Heart issues. Now emergency endoscopy. Slumlord legal crap..

Just go to the latest update friends. Life has taken such a downturn since this medical and slumlord fundraiser was started. Now dealing with stomach mass and cancer scare. I may just start a new gofundme. Please let know if any of you would like to co- administer as life is likely to get busy with Drs and such.

EDIT 7/3/2025 - New medical issues. FML. I'm getting stat endoscopy for a CT identified mass at the stomach/esophageal junction. Bad spot. This follows a 7/1 ER visit updated below.

I was hoping to turn this fundraiser off and be back to my plumbing company, but that's not happening. I AM EXTREMELY grateful for the assistance. My small company does not afford time off with pay. It's been a long year. Income decimated. Just trying to keep up. Much obliged.

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Friends. The past several years have been an extreme challenge for me, medically, to say the least. Especially as a self-employed individual with no corporate back up for downtime.

I had tremendous heart and fatigue issues after catching Covid in December 2022. Extremely high blood pressure and heart rate that was drug resistant. Absolute fatigue at all hours of the day. Those issues were looked at up down and sideways by several specialists for 9 months to no avail. No major changes in prescriptions. Things slowly got better, but fatigue has been constant.

About two years ago, I realized I needed to give myself a significant raise if I was going to be unable to work full time all the time due to medical issues and I formed Cochise Building Services LLC, an AZ licensed contracting firm with a licensed plumber from Tucson I have known for 20 years. Thank goodness. Over the past several years, approximately half of a typical 40-hour work week has been consumed by fatigue, Dr visits, travel to appointments, procedures, referral and scheduling hassles, etc. If it were not for my business partner's patience and graciousness, I would have been completely down and out for the past couple years. As such, I have been eeking by on the high billing rate for plumbing multiplied by less than part time hours. It's been a challenge and money has been more than tight, but phew.

In early July of last year. I started to feel sick and persons around me were asking if I was OK as my color was off, off, off. On July 11, 2024 I was shipped from Bisbee ER to Tucson Medical Center for a luxurious week's stay at the gastro - surgical ward for a yet undetermined splenomegaly and bleed. Once the bleeding was stopped and I was released, I fired all of my old Dr's. and started over.

After a long wait for an initial appointment, I started life with a new cardiologist last December. She actually reviewed my conditions and symptoms and put me on a path for cardiac care that should have been started years ago. She fast tracked several procedures that led to me getting angioplasty with a sonic lithotripsy placed stent in my widowmaker artery on February 6 of this year. That's amazing speed versus years of "see you in six months" from my prior cardiologist and I am feeling much better. I am cleared to exercise but have been told to keep the nitro handy. I quit smoking cigarettes July 11, 2024, but things didn't start getting better in the energy department until about 30 days after stenting.

To summarize: I have nearly $300k in medical billings since unexpected 7/11/2024 hospitalization for yet undetermined splenomegaly and bleeding. I have insurance, but some $5000 appears to be thrust in my court due to a network approval issue. The $137K angioplasty is still pending. Truth is I have been up and down medically since catching COVID in December 2022. Drastic fatigue, extremely high blood pressure and heart rate resistant to prescription drugs, etc.. In spite of the cardio achievements, I am under care of cardiology, dermatology, hematology, urology, neurology and ortho. Now that stent is in, I need to resolve 4 year old torn rotator cuff.

Finally, as things are looking up medically, I am being hammered by a slumlord and his sleazeball cheap attorney with a wrongful eviction at an RV I rented for sanctity. I have an older, small house under renovation but was potentially facing open heart surgery per my cardiologist. I decided to rent what appeared to be a rather luxurious 40 foot, 2012 2BR 1.5 bath 5th wheel at the Bisbee RV Park in Naco for $700/month to help with my budget and sanctity of life whilst dealing with medical issues.

This whole matter was botched from the start by the slumlord owner. I paid rent and moved in January 15 only to discover the water heater had frozen and needed replacement, there were NO KEYS to unit (last tenant left mad was response), the exterior drain lines were rotted/bad, the trailer needed half a day's work to level, furnace was dangerous and not working properly, etc. When I reported said issues to the park owner/manager he was completely unresponsive. In late January, just prior to my angioplasty, I put a temporary water heater of my own in place. I gave him slack as his old dog was dying and he needed to put him down just after I moved in. What a mistake. I also paid him with Square check to save him Square processing fees. I should have used the card to refute issues.

When it came time to pay the 3rd rental check, I told him we had to straighten out my unit fitness and life safety issues as I had provided my own water heater and was living with some major problems. I was actually installing another water heater for him due to freeze in another tenant's RV. He went from asking me to making a repair for another tenant to obtuse and silent when it came to my requests. Since he was unresponsive to my reporting of issues to him at his office, I listed 7 serious problems in writing. He went silent and a week later retaliated with eviction notices errantly citing Arizona Residential Landlord Tenant Act. Wrong answer. We aren't under AZRLTA. It's a vacation rental and consumer fraud acts apply. I let him know in writing. He still chose to not make repairs and proceed with a retaliatory eviction. No lease was ever provided.

The AZRLTA eviction process moves toot suite and is basically specific to whether notice was properly timed, not the underlying essence of the slumlord abusing the wrong path. I represented myself at the initial rushed appearances as I lacked time to hire an attorney. The matter is now at appeal which gives me time to react versus their abuse of a system designed to keep the state's lower courts from clogging up.

Regarding appeal. Without going too far into the specific ARS statutes, the premise of the situation is pretty simple. An RV is defined differently than a residential structure. RV rentals in RV parks over 180 days automatically fall subject to Arizona Long Term Recreational Vehicle Space Act. The legislature left rentals under 180 days alone due to the number of winter visitors our state experiences. I posed the question - "If I were a little old lady snowbird from the cold Midwest who paid rent for a 5th wheel with a bad furnace and a broken water heater, would you have saddled her with errant eviction attempts versus making repairs?"

I am taking more time off work today to file a complaint with the AZ Attorney General regarding consumer fraud. I expect them to reply favorably, but they do not take over legal action. I am also going to try to get 9 on Your Side from KGUN 9 Tucson to look at the situation. An RV Park is designed to solicit visitors to our state and locale, not throw them under the bus.

I am now thru my final financial "cushion" as I have filed bonds and fees necessary to appeal the eviction. Although my health and fatigue have improved, my time from work is now affected by this slumlord and my need to defend myself according to specific, tight court timeframes.

I have shelled out about $2000 towards this legal battle and need to find other temporary housing stat. I am anticipating a $4500 retainer for an attorney to handle the appeals to clear the slate and request damages.

I am setting a goal of $6000 from the start versus GoFundMe suggesting I stagger the matter. It's needed now so I can snuff this fiasco and just get back to plumbing 30 hours a week and 10 hours a week to medical, PLUS dealing with this bullshit.

Much obliged.