Hersey"Dan"Dandini's Stem Cell Road to Recovery

Hi, my name is Stephanie Dandini, and I am organizing this GoFund Me for my husband, Hersey “Dan” Dandini; some of you may know him by Hersey. My husband is only 47 years old with a lot of life left to live for himself and our family. We have three super active boys he tries to keep up with, as well as a few farm animals to care for and a physical job in construction. This amazing man has been through so much. He has been through 19 surgeries since we have been together in the past 12 years. Dan is in extreme chronic pain that has completely changed his way of life. He is unable to do simple day-to-day tasks, work or be as involved with his boys as he would like. Unfortunately, surgeries are no longer solving his pain; it’s only making it worse. His doctors have recently told us there is not much more they can do for him at this point. His quality of life is disintegrating.

Just so you have an idea of what he has been through, below are the surgeries he has had this year (2022) alone:

June 2022 - Total knee replacement (left knee). As some of you know, most doctors won’t even touch that until you are 60 years old. He was approved at 45 years old.

July 2022 - L2-L3 fusion

August 2022 - L2-L# revision, remove hardware to try and fix the nerve damage. Reinstall the hardware.

October 2022 - L1-L2 fusion, repair and replace the loosening pedicle screws.

Here are a few other surgeries he has been through.

Brostrom ligament was repaired in both ankles.

The left knee has had 7 surgeries.

2 ACL & PCL replaced twice and had to use cadaver tissue.

4 debridement surgeries and cutting meniscus out as well as bone spurs.

Bi-lateral carpal tunnel surgery (both hands)

Multiple surgeries on his spine. Total fusion on L1-S1, as well as a cervical (neck) fusion on the c5-c6 level.

Right shoulder AC separation and repair.

Left shoulder AC separation and repair with an additional surgery to cut out bone for arthritis relief. At this time, they had to also put hardware into his body (plates, screws) onto the left collarbone.

This year (2022) has been especially rough on him. March 2022 was his first surgery of the year with a total knee replacement. Most doctors won’t perform this surgery on a patient until they are at least 60 years old due to the length of time they last before you will need another replacement. Due to the severity of his knee damage, his doctors decided to allow him to have the total knee replacement performed at a younger age. This has greatly affected his ability to work in his career field (construction) by him no longer being able to put on his tool bags and physically work. He cannot safely climb up onto buildings or equipment anymore without risking more falls and potentially breaking the bone around his prosthetic knee or causing additional severe nerve damage leading to paralysis.

After his 3rd spinal surgery this year (L1- L3 fusion) in October 2022, he started having more severe back pain. It turns out he has severe degenerative disc disease, which is causing him to need additional fusions. In other words, every time he has a level fused, he will need one level above or below fussed shortly after. He has had a total of 3 additional fusions this year alone. The pain he feels from this issue is absolutely debilitating for him. I cannot remember the last time he was able to sleep through the night without waking up in severe pain, sit in one place for more than 20-30 minutes at a time nor can he drive or ride in a vehicle for more than 20-30 minutes without needing to stop and get out of the vehicle because he has so much nerve pain. He will also get shooting nerve pain from his feet all the way up to his waist area.

During one of his surgeries this year, the nerves near his spine were pinched. The surgeons had to open him up multiple times to try and straighten out his nerves, taking the nerves out of his body and having to lay them on the table to straighten them out and put them back, only hoping for the best. This, unfortunately did not help his issue. It made it much worse.

The hospital has told him multiple times off record that they messed up while operating on him. During one of his fusions, his surgeon informed us “off the record” that his dura was punctured during another procedure. The dura is the membrane that holds the spinal fluid, causing him to leak spinal fluid that ate his disc away in a matter of 3 weeks. This forced him to have an immediate fusion. During his last round of surgeries this year, he was told by a Physician’s Assistant in Neurosurgery that they “clipped and pinched a nerve.” This information, unfortunately would never make it to his charts. Without it being in his charts, how can he possibly be treated properly? Along with surgeons puncturing his dura and clipping his nerve, he has had to go back in multiple times for CT scans and MRI’s, which showed the screws they had put in his spine were backing out due to surgeons not using a lock tight on the bolt and it came loose.

Surgeons had to open him up again in May of 2022 and fuse the next level, fix the screws and put in bigger screws. Well, this has made his nerve damage even more intense. He has been numb but with shooting pain for months now with no relief. This pain goes all the way from his feet to his groin and all the way into his hips and spine. He will also randomly collapse. I am sure if you are a local to Loomis, CA you have seen him roll down the hill at the baseball fields many times. Since the nerve damage is affecting his legs and he is in pain constantly, he has difficulty with even the simplest of tasks. This poor guy has no quality of life. I am sure by reading this you can probably tell how much pain Dan is constantly in but please also think about how this affects his mental health as well. Kaiser has told Dan that unfortunately there is nothing they can do to help him achieve even a little relief at this point.

I bet you’re reading this thinking, “Wow, that’s crazy, but what are you getting at? What will help him?” Dan has been wondering the same things, so he has done a ton of his own research after trying anything and everything he can. He has been told by multiple doctors and other health professionals (off the record, of course) to try stem cell therapy. The type of stem cells that are allowed in the United States are not strong enough to repair any damage long term.

After so much research on his own, he has finally landed on a stem cell treatment in Mexico. Although the United States has Stem Cell therapy, out of the U.S. there isn’t such a push from big pharma sales and focus more on fixing the actual cause of the issue. Stem cells outside of the U.S. are harvested from the purest of stem cells, the umbilical cord. Outside of the U.S. they can cultivate and multiply and generate hundreds of millions from only a few umbilical cords. That process and the availability of umbilical cord stem cells are not allowed in the U.S.; neither is the stem cell treatment since it is not readily available here and is very expensive compared to the amount he would receive. In the U.S. they are not harvested and grown in a lab multiplying one single cell into hundreds of thousands, ultimately allowing the patient to receive 300 million stem cells versus a very small fraction of in the U.S.

Wondering where the donations will go?

The stem cell treatment consists of a 5 day stay in Mexico. From the time his plane lands, he will be picked up and taken to a hotel where everything will be covered for him (food, lodging, shuttle back and forth to the hospital). For the first 3 days he would be receiving a hyperbaric chamber treatment, neutralizing his immune system and treating his cells with vitamins and oxygen. The 4th and 5th day he would be admitted to the hospital to receive stem cells. He would receive roughly 300 million stem cells. Approximately half would be direct injection using MRI scans, and the other half would be delivered via IV. They state that he would be feeling long-lasting results and RELIEF within weeks!! These stem cells have been proven to regenerate body tissue and bone. The stem cells will reduce the inflammation and regenerate tissue in those areas with arthritis and swelling, allowing him to get some of his range of motion back and keep him from getting surgeries for a long while.

It is exactly what many people in his situation have done with great success and have been able to regain a decent quality of life. If you would like to do your own research on this company, feel free to look them up at Stem Cell Therapy at the Cellular Performance Institute, https://cellularperformanceinstitute.com/. This exact place has done countless procedures on UFC fighters and other athletes with amazing results.

As you can imagine, he has racked up a medical bill with all these surgeries. This treatment is not covered by our health insurance and is a high cost out of pocket. If you can help spread the word, it would be much appreciated. Please help me give him back a halfway decent quality of life.

My family and I thank you so much for your time!

-The Dandini Family