Who will help to take care of Jonathan?

Jonathan has been a caregiver throughout his life. In the past 15 years, he took care of three seriously ill family members, namely his brother, mother, and father. 

Now that he is seriously ill, who will help take care of him?

Jonathan was diagnosed with Scheuermann’s Disease in his teens, and later with severe degenerative disk disease and osteoarthritis. He spent a over a decade as a part time caregiver for his father, who had Alzheimer’s Disease; served in the same role for his mother, a kidney transplant patient who had polycystic kidney disease (PKD); and then helped with the care of his younger brother, Greg, who also had PKD, to the very end, witnessing his death in a hospital ICU from multiple cardiac arrests when his body could handle no more. Over the course of two decades, he took out loans to support costs relating to his family’s care that today have come back to haunt him.

He never recovered from those traumatic experiences, but things have gotten worse, not better, as he was recently diagnosed with acute renal failure for which he has a series of ophthalmic issues. 

Once Jonathan received this diagnosis and understood what he had, he realized he’d been sick long before the diagnosis came along and desperately in need of treatment. The fatigue and malaise brought on by the disease have made him partially bedridden and robs him of half the waking hours in a day. He will soon need specialized physical and occupational therapy at home, something not covered by insurance, to help with his recovery.

A combination of these various health issues left Jonathan unable to earn a living and funds raised here will go to pay for medical and basic living expenses.

Despite setbacks, Jonathan has accomplished a lot in his life, even as the disease was taking a toll, unbeknownst to him. He has:

* co-founded a non-profit organization to save the world from information overload;
* served tirelessly as the president of his college fraternity’s alumni association, Pi Lambda Phi, for over two decades to ensure its continued presence on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania;
* significantly improved the collaboration tools knowledge workers use

Finally, he began to publish at no charge a daily analysis of pandemic-related data intended for the layman after the research firm where he had accepted a position collapsed due to the pandemic. . Despite his infirmities, he has been doing this every morning without fail.

Jonathan has done so much to help so many people, likely including you or a friend of yours at some point. Can’t we now step up to help him?