Help Us Save Abby's Life

My daughter Abby used to be a bubbly, sweet, charming, super intelligent, beautiful girl. As a baby she woke up from naps laughing. When she saw kids on a playground that were total strangers, she would say “Look, some friends! Can I go play with them?” But she started to experience terrible social anxiety and depression at the end of sixth grade. Now, four years & four therapeutic schools later, she’s finally been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Believing this to be a well understood and treatable disorder, we were hopeful that the standard medications used to treat bipolar disorder would stabilize her. So far, after six months and one hospitalization, nothing has worked. In fact, she has gotten worse. She either suffers terrible side effects from the medications or they have no effect. Her psychiatrist now says she needs to be hospitalized and then placed in a 30-day residential program to stabilize her. We are trying to get our insurance company to do a single case agreement for the residential piece. The hospitalization piece will cost $17,000 out of pocket and our co-pays are likely to run more, so we are setting a goal of $25,000.

My husband has been out of work for over a year, but even if he was fully employed, we wouldn’t have that kind of money…who does?

Every day my daughter says she wants to die. She doesn’t really want to die but she can’t stand the pain of her illness and that it is robbing her of her teenage years. Please help me get her the healthcare she needs. We are, unfortunately, not living in a country that considers the mental health care needs of teenagers as a serious problem. And many of them die by their own hands because they don’t get the help they need.

Please help us save the life of a beautiful person that we love dearly. We will only use the funds for her medical/mental health care. Thank you.

Jennifer and Richard Simon