Help Susan Replace Her Teeth After a Violent Attack

My dear friend Susan is losing her teeth after a violent attack—and she needs help to replace them.

In the U.S., treatment would cost over $60,000. She’s found care for $35,000, but can’t afford it alone.

We’re raising funds so she can eat, smile, and live normally again.

Susan needs teeth. Hers are falling out. Replacing them in the U.S. would cost more than $60,000. She’s found a reputable clinic in Costa Rica that can do the work for about $35,000—but even that is out of reach without help.

Here’s how she got here.

Susan owned a small gluten-free bakery on Oahu, right next door to her home. She worked long hours and was also the primary caregiver for her mother, who was 96 at the time.

One night around 3:00 a.m., Susan was unloading her car in front of the bakery after a farmers market.

She was attacked by three men.

They knocked her down, dragged her along the sidewalk, and took everything—her market cash box, her purse, her phone, and her laptop. She landed hard on her jaw.

She didn’t go to the hospital. She didn’t want to leave her mother alone in the middle of the night or worry her. Instead, she cleaned herself up, put the trauma behind her and went back to work.

In the weeks that followed, the damage became clear.

Her teeth began to fail—one after another, they began to loosen and fall out A dentist later told her the trauma from the impact likely loosened them. Today, she has only 14 teeth left. (Most is us have about 30.).

She has difficulty eating. Smiling is uncomfortable. Partial dentures aren’t an option because there aren’t enough stable teeth left to support them.

Susan has spent years quietly showing up for others.

People in the unhoused community near her bakery knew they could come by between 3:00–4:00 a.m. and get a hot breakfast. On the day her mother passed away, Susan closed the bakery—but still made a gluten-free birthday cake for a young boy who otherwise wouldn’t have had one.

Now she needs our help.

She has no savings and no dental insurance. Her only family is a nephew who also works in food service.

We are trying to raise $35,000 so Susan can get full-mouth dental implants in Costa Rica before she loses the rest of her teeth.

If you can contribute, please do and thank you. If not, sharing this page helps more than you might think.

Helping Susan means restoring her ability to eat, speak, smile again and move forward with her life.