Philip's Double Lung Transplant
Donation protected
My name is Philip "Flip" Wheatley. I'm 52 years-young, a proud husband, brother, son and father to 3 wonderful kids. Aside from hanging with my family, playing the drums in my band is one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately, for the past few years I've been battling a rare lung disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, or IPF.
IPF is a fatal disease. My only shot at surviving this is to get a double lung transplant. I've had a bad down-turn with the disease lately and will be listed for transplant very soon, and will probably get "the call" by the end of the year. It's a crazy-intense operation with a long recovery period--I'll be out of work anywere from 6 months to a year. I am incredibly motivated to survive this--my goal is to see my 9 year-old graduate from High School and hopefully I'll be around to see him graduate College.
I am fortunate to live about an hour + away from Stanford Hospital, one of the best facilities anywhere to perform the operation. However, a double lung transplant at Stanford will cost about $1.3 million. Yes, you read that right, and I need your help.
The operation won't be completely covered by our insurance, and lung transplants require the patient to live very close to the hospital for up to 3 months after surgery because of all the trips back for tests and to make sure I can get help quickly if I start to reject the lungs. This means we will need to rent a furnished apartment in Palo Alto, CA, which alone will cost close to $10,000.
There are so many other costs associated with the surgery that don't get covered by insurance. My wife will need to take major time-off to care for me (I need 24/7 care for 3 months post-surgery), my care team will need to be housed and fed, our son will need to be cared for, I will be out of work for 6-12 months, and on and on.
If everyone who reads this could give even a little bit, I can hit my goal and at least remove the financial stress that accompanies such a major surgery. Please share this with everyone on your social media pages and ask THEM to donate and share as well--the more people who see this, the better our chances of hitting our goal. Let's do this Bernie Sanders style!
Thank you for reading my story, and thank you for your help. I look forward to sharing my progress with you and posting pictures of me playing the drums again after I recover from the surgery.
Warmly,
Flip
IPF is a fatal disease. My only shot at surviving this is to get a double lung transplant. I've had a bad down-turn with the disease lately and will be listed for transplant very soon, and will probably get "the call" by the end of the year. It's a crazy-intense operation with a long recovery period--I'll be out of work anywere from 6 months to a year. I am incredibly motivated to survive this--my goal is to see my 9 year-old graduate from High School and hopefully I'll be around to see him graduate College.
I am fortunate to live about an hour + away from Stanford Hospital, one of the best facilities anywhere to perform the operation. However, a double lung transplant at Stanford will cost about $1.3 million. Yes, you read that right, and I need your help.
The operation won't be completely covered by our insurance, and lung transplants require the patient to live very close to the hospital for up to 3 months after surgery because of all the trips back for tests and to make sure I can get help quickly if I start to reject the lungs. This means we will need to rent a furnished apartment in Palo Alto, CA, which alone will cost close to $10,000.
There are so many other costs associated with the surgery that don't get covered by insurance. My wife will need to take major time-off to care for me (I need 24/7 care for 3 months post-surgery), my care team will need to be housed and fed, our son will need to be cared for, I will be out of work for 6-12 months, and on and on.
If everyone who reads this could give even a little bit, I can hit my goal and at least remove the financial stress that accompanies such a major surgery. Please share this with everyone on your social media pages and ask THEM to donate and share as well--the more people who see this, the better our chances of hitting our goal. Let's do this Bernie Sanders style!
Thank you for reading my story, and thank you for your help. I look forward to sharing my progress with you and posting pictures of me playing the drums again after I recover from the surgery.
Warmly,
Flip
Organizer
Philip C. Wheatley
Organizer
Scotts Valley, CA
