Life-Giving Treatment for Leon, a Nurse with a Big Heart!

Kathleen Ritchie is organizing this fundraiser.

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Dear friends of Leon,

Please help Leon with his treatment for Black Mold Infection.

Leon was a hard working nurse in ICU for 15 years who was helping patients in the most difficult moments of their lives. Early in 2020, he caught a severe Covid-19 infection. This was so early in the pandemic that the vaccine had not yet been developed and hospitals were beginning to fill up with Covid patients. It is almost certain that Leon caught Covid while working at the hospital. Since then, he has been suffering from an extreme form of Long Covid and a complication called Covid Associated Mucormycosis, which have rendered him unable to work. However, his employer refused to cover his expenses because he couldn't prove that he caught Covid there.

Leon with one of his favorite nursing colleagues

He was hospitalized for Covid-19 infection again in 2023 and a hospital/medical facility gave him an oxygen concentrator that was full of black mold. He developed a severe, life threating infection in his lungs, brain, tongue and sinuses. The histopathology confirmed infection by Rhizopus arrhizus and Mucor mucedo.

Black mold on the tongue

The best place for him to receive the treatments he needed was in India, so he traveled there earlier this year, hoping to undergo 3- 4 months of intensive therapy in ICU, receiving liposomal ampothericin B, AmBisome via a central line. Since his insurance doesn't cover pre-existing conditions or the cost of the antifungal medicine, AmBisome, needed for the treatment, we set up a GoFundMe then. However, shortly after starting the treatment, which is extremely hard on the body, his kidneys failed so he had to terminate it.

Leon with Permacath

Currently, he is still in India, trying to get the investigational drug Fosmanogepix from Pfizer. It is a novel drug designed to cure black mold infection but it's only FDA stage 2 approved. He hopes to hear back from them soon.

Leon's wife brings him an feast of Indian food

As you can imagine, with no insurance, all of these treatments and therapies come at an extremely high price. Many of you have been very kind in donating to his recent GoFundMe, but he, of course, still needs financial assistance. He is asking his friends and family to be so kind as to continue to help him.