HELP my Uncle Dean Criss Fight for Sight
Donation protected
7/16/2024: Allegheny General admission.
update from my Uncle:
5/23/2024 Update: Attempting to kill bacteria in his system (8 refrigerated antibiotics not shown) Say a prayer please!
I am writing this on behalf of my uncle Dean Criss. For those of you that do not know. My uncle is an independent contractor as he owns his own sign and vinyl business. He takes great pride in his work and is very meticulous and detail oriented.
Unfortunately, over the last year and a half, my uncle was in the car accident; walked away from the accident with some bumps and bruises and feeling sore but nothing noticeably wrong. About a month later, he started experiencing issues with his eye, He immediately went to the doctor, and this whole nightmare of an ordeal began.
Over the past sixteen months, my uncle has progressively lost vision in his eye and about 2 months ago he started to lose vision in his other eye. He has literally been studying all the possibility of diseases, and all the various doctors diagnosis/educated guesses, spoke to doctors overseas, talked to current patients about homeopathic treatments as well as surgeries, he has even attempted to find his own treatments and ordered the Apple Vision glasses, an investment of nearly $5000.00.
He has worked with German Doctor Fedorov who developed Fedorov Restoration Therapy in which a state of the art tens machine uses a micro shock therapy to stimulate blood flow to the optic nerves.
A vision recovery treatment that still in its early stages of development, My Uncle; with hesitation began his research; he spoke to current patients using the treatment, the founder of the treatment, and read all the pros and cons; He decided that it was worth a shot. However, this was not something insurance would cover! He has been using this therapy consistently since he received it; hoping to see some results, unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet.
He has been to UPMC Presby, Allegheny General, Mercy Vision Center 10 times in the past 16 months and WVU Ruby hospital. He has been working with Doctors from the Boston eye institute. As well as, Dr. Grossman, a world renowned ophthalmologist out of NYC all of these Doctors being provided with his medical files and all of them are trying to figure out the problem; unfortunately no success yet.
Most recently he spent 3 days in Ruby Hospital located in West Virginia , over the course of 3 days they took 36 vials of blood and did a spinal tap and ran a battery of tests, “every blood test available”, on top of that 2 MRIs, brain scans and neurological tests. He was given a little bit of hope that it could be Lyme disease, however, the team of various doctors overseeing his case have conflicting viewpoints on this.
As of right now , he’s losing his vision and extraordinary speed, he doesn’t qualify for disability because he’s not “fully blind”.
He was just told that a treatment that may help him is not covered by insurance and he’s looking to have to spend anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 out of pocket to try yet another treatment that is not guaranteed to save his vision; but it’s a possibility. And with no diagnosis or treatment in the near future; how could he not try?!? He has an appointment Tuesday with this specialist.
Looking ahead he has been in touch with Stanford University Byers Eye Institute in California; and plans to setup an appointment once he is able to figure out how he will financially be able to travel there as well as cover any costs associated with this visit.
Unfortunately, His business has suffered as well, As it requires a detail oriented and meticulous eye hand coordination to perform. Which really puts him in financial distress! As of right now, he is no longer able to operate his business as he cannot see the computer screen nor can he apply the vinyl with the detailed attention required.
He used up all of his savings, maxed out all of his credit cards, and is now facing the horrifying idea that he may not be able to keep himself from going blind; on top of that he is beyond struggling, trying to stay afloat, and keep a roof over his head!
Over the last year, he has been diagnosed with NAION, anaplasmosis, Lyme disease, autoimmune retinopathy, viral infections, and most recently has been told that there is some type of infection in his body as there are red blood cells in his spinal fluid.
Insurance won’t cover any medication that is prescribed through a Lyme disease specialist, however, the Lyme disease specialist seems to be the only one that gives any hope of saving and possibly restoring his lost vision .
Anyone with any ideas, similar experiences or willing to help in any way he would be happy to hear your ideas and share his medical files.
I’m writing this with hopes that we can bind together and help take a little stress off his back. I ask you to imagine you were knowingly going blind, and being told there are medications and treatments that may help you; but you are financially unable to afford them, I turn to you family, friends, neighbors, Pittsburghers, and strangers and ask if you are able to give, please do so! My uncle is a great guy, very humble, very private, and a proud man; asking for help is not something that comes easy; so I’ll ask on his behalf! Please help my Uncle save his vision!
Today May 2,2024 as I write this he has 97% vision loss. He has over $30,000 of medical bills, and yet he continues to lose vision and gain debt daily in this race for a diagnosis and treatment! At this rate, he may only have weeks of vision left; with no diagnosis or idea of how to stop it; or if vision restoration is even a possibility; the pressure to quickly get a diagnosis and start treatment is critical!
Thank you very much for reading this and any donations or help you are willing to provide!
And again any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated… I’ve posted some links as well as some photos.
Thank you.
Dr. Fedorov Restoration Therapy
Stanford University Byers Eye Institute
Byers Eye Institute | Stanford Health Care
Apple Vision Pro:
Organizer and beneficiary
Katie Criss
Organizer
Finleyville, PA
Dean Criss
Beneficiary