Hi there, my name is Erin, and I have created this Go Fund Me for my friend Annetta Stella, mama to Eli Stella, a beautiful little boy who is struggling with his family to find a proper diagnosis.

Eli had a tough start. He and his mama went through a traumatic birth entailing an emergency C-section at 26 weeks. Eli had a true knot in his umbilical cord which kickstarted labor very early. Due to this, little man ended up with a perforated bowel at 3 days old, had blood transfusions, was kept under bilirubin lights, had heart surgery to close a PDA valve, and a double hernia surgery. He was in the NICU for 96 days, at which time the doctors told Netta he was touch and go.

After being released from the hospital, Eli was doing pretty good! Development was mostly on track with a speech delay. After 18 months, his development stopped. While he continued to master gross motor skills, other areas of development took a back seat. A short time later, Eli would receive an autism diagnosis. This didn't stop Eli from smiling, running, laughing, and being a happy, thriving little boy at school...

Until Eli got Covid in November of 2021. The day Eli tested positive for Covid, his life and his family's life took a dramatic turn for the worse. Eli has exhibited self-injurious behavior 24 hours a day, even while sleeping since contracting Covid. This behavior is not triggered, and it is not episodic, it is a constant barrage of uncontrollable self-abuse. He has lost all academic and life skills, and his bright and sunny personality is now completely extinguished.

Eli has undergone 2 MRI's, 12 and 24 hour EEGs, steroids, lumbar puncture, colonoscopy, endoscopy, abdominal ultrasounds, and KUB X-Rays. He has been through failed trials of 15 different mood-altering, antipsychotic, and anxiolytic medications. He has seen psychiatrists, psychologists, GI's, rheumatologists, and neurologists, and received genetic testing. He spent 6 months in inpatient last year at 4 different hospitals. The only diagnoses that he has received have been encephalopathy, and constipation. Netta has been told time and time again by several doctors, that Eli's behaviors are due to autism.

His mother is desperate for help. She is confident that these recent behaviors are not solely due to his autism, as he never exhibited them before he contracted Covid. There must be more going on with Eli.

There is a healthcare platform called CrowdMed that gathers licensed medical detectives of different modalities to try to identify or diagnose difficult or mysterious cases. The cost is $749 per month for Elite services, which will provide Eli with the most focused and intensive research needed to help get his family the answers they so desperately seek. The minimum time for most cases solved is 60 days. However, with Eli's extensive issues that have currently baffled the specialists he's seen, we are estimating it may take closer to 6 months.

I am asking you to help in any way you can to assist this family in getting the funding they need for sweet Eli. Finding a proper diagnosis for him could mean the beginning of a new treatment that may help this poor child find relief. This family has been through so much and is quickly running out of funds needed to care for him and attend the many medical appointments that have so far been unhelpful. The videos posted show a before and after, post-Covid version of Eli. It's very hard to watch this child suffer through these behaviors and to see the anguish on his face. You can clearly see who he was before he became ill. It's a night and day difference.

Please join me in the fight to help Eli and his family. Anything you can offer would be a tremendous blessing. Thank you so much for opening your heart to the Stella family.