Raquel’s brain surgery

Raquel Nani has Down Syndrome and is the youngest in our family. In February of 2020, Raquel had a brain-bleed stroke. ‘Sagittal Venous Thrombosis’. A result of hormone therapy. MRI scans revealed she has MoyaMoya disease in a different region of her brain. We were already very familiar with Moyamoya, as it led to the death of her grandfather (my father, Masaru) in 1991. I asked the neurosurgical team leader what could be done to help her with this disease. He stated that their only concern was the stroke she had already had.

 

A referral was not even offered.

This made no sense since the hospital is a teaching hospital. After nearly two years of unsuccessfully trying to find help for her, a geneticist reached out to one of the top MoyaMoya specialist in the country. He agreed to look at her scans. We received a call that he would take her case, and that we would need to fly up to Stanford CA. for Raquel to have direct and indirect bypass brain surgery within the next 2 months. Unfortunately, it doesn’t leave enough time to save up for the event.

It will involve a round trip flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco, a rental car, and a stay in (preferably) an Air B&B or hotel with a full kitchen, as Raquel has celiac disease and cannot eat anything with gluten without becoming very sick. Her first pre-surgery appointment is on March 23rd, so we need to fly up on March 22nd and stay until at least April 5th. Though her hospital stay should only be a few days, she needs to remain there for additional scans and tests until she is cleared to come home. I will be going unpaid. My husband Donald and older daughter Leanne will be driving up for the surgery on March 28th. We could really use prayers and a helping hand with some of the expenses. Thank you and God bless!