Dear friends,

I am writing you to inform you of some terrible news about our beloved Janie, whom many of you know is like a mother to me, and a vital part of the Southwellness Family, has cancer.   Without her helping me years ago even when I couldn’t afford to pay her Southwellness would not be a reality.  To be specific, she has an aggressive Squamous Cell Cancer in her throat spreading into a lymph node.  She has been soldiering through pain, testing and exploratory biopsies for weeks now with request that I/we wait to inform anyone, but has recently had a prognosis handed to her by one of the best surgeons in town that is not good to say the least.  We knew she would need urgent surgery and chemo but did not until this week realized her options are either an older surgical technique that might destroy her to save her, or a new technique using robotics that might spare her anatomy while still getting the cancer out.  At the same time we've run into insurance barriers that appear to be insurmountable.  I will spare you the details, but the centers of excellence she needs to go to will basically be treating her like she either has no insurance or is "out of network" -even though we have a policy that has no restrictions that has already approved the surgery, and will pay any and all bills.  On top of that she has a cancer-specific supplement to cover anything any other policy doesn't cover.  The sickening and shameful realty is that without financial assistance she won't be able to get the treatment, her options will become limited, and she will likely die.  I'll be damned if I'm not going to fight back, and I ask for your help.


We are looking at Mayo Clinic, but according to a close friend in ENT the best hands on this half of the country for this might be in LA at Keck Medicine of USC.   Banner was how we learned she has to pay cash up front, but it’s all on the table -of course I want the best for her!


First of all, for those of you who pray, please pray for Janie.


If anyone knows people at the USC system or Mayo or even Banner that have influence please let me know.


 If you help, and she is reimbursed as expected, as much as possible the money will be paid back.  She will need to get to LA if that’s where we go (she plans to drive) and will need to stay there with her husband.  That cost won't be reimbursable. Lastly, I don’t know what kind of money she will need here, so I'm going to aim high and then we’ll pay back what isn’t used and be completely transparent with the whole thing as it makes Janie mortified to ask for or need help, and she will want to ensure paybacks.  I will keep you posted.  WE NEED TO MOVE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.  


My patients have been told before there were no treatment options and we have used new techniques to beat the odds.  I remain very optimistic for Janie.


All the best,
Dr. Tyler Southwell & Team