Help Kim return home to San Francisco
Donation protected
Kim Corsaro sat at the helm of the SF Bay Times for three decades as each new edition informed, educated and mobilized the SF/Bay Area LGBT community during some of our most critical times in the HIV/AIDS pandemic. From local, national and international politics to human and Civil Rights for the LGBT community and Women’s Health Issues, the award-winning writers, with support of the dedicated staff, covered the whole spectrum of community concerns. Many of us set our schedules by the calendar listings in the SF Bay Times or found our mates and dates through the personal ads.
Few of you may be aware of Kim’s journey since 2011, so let's bring you up to date. In 2012, Kim was hired by the Obama campaign to work on his re-election; they sent her to Cincinnati. At the end of the successful campaign, Kim had an accident that landed her in the hospital. She was given a powerful antibiotic, which shut down her kidneys. Doctors informed her that her kidneys would come back, so she moved to live in the country in Southeast Ohio, in the Appalachians, to recuperate.
Unfortunately, her kidneys did not come back. Instead, within a few months they declined to 5% function, and the doctors told her she would need a kidney transplant. She found herself in a period of constant illness, going in and out of the hospital.
Ultimately, she decided to stay in Ohio because it’s half the wait time to get a transplant there than in California. What she hadn’t counted on was a lower quality of health care. She had two lengthy hospital stays - one 15 months and one four months - both due to medical error, interspersed with several one to two week stays.
In case these weren't enough challenges, Kim had routine appendix surgery in early 2020 in which they mistakenly nicked a blood vessel in her lung, she died three times during the surgery. She came to in the ICU on a ventilator with a drainage tube come out of her side, requiring additional major surgery to fix things and recover.
As you can imagine, it’s been quite a journey, and it's not over yet. Now Medicare, who oversees transplant centers, has sent her notice that the Ohio center she is registered with is not meeting minimum standards for survival.
It has now been eight years since Kim's life has been turned upside down by unexpected health issues. These hardships hit her while she’s been away from home on what was supposed to be a one-year work trip. After the accident, which lead to kidney failure, she thought she would be able to make it back home and recover, but she found herself very ill, and unable to work to make the necessary funds to return.
Kim needs to come home to the Bay Area. Our community has benefitted enormously through Kim’s work. Please help us get her back home so that she can be with friends and family and get the support and health care she, and we all, deserve.
We need to raise at least $12,000 to ship her goods, get an aide to travel with her, and cover various travel expenses and housing when she gets to the Bay Area. While that number seems high, it includes things like $3,500 for oxygen, necessary since the botched appendix surgery. Kim would like to come back as soon as possible.
Please give what you can to help Kim in this effort to bring her home.
Few of you may be aware of Kim’s journey since 2011, so let's bring you up to date. In 2012, Kim was hired by the Obama campaign to work on his re-election; they sent her to Cincinnati. At the end of the successful campaign, Kim had an accident that landed her in the hospital. She was given a powerful antibiotic, which shut down her kidneys. Doctors informed her that her kidneys would come back, so she moved to live in the country in Southeast Ohio, in the Appalachians, to recuperate.
Unfortunately, her kidneys did not come back. Instead, within a few months they declined to 5% function, and the doctors told her she would need a kidney transplant. She found herself in a period of constant illness, going in and out of the hospital.
Ultimately, she decided to stay in Ohio because it’s half the wait time to get a transplant there than in California. What she hadn’t counted on was a lower quality of health care. She had two lengthy hospital stays - one 15 months and one four months - both due to medical error, interspersed with several one to two week stays.
In case these weren't enough challenges, Kim had routine appendix surgery in early 2020 in which they mistakenly nicked a blood vessel in her lung, she died three times during the surgery. She came to in the ICU on a ventilator with a drainage tube come out of her side, requiring additional major surgery to fix things and recover.
As you can imagine, it’s been quite a journey, and it's not over yet. Now Medicare, who oversees transplant centers, has sent her notice that the Ohio center she is registered with is not meeting minimum standards for survival.
It has now been eight years since Kim's life has been turned upside down by unexpected health issues. These hardships hit her while she’s been away from home on what was supposed to be a one-year work trip. After the accident, which lead to kidney failure, she thought she would be able to make it back home and recover, but she found herself very ill, and unable to work to make the necessary funds to return.
Kim needs to come home to the Bay Area. Our community has benefitted enormously through Kim’s work. Please help us get her back home so that she can be with friends and family and get the support and health care she, and we all, deserve.
We need to raise at least $12,000 to ship her goods, get an aide to travel with her, and cover various travel expenses and housing when she gets to the Bay Area. While that number seems high, it includes things like $3,500 for oxygen, necessary since the botched appendix surgery. Kim would like to come back as soon as possible.
Please give what you can to help Kim in this effort to bring her home.
Organizer and beneficiary
Shelby Wilson
Organizer
Chauncey, OH
Kim Corsaro
Beneficiary
