical state of liver failure. Despite the fact that doctors inside and outside of The University of Washington hospital were telling Derek two months prior that the side effects of the vaccine alone at this stage could be potentially fatal, and that he should wait until AFTER the surgery to vaccinate, if ever..
Derek Kovick is between a rock and a hard place in the fight for his life.
He’s an upstanding individual, a family man with a solid career as an agricultural insurance adjuster. He’s never asked for any help in 20+ years dealing with this rare affliction. I’VE NEVER HEARD HIM COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING SINCE I MET HIM IN 2010. Now, on top of all other medical expenses compounding over two decades Derek and his family are scrambling to get on the donor lists of other transplant centers that don’t have these life-threatening mandates, in particular Salt Lake City UT, and Scottsdale AZ. This will require added expenses including additional doctor visits, travel, lodging etc. The list goes on and on. All the while the clock is ticking for Derek, as I write this, he's on the phone with one of his doctors in Boise about a very noticeable change in his physical condition that just happened today..
When Derek survived back-to-back liver transplants in 2009-2010, he was a bachelor, today he's married with two beautiful boys, Langdon 7, and Redick 4. Not only is his condition more critical than ever before, Derek has 300% more to consider than ever before, his wife and kids.. WE NEED TO COME TO THE AID OF HIM AND HIS FAMILY NOW, and set a precedent for anyone and everyone who is being denied their medical rights by not being given a choice when it comes to their own body. PLEASE. DO THIS FOR DEREK.. #DoThisForDerek
