OkYoung Needs Your Support for Surgery

Ok, so this is very hard for us to even create; however, it’s necessary. Our timeline got moved up and the situation back in December got extremely troubling due to the first donor here in the US not getting approved by U-Penn. This fund is to help pay for OkYoung's surgery and trip back and forth to Korea while not being able to work for almost 2 months when she leaves on June 2nd.

My wife, in 2017, was diagnosed by a board-certified doctor who is located in Flushing, Queens, NY, with stage 2 kidney disease. As the years passed, the treatment she was getting wasn’t helping, and she hit stage 5 in January of 2024. We took her immediately to the hospital when she turned a different color and her ankles had swollen. We had planned for the surgery to take place here, but other plans had to be made. She left on January 21st, 2025, to go back to Korea seeking a donor and a doctor. Thankfully, she found a donor and they are a match, but the cost is very high even with the government helping her. We are very productive, hard-working people who just need a boost to get her there and back in June.

OkYoung Widder-Park was born to a nice family in South Korea in 1983 on November 20th. She spent the majority of her life in Korea, eventually moving to America for a better future. She achieved just that and met me 3 years later. She arrived in the summer of 2017. Her first job was helping to run a nail shop.

It has now been 8 years and the entire time she has struggled with this disease. The dialysis started that time in 2024 when she was admitted with stage 5, end-stage renal failure. I only ask if anyone can help us get her there and back safely while managing our lives. Anything will help and Young will be managing all of this.

I’m not the greatest writer and I’m doing my best to say what Young is asking me to share. She loves everyone in America. Young is very happy to have made an American family and is very sad about how the last few years have gone due to this illness. I help her every step of the way and almost every night with dialysis.

I only wish I had the money to do all of this for her, but things have gotten very complicated due to a series of unfortunate events. It crushes us to be asking for help.

Firstly, thank you all for reading this. I only ask for your help if you can. Please feel free to reach out to either one of us at any time between now and June 2nd. The surgery is on the 11th of June, but Young must leave before it to prepare.

Thank you all again, and we sincerely appreciate everyone.