Help Darren Ko Out!

My good friend, Darren Ko, was diagnosed with cancer last year. He had to go through many rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, and while not easy, he fought through and was cleared to go back to work last month. Unfortunately, on one of his recent doctor visits, they did find new cancer cells. Darren is now back on medical leave and is trying a new treatment to combat this. Darren needs help more than ever since his insurance can only cover so much. Any little bit of help is greatly appreciated!

UPDATE (10/06/2024): Thank you all for your generous support and keeping Darren in your thoughts and prayers. Darren continues his battle with incredible strength and resilience, but has unfortunately run into some complications over the last couple of months that has delayed his cancer treatment and he is currently fighting for his life to become stable enough to continue his road to recovery. He has asked us not to give up on him, so his family has gone to great lengths to ensure he wins this fight. On the night of August 24, 2024, Darren was sitting on the couch watching TV at home when he tried to stand up and suddenly passed out for a few seconds. Paramedics were called out of concern and Darren was taken to Garfield Medical Center where he was diagnosed with sepsis and aspiration pneumonia, so he was immediately admitted to the ICU. Luckily it was caught early enough, so he was in the ICU for about a week with minimal breathing and blood pressure support and downgraded to the telemetry floor to continue his antibiotic treatment. Darren was expected to be discharged after 2 weeks since his pneumonia was subsiding and he was recovering well, but the hospital doctors were concerned there may be other sources of infection due to a high white blood cell count. This unfortunately dragged on another couple of weeks although tests showed there were no other infections. Also within that time, he had a feeding tube placed, but was unable to tolerate the amount of food the doctor had prescribed him and would throw up every night. They refused to lower the amount because they were following guidelines according to his weight, but not considering the risks of him aspirating if he continued to throw up. His outpatient medical oncologist who would visit him daily said the high white blood cell count was likely due to the cancer and probably not an issue, but the hospital’s infectious disease doctor wanted to rule out any other possible causes, so he remained in the hospital for another 2 weeks while they ran more tests and added anti-fungal medication although tests showed there was no fungal infection. They wanted to perform one more test using radioactive Indium to see where the white blood cells might be gathering to fight infection which also came back negative. After the medication was added and a significant amount of blood was drawn for the Indium scan, his family noticed his urine output was slowly decreasing and feet starting to swell which signaled something may be wrong with his kidneys. The nurses were notified, but did not seem to care or didn’t think it was significant enough to bring it up to the doctors. Unfortunately, the nurse call button also happened to be broken in the room that Darren stayed in, so he was given a bell which made it very difficult to get the attention of nurses and sometimes there would be no nurses checking on him at all. Luckily, he had at least 1 family member by his bedside at all times to tend to his needs and assist him. After all tests came back negative, he was scheduled to be discharged around September 19, 2024 and he was very excited because he was scheduled for an MRI to start his CyberKnife radiation to treat the cancer that had metastasized to his brain as well as continue his chemotherapy for the cancer that had spread to his liver and lungs. Unfortunately, on the night of September 18, 2024, his oxygen levels suddenly dropped to a dangerously low level, so he had to be rushed to the ICU where he was intubated and put on maximum blood pressure support as he fell into severe septic shock. The situation became very dire and Darren almost lost his life that night. Over the next week, doctors tried to figure out the source of infection, but due to Darren’s severe condition that lead to multiple organ failure, they told his family there was nothing more they could do. He was too unstable for transfer and blood pressure was too low for regular dialysis which he desperately needed since his kidneys had failed. This is when his family turned to social media to receive advice from our extended network and learned about CRRT. Garfield didn’t have a CRRT machine as it is usually only in tertiary or higher level of care hospitals, but Darren was too unstable for transfer as moving him around would cause his blood pressure to drop and he was already on maxed out on 4 medications to maintain his blood pressure. However, Darren was a tough fighter and continued to hang on to dear life by a thread. Darren’s family pleaded with Garfield doctors and staff to give regular dialysis a shot since it was the only option available as the fluid build up on his body was becoming very severe and causing his skin to weep and huge blisters because there was nowhere else for the fluid to escape. The nephrologist told his family there was a 5% chance he would survive regular dialysis, but Darren was strong and able to tolerate, which bought him a few more days. At the same time, his family wrote a letter to the hospital board to allow them to bring in a CRRT machine or at least get him transferred. After a lot of back and forth over the next couple of days, meeting with the medical team, and denials from hospitals unwilling to take the transfer due to his low chance of survival, a miracle happened with UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center notifying Garfield that they were willing to accept him on the evening of September 24, 2024. A bed in the ICU also miraculous opened up that same night (we were told transfers could take days or weeks) and he was safely transported to UCLA by 2am. This happened against all odds, as his family was constantly being told he would not survive the ambulance ride — which is a testament to Darren’s strength and will to live. Throughout the week at Garfield, Darren had accumulated a lot of fluid in the body. He weighed around 175lbs before going into the ICU and was around 220lbs when he was transferred. It was so bad to the point that the paramedic thought he might not fit on the gurney. They immediately started him on CRRT at UCLA to pull fluid which helped him make significant improvements over the course of a week. His breathing improved, infections subsided, and his body started coming out of shock as his blood pressure stabilized without the need for supporting medications. However, Darren continues to struggle with complications of the multiple organ failure and a lot of fluid retention which will take time to recover. His liver function is also very concerning to the doctors due to the cancer, which has caused serious disease and may be a reason his organs have not yet started to recover. But the UCLA team has been phenomenal and doing everything they can to come up with potential solutions. Darren continues to fight with the heartfelt support of his family, friends, coworkers, and the UCLA medical team, so we are all very appreciative and forever grateful to the community that has gotten him this far. We continue to ask for your thoughts and prayers as the journey is not over yet. There is still a rough road ahead for Darren and his family, so any little bit of help goes a long way.