Help Amit walk again

My name is Uthra. My husband Amit is an individual who has always loved living life to the fullest. In every moment, he has lived to enrich himself, his family, friends and the community that we live in.

For those who know Amit, you know he is a person with a heart of gold and has always helped anybody who sought help from him.

As part of his last job in 2021, he worked with programs that provide accessible housing in Los Angeles and preserve properties that have been providing accessible and affordable homes.

Amit has undergone two major spine surgeries in the past couple of months (first in Feb 2022 and the second in May 2022).

After being operated on twice in 3 months, Amit has lost all neurological functions from his waist down. Currently, he does not have any sensation below his waist and has lost mobility in his legs.

He is wheelchair-bound and is unable to do most of his daily activities independently or rejoin his job.

He is still in active neurorehabilitation to return to the optimal level of function and independence possible while improving his overall life quality.

Since any spinal cord injury takes a long time to heal, this continuing ordeal has been extremely draining for both Amit and me in all ways. It has stretched both of us physically, emotionally and financially as well.

THE POWER WHEELCHAIR SHOWN IN THE IMAGE IS A TEMPORARY ONE PROVIDED TO AMIT AT THE TRANSITIONAL REHABILITATION CENTER.

Hence this GoFundMe. Any help you provide will enable him to live an independent and productive life, allowing him to contribute again to the community as he did earlier.

Here are the details on how it all started.

Since June 2021, he has been suffering from chronic back pain and was slowly losing the ability to walk.

It had been an endless loop of doctor consultations, MRIs, and diagnoses without any solution or relief to his declining health.

Over a few months, the pain progressed to the extent that he could not even stand up and needed help to walk. He continuously experienced debilitating pain in his back, abdomen and legs.

His thoracic MRI revealed a lesion in the T1-T2 level, and he started getting treated for Transverse Myelitis in Aug 2021.

Over the next four months, even the medications did not help him much either.

First Surgery

We then approached The Neurology and Neurosurgery departments in Mayo Clinic, Rochester, in December 2021.

He was diagnosed with a rare structural issue in the thoracic spinal cord. He had an extra growth of the arachnoid web tissue in the T2-T4 region.

He was told that intradural surgery was his only option to preserve neurological functions, including mobility. This surgery would stop the progression of the arachnoid web tissue. Without the surgery, this would have led to complete paralysis.

Neurosurgeons performed his first surgery in February 2022.

He had a good recovery for about six weeks. He was even able to walk pain-free for a few weeks.

Second Surgery

By April 2022, his condition had worsened again. An MRI revealed that he presented the rarest of rare medical scenarios of spinal cord herniation in two places. His spinal cord got attached to the bovine pericardial patch used in the first surgery. He was again unable to stand for even a few seconds. He had to use the walker to walk a few steps even.

In May 2022, the neurosurgeons called us back for Amit’s second surgery to remove the spinal cord herniation.

On May 17th, 2022, he underwent a second surgery called a revisional laminectomy duraplasty to untether his spinal cord and reseal the spinal dura with a larger and broader bovine pericardial patch.

After the second surgery, Amit lost all neurological functions from his waist down.

He has continuously been in acute and sub-acute rehabilitation therapies.

Each day in therapy has been new learning for both of us.

We are in desperate need of funds for this new mode of living (with disability) that he has to get used to.

I am seeking to raise money for Amit to assist with various facets of life in the coming months, including rehab & therapy costs, medical costs (including medical supplies), and his disability devices & equipment.

Any amount contributed will mean the world to us. In case you can't donate, please share this page with your family, friends, communities and colleagues.

In either case, thank you for taking the time to read this post.

Thanking you in advance,

Uthra and Amit Acharya