I am seeking donations to help one of my direct reports who have had multiple significant medical issues. 

Dakota is no stranger to medical challenges. Whether it was the seizures he battled daily as a teenager, the multiple surgeries on his spine he had as a young adult or being diagnosed with severe fibromyalgia in his 20’s, Dakota has approached every challenge head-on.

Early in August 2020, Dakota noticed that he was rapidly losing his vision. It reminded him of static “snow” of an old detuned television and a very thick static overlay appeared over his full field of vision. The static did not disappear even when he closed his eyes and it was accompanied by light sensitivity, migraines, and other visual phenomena (including floaters, trailing images, bursts of light and color, and others). After various diagnostic exams and meetings with specialists, he was officially diagnosed with severe Visual Snow Syndrome, a rare neurological condition. There is currently no cure and current treatments are not shown to be particularly helpful. Due to his loss of vision, he had to surrender his driver’s license.

Dakota took a leave of absence from his job to adjust to his new disability and life. The day that Dakota returned to work after his leave, he collapsed at home and obtained a concussion. The cause of the collapse and the subsequent aftereffects is believed to have been a small stroke.  He then spent another week in the hospital.



While he is making large strides thanks to his physical therapy, the fine-motor skills on his right side (his dominant side) have still not completely returned. He applied for Short Term Disability through the State of California for the two events. Unfortunately, months later, it is a process that he is still going through.

Dakota is a trans man who began his transition two years ago. In March 2020, he applied for his legal name and gender change, to begin fully living his life. What was supposed to be an 8-week process took months due to the COVID shutdown of the court system. When he applied for Disability, he was told that he needed a State ID with his new legal name. To get that, he needed a new Social Security card with his new legal name. What should have taken two weeks to get that Social Security card took another six weeks with Dakota being hung up on by Social Security employees when he mentioned he was transgender. He finally received his card from Social Security and obtained his new state ID. However, Dakota hit another roadblock.

Most individuals are able to sign up online for Short Term Disability through the state of California. However, due to Dakota’s name change, he could not apply online and, instead, had to go through the paper application which could not be found online and could only be mailed to him from the state. The State of California delayed sending those forms to him, despite his best efforts to obtain them. For months, since August, Dakota would call biweekly to request the paperwork, spending hours, speaking with agent after agent (some transphobic once more) to try to get those forms. He finally received the paperwork in late November. He has been warned that his case will most likely be denied due to the fact that he missed his deadline back in September, though no fault of his own, and he will have to go through the appeal process, which is also not guaranteed acceptance.

I would greatly appreciate any donation to help Dakota with his medical bills! He's an exceptional and positive person who doesn't deserve all these unfortunate circumstances happen to him in the midst of a pandemic.