Please read below for a message from Val and a 2026 update to Val’s GoFundMe Campaign and the initial campaign information summary. Thank you.

Dear Friends and Family,

After your generosity in 2024/2025 for my surgery on my right leg, I come to you once again asking for your support. I have a new tear in the right quadriceps tendon. I fell a couple months ago and I thought there was no damage and I had no pain. An MRI in March shows a 50% tear, which likely began when I fell. Unfortunately, after four surgeries on the right leg, I am predisposed to injury. The tissue has gone through a lot of trauma. This will be my 5th surgery on the right leg in four years. During my last surgery, the patellar tendon and quad tendon had to be lengthened and reattached to the patella, and are holding strong to the patella, which is great news.

For this repair, a donor cadaver graft will be used from the top of the shin/tibia to the thigh, as my tissue is deemed unreliable. The surgery is April 30th, 2026. I will be expected to pay $5000+ as the copay, which I simply don’t have. I’ve run through my savings while recovering from the prior surgeries. I’ve applied for disability and that will, hopefully, start in June. Right now, money is very tight and without surgery I am quite limited as an employee.

I am asking for your support. If you are once again able to donate to my GoFundMe Campaign, thank you. If not, I understand completely. I ask that you all share this campaign on your socials and keep me in your thoughts and prayers, whether you can contribute or not.

You are all dear to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Valerie

Initial campaign summary:

Valerie Zimmer is a caring and intelligent woman who has experienced more than her fair share of medical issues over the last 3 years. After falling down a set of stairs in January 2022, she had surgery to repair a ruptured left quadriceps tendon. The quadriceps tendon connects the quadriceps muscles to the kneecap and is essential to walking and having control of the leg's movement and balance. Valerie experienced continued weakness in her quadriceps which led to a backwards fall when her left knee gave out. She had another surgery to repair the left quad tendon in September 2022. When that repair also did not heal right, she was on her way to get a second surgeon's opinion in February 2023 and fell down the stairs again, this time rupturing her right quadriceps tendon. She had surgery to repair the right quad tendon and when those repairs did not heal correctly, she had two more surgeries in July 2023 and June 2024. Because of the damage, Val has not been able to drive, walk up or down stairs, and do many of her normal daily activities and hobbies.

A new orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Ronak Patel believes that he will be able to permanently fix her knee tendon from a cadaver. Her tendons have become so weakened from repeated surgeries that they likely are not strong enough to do their job anymore. Dr. Ronak Patel specializes in this type of knee repair and believes that he can successfully repair Val's tendon and give her back the mobility and life that she deserves. (See links below for two of Dr. Patel's published articles on this type of surgery).

However, this surgery is very complex and her insurance will only partially cover it. We are looking for medical assistance funds to help Val pay for the surgery and other associated costs, including medical transport to appointments and accessibility improvements to her apartment. We appreciate any help you are able to give!

Ginesin, E. Z., Wojnowski, N. M., & Patel, R. M. (2020). Patellar Tendon Reconstruction for a Chronic Extensor Mechanism Deficit Using an Achilles Tendon Allograft With Hamstring Autograft and Suture Augmentation. Arthroscopy techniques, 9(4), e469–e475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eats.2019.11.020

Watson, S. L., Kingham, Y. E., & Patel, R. M. (2022). Chronic Quadriceps Tendon Ruptures: Primary Repair of Quadriceps Via Bioaugmentation and Patellar Tendon Lengthening. Arthroscopy techniques, 11(7), e1209–e1217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eats.2022.03.002