Disabled veteran needs your help
Donation protected
Hello Friends...
Unfortunately, given my present health and financial situation, I have no choice but to continue with this GoFundMe. If you've donated in the past, PLEASE DON'T DONATE AGAIN. I already feel ashamed and guilty enough about this situation. I would ask that you would please share this campaign across social media, however.
I am having back surgery on December 20th and I need financial help to make it during the considerable rehab period afterwards. Despite the fact that I've been deemed temporarily totally disabled, I'm not presently receiving disability payments or any other related compensation, although I have applied. The application process takes years. I am still buried within the VA and Worker's Comp systems, trying to get taken care of. The only income I presently make is via freelance writing, (which I'm not really supposed to be doing because I've been deemed totally disabled) and it simply isn't enough to sustain me. This is how people end up on the street.
Due to the generosity of some incredible kind people, I'm not homeless right now. I'm presently living in Joshua Tree because of the kindness and generosity of Lori Portillo, who has allowed me to stay at her Thunderbird Lodge Retreat Air BnB in the interim, where I am helping her out as much as I can despite my injuries.
As many of you know I lost my apartment in August after a protracted and yearlong battle with a landlord who continued to file multiple frivolous unlawful detainer claims against me in order to get me out of my rent controlled apartment. What we have now learned is that this was part of a greater strategy employed by his attorney, Dennis Block, who proudly claims to have evicted more people than any other attorney. I am one of his victims. This practice is so heinous that now Block is being investigated by state ethics board. The LA Times even did a story on him.
As many of you know I was also severely injured in July when I fell through a broken railing that my landlord failed to fix, despite the fact that the landlord had been warned and cited by the Health Department for it. I suffered a severe concussion, back injury, and subdural hematoma and I still am dealing with post-concussion syndrome. I was fortunate that I hit my head flush along the steel fence. Had I hit the corner of the fencing, I could have been killed. In the immediate aftermath I had a massive swelling on my forehead (aka severe hematoma), which then drained down behind my eye, causing the black eye in the main picture. The fall also dislodged the implant that was put into my L1 vertebrae last summer, so I now need surgery to pull the implant and replace it as well as the serious need to insert a metal support in my L5-S1, which is also crumbling.
Hopefully, after this surgery I'll be able to end this Worker's Comp claim and get back to being a productive citizen. I've been living along a knife's edge through five major surgeries in five years now, and I'm tired of having to beg my friends and loved ones in order to survive. I'm frustrated that I live in a country where people are forced to do this.
The hardest thing to do is ask for help. But at this point, I have no choice. I've exhausted every resource, hoping that in some way, some how, I'd be able to avoid being in this situation.
If you can help me through this difficult time, please do so. Again, if you have already, please don't do so again. And please share this GoFundMe so that it gets in front of as many people as possible.
So many friends have been supportive to me through this mess, Andrzej, Reyna, Rachel, Diane, Caitlin, James & Parvin, Jesika, Kevin, Lina, Bruce, Casper, Justin, Dave & Marina, Sinziana, Sean & Juliette, Azam, James, Mark, Harris, and again, Lori. (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone)
Thank you so much for your friendship and kindness.
Love, Roy
(please scroll all the way down)
Severe Hematoma/Concussion
Hematoma behind the eye
Dislodged Coflex implant in my back.
My L5/S1 vertebrae are crumbling
My kids.
Unfortunately, given my present health and financial situation, I have no choice but to continue with this GoFundMe. If you've donated in the past, PLEASE DON'T DONATE AGAIN. I already feel ashamed and guilty enough about this situation. I would ask that you would please share this campaign across social media, however.
I am having back surgery on December 20th and I need financial help to make it during the considerable rehab period afterwards. Despite the fact that I've been deemed temporarily totally disabled, I'm not presently receiving disability payments or any other related compensation, although I have applied. The application process takes years. I am still buried within the VA and Worker's Comp systems, trying to get taken care of. The only income I presently make is via freelance writing, (which I'm not really supposed to be doing because I've been deemed totally disabled) and it simply isn't enough to sustain me. This is how people end up on the street.
Due to the generosity of some incredible kind people, I'm not homeless right now. I'm presently living in Joshua Tree because of the kindness and generosity of Lori Portillo, who has allowed me to stay at her Thunderbird Lodge Retreat Air BnB in the interim, where I am helping her out as much as I can despite my injuries.
As many of you know I lost my apartment in August after a protracted and yearlong battle with a landlord who continued to file multiple frivolous unlawful detainer claims against me in order to get me out of my rent controlled apartment. What we have now learned is that this was part of a greater strategy employed by his attorney, Dennis Block, who proudly claims to have evicted more people than any other attorney. I am one of his victims. This practice is so heinous that now Block is being investigated by state ethics board. The LA Times even did a story on him.
As many of you know I was also severely injured in July when I fell through a broken railing that my landlord failed to fix, despite the fact that the landlord had been warned and cited by the Health Department for it. I suffered a severe concussion, back injury, and subdural hematoma and I still am dealing with post-concussion syndrome. I was fortunate that I hit my head flush along the steel fence. Had I hit the corner of the fencing, I could have been killed. In the immediate aftermath I had a massive swelling on my forehead (aka severe hematoma), which then drained down behind my eye, causing the black eye in the main picture. The fall also dislodged the implant that was put into my L1 vertebrae last summer, so I now need surgery to pull the implant and replace it as well as the serious need to insert a metal support in my L5-S1, which is also crumbling.
Hopefully, after this surgery I'll be able to end this Worker's Comp claim and get back to being a productive citizen. I've been living along a knife's edge through five major surgeries in five years now, and I'm tired of having to beg my friends and loved ones in order to survive. I'm frustrated that I live in a country where people are forced to do this.
The hardest thing to do is ask for help. But at this point, I have no choice. I've exhausted every resource, hoping that in some way, some how, I'd be able to avoid being in this situation.
If you can help me through this difficult time, please do so. Again, if you have already, please don't do so again. And please share this GoFundMe so that it gets in front of as many people as possible.
So many friends have been supportive to me through this mess, Andrzej, Reyna, Rachel, Diane, Caitlin, James & Parvin, Jesika, Kevin, Lina, Bruce, Casper, Justin, Dave & Marina, Sinziana, Sean & Juliette, Azam, James, Mark, Harris, and again, Lori. (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone)
Thank you so much for your friendship and kindness.
Love, Roy
(please scroll all the way down)
Severe Hematoma/Concussion
Hematoma behind the eye
Dislodged Coflex implant in my back.
My L5/S1 vertebrae are crumbling
My kids.
Organizer
Roy El Saghir
Organizer
Yucca Valley, CA
