My name is Jack Hirschman, and I am currently a graduate student studying applied physics. I have started this fundraiser for the person who sparked my love of science and engineering and who has inspired me with their perseverance through a debilitating chronic illness... my Dad, Shayle Hirschman.
For 8 years my Dad has been suffering from a condition that tears down his muscles, causes constant full-body muscle and joint pain, sparked full-body crepitus, and developed into brain fog and short-term memory loss. This condition set in right as I began college, and before this we would play soccer, weightlift, run, hike, work on projects, and play board games (our favorite was Axis & Allies).
My dad lived an extremely active lifestyle and was at the height of his career. He had just finished an intense endeavor as the technical lead responsible for modernizing the computing control systems of the International Space Station by 2013, extending the life of the space station from 2013 through 2030. No one else would take that responsibility or knew how to design the computer architecture. He followed that work at a small aerospace company when he became ill, and was planning on accepting his job offer from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, when he had to instead retire from engineering and become a full-time patient. To this day, he has outstanding job offers from General Dynamics doing the work he used to enjoy. However, his condition set in and immediately lost the ability to work … He fought back hard.
He tried his best finding doctors that could treat his conditions while living in Los Angeles. The best the doctors could do was determine that he had fibromyalgia but that could not explain all of the rapid, multisystem damage occurring. I realized the seriousness of what was transpiring when I visited him … we were driving and all of a sudden his blood pressure spiked, his knee swelled up to a grapefruit, and we had to pull over. I had to take over driving and rush him to urgent care. Doctors had been trying various mixes of medication and could never get it right. He looked for help in Los Angeles, Denver, and Phoenix but for 7½ years no doctors could find anything that resembled the cause of his illness … all while his physical and mental condition continued to deteriorate. The pain became intolerable and pain management clinics had to keep prescribing stronger dosages; however, they could never get it right and would sometimes completely cut him off of medication. This led several times to him calling me thinking he was going to die within a few days. In Phoenix at the Mayo Clinic, he was basically gaslighted and told nothing was wrong with him. All they could offer were classes on how to accept your condition.
My Dad’s engineering nature kicked in and he began studying his condition in detail. He started trying to build back muscle (causing excruciating pain) but then worked with local trainers to quantify his muscle loss and track the lifetime of his muscle (8 weeks! From the time of building to the time that it’s lost all function is 8 weeks!). Even armed with data and a detailed report on everything going on with his body, his doctors always ignored him as traditional blood tests did not come back with a definitive diagnosis, but did indicate something was amiss.
In January 2023, we finally got an evaluation for Lyme disease by an unconventional doctor who is Lyme-literate and recognized the disease from his symptoms and history, following the guidelines for diagnosing chronic illnesses like Lyme. This doctor performed further sensitivity testing to help prepare for targeting my dad’s diet, treatment, and detoxification (an essential element in Lyme treatment) while we obtained the Lyme blood test which proved positive. That test, plus further testing at the Lyme clinic, revealed many coinfections.
We’ve now spent the past months learning about Lyme (especially Chronic Lyme), the way it attacks the body and hides in certain areas, and the political and financial reasons as to why much of the medical community avoids helping Lyme patients. We began treating it with herbal remedies (something I never believed much in before but have now come to understand are extremely powerful with a long history of clinical success). My dad has seen some small improvements in stiffness in his body but the treatment process has just begun. His particular struggle with Lyme has gone on so long that it is entrenched deeply in his body tissue and joints. The full-scale treatment requires months of IV antibiotics, targeted immunotherapy, and attacking the other infections that Lyme has brought about. This full treatment is expensive and now is beyond what my dad can afford since he’s been out of work for 6 years (and beyond what I can help with since I’m a PhD student). His treatment from Lyme specialists in Phoenix is predicted to cost just under $60,000 (but could be higher). Insurance won’t cover any of the costs because much of traditional western medicine ignores Lyme Disease after the tick bite rash is gone and has allowed for insurance companies to lobby to prevent needing to cover treatment. My dad wants nothing more than to recover from this disease, spread to the public what he has learned, and get back to work. All organ and tissue damage can repair itself once the infections are treated. He’s put together a detailed 200-page report about his condition, exposing fundamental faults in western medical practice not understood that have led to 10s of thousands of patients or more with chronic pain or fatigue being ignored and gaslighted, as well as the only solutions to these faults.
I’m humbly asking here for donations to help with my dad’s recovery. There’s no guarantee that the treatment can reverse all the damage that has been done but there’s still a good chance it will. Our target is $60,000 which would cover the initial treatment. If my dad can recover and get back to work, he wants to repay those that help donate here. If when donating you can leave a way to get back in contact, we will repay you in the future if possible. Of course, if the treatment isn’t successful then we won’t be able to do this. We will try our best to fight this disease and also fight the institutional barriers that have prevented treatment and care for Chronic Lyme, as well as the causes of why all conventional medical practice today is at best sub-par and fails so many patients, gaslighting them instead. My dad’s paper explains how willful “Capture and Milk” works in today’s practice of medicine for many undiagnosed chronic patients. He provides a link to his paper that both tells his story as well as provides the evidentiary experience of 7 years of clinical notes, portal messages, confessions from doctors, and records showing in detail how and why today’s practice fails, and what the only, real solution is. Here is the link: Paper (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w7uWctHLLP4K3OAc0-aWX68U_U_7ObeG/view?usp=share_link).
Please feel free to read his paper “Evidence-Based Findings on the Practice of Medicine'', and please help save my father, treat his Lyme Disease, and help him achieve the full recovery that is possible for him. We want to make the public aware that their undiagnosed disease may be Lyme. Thank you.
