Please Help Me Save My Best Friend Chad's Life

Chad Donnelly of Edmonton, Alberta is turning 42 years old this November and is facing a short-lived life connected to a surgically inserted feeding tube if he doesn’t receive a life-changing operation. Despite the best efforts of his doctors, Chad’s only option to avoid spending the rest of his life with the complications of a feeding tube is to receive surgery in California, USA.

The surgery is not covered by the Province and as a result, Chad and his family will have to find a way to fund this on their own. That’s why, as friends and family of Chad, we’re launching this GoFundMe campaign and asking for your support for our #Coins4Chad campaign, along with your assistance in writing letters of support to the Alberta Minister of Health to ask the province to assist with/pay for the surgery needed for him to re-take his life back.

Chad’s Story

As a teenager and a young adult, Chad was overweight. In fact, at his highest weight he weighed over 425 lbs and faced all the challenges that came from being fat, including constant bullying, continuous sore joints and worst of all, the terrible back-pain since his teens that haunts him to this day, requiring X-Ray guided injections into his spine every 3 months.

By June 2002, Chad had enough; he was then a 21 year old and was determined this was not the life he wanted to live anymore. By this point, there was nothing he hadn’t tried, and despite his best efforts, nothing was working. His doctors proposed Roux-N-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery (considered the gold standard for weight-loss surgery), and he accepted and had the procedure completed in the tiny Alberta town of Medicine Hat, where at the time there were only 2 people in all of Alberta capable of pulling off the procedure.

This surgery completely changed his life; in 13 months, Chad incredibly lost 268 lbs and was down to his lowest ever weight of 155 lbs. Fast-forwarding - for nearly two decades, he then floated at a comfortable weight under 200lbs. All of a sudden, in 2019, Chad stopped being able to consume solid foods in the way we enjoy everyday.

Chad didn’t go from fat to fit.

Chad didn’t go from fat to fabulous.

Chad went from fat to bulimic.

It turns out that Chad was having serious complications from his 2002 Roux-N-Y-Gastric Bypass. As of the end of 2019, he was no longer able to eat solid foods period. Should he try, he would immediately vomit (including his wedding cake on his wedding day). His weight plummeted. His energy levels plummeted so low that after a workday he was unable to do anything except collapse and go to sleep. Even just getting up to start his day on a 500-calorie diet felt impossible…

After serious diagnostic testing it turns out that the doctors who performed his initial operation made his new, far-smaller stomach, considerably smaller than they would perform for any patient today.

Imagine this for a moment - Chad can easily swallow more in one mouthful than his stomach can hold. This became his new reality. Additionally, the entirety of his stomach was herniated and sitting in his upper chest wall making eating solid foods practically impossible.

It wasn’t until June 2022 that Chad was finally able to have revision surgery for a well noted, Large-size Hiatal Hernia. Frustratingly, he came out of that surgery with symptoms worse than before. While he used to be able to use fluids to flush solid foods stuck in his GI system, now he is only able to chug large glasses of water and vomit out anything that is in his stomach. After this, and all the tests he has had (MRI testing/X-Ray/Fluoroscopy/Multiple Gastroscopy Exams/Multiple Esophageal Manometry Exams/CT Scanning) his doctors have concluded that a feeding tube is the only path forward to extending Chad’s life.

However, Chad has found hope.

Once he learned the door to proper surgical treatment was closed to him in Canada, he was committed to finding someone on our planet that had both the ability, along with the enthusiasm, to make a difference and help save his life.

That’s when Chad connected with a surgeon in California, USA, Dr. Sunil Bohyrul, MD., FACS., FRCS., CEO of Olde Del Mar Surgical in La Jolla/San Diego California, USA. Dr. Bohyrul is a highly respected member of his field who literally wrote one of the initial textbooks on how to perform laparoscopic bariatric revision surgery, an actual pioneer in the field.

After an extensive, 1200+ medical record page review of his condition, Dr. Bohyrul believes that the best path forward for Chad is to perform a full Gastric-Bypass reversal. Our surgeons in Canada are not specialized enough nor willing, to perform this operation, which has forced Chad’s hand; Dr. Bohyrul is his only option. However, as of 2020 Alberta Health Services does not pay for out-of-country surgeries for pre-existing conditions unless that person is lucky enough to be granted an exemption from the Minister of Health. The total cost of the surgery is an estimated $100,000.

Why #Coins4Chad?

We know it is a big ask to have you donate money to support Chad. Many of you don’t know him or are also facing financial hardships. That’s why we are asking for just your spare change- a loonie or a toonie (for our international friends, just $1 or $2). Of course, if you feel moved to donate more- we will greatly appreciate that!

In Alberta, there are 1.2 million Albertans who live with obesity. If less than 10% of you donate a dollar for #Coins4Chad, we will have exceeded our goal.

WAYS TO HELP

- Write a letter of support: See the template below for the letter to the Minister of Health of Alberta to help lobby for provincial funding

- Lend your time and expertise: if you have experience navigating the process of getting a province to pay for out-of-country non-emergency surgery, we would love your words of wisdom!

- Donate: While we hope that the province of Alberta will approve payment for the surgery, we don’t know that they will. Every dollar will help ensure that Chad will get proper care and a healthy future.

- Share, Share Share! Anyone you can share this story with is help in itself; the more we get the word out, our hope is the quicker we can get Chad the help he needs to finally stop this nightmare once and for all.

THANK YOU

Please note: Any extra money raised will be donated to Dare to Care, a Canadian Charity that runs anti-bullying programs at schools across Canada.

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER OF SUPPORT

Thank you so much for writing this letter of support. Our goal is to help Minister LaGrange understand the support that Chad has from Canadians across the country and also help her understand the personal impact of obesity, both those suffering with it as well as those who have gone through drastic surgical changes to help them take back their lives.

We want her full support in securing this transformational surgery for Chad.

Instructions: We have provided a template email for you below to serve as inspiration. Feel free to modify it to show your support in your way. Once you have written it (either as an email or as a PDF attachment), please send it to Minister LaGrange's email (Contact info linked here).

Subject Line: Support for Chad Donnelly to receive surgery in the USA.

Dear Minister Adriana LaGrange,

My name is [INSERT YOUR NAME], I live in [INSERT TOWN and PROVINCE] and I am writing this letter to request that the Province of Alberta pay Chad Donnelly's surgery in the USA so that he doesn’t have to live with a feeding tube for the rest of his life.

I am aware of Chad’s story because I [INSERT HOW YOU KNOW HIM- family, friend, read about it online, etc]. Chad’s story matters to me because [INSERT PERSONAL EXPERIENCE].

I understand that you have the authority to personally request that Alberta Health Services authorize and pay for this surgery. For the sake of Chad, all of his friends and family who love him, and the roughly 1.2 million Albertans who are living with obesity, I hope you will help Chad and approve his request for surgery.

Thank you,

[INSERT YOUR NAME]