My Daughter Lauren's Broken Spine
Donation protected
It's been sometime since anyone has seen my daughter Lauren. She feels that her life has past her by, while all her friends and family got married, had children, had families, built homes and traveled parts of the world, while she has been hosptilazied from 4 spine surgeries.
I pray that no one has forgotten her, and that one day she'll be able to reclaim her life, get married and have her own family, even if she becomes capable to adopt a child one day.
Her father and I took care of her for the first 2 surgeries, but since of recent, I am now a 24 hour a day caregiver to her father who's in a wheelchair unable to talk or walk. We have run into our own health problems and run out of resources to help our daughter.
Her father may never get to see her recover and is now unaware of the continued looming burdens because he is degenerating. She has tried every form of pain management under the sun, and has approximately $2,000,000 in medical costs and upaid bills. My daughter is suffering in isolation.
I must reach out to the world for help, as her father and myself get older, my daughter is still in need of a multi-disciplanry team of surgeons to repair and reconsruct her spine.
Surgeon fees are not free and not covered by insurance. After consulting with at least 15 surgeons, my daughter was referred to a special surgical team of a surgeons: a neurosurgeon spine specialist for deformities, orthopedic surgeon and a reconstructive micro surgeon. She finally has a chance at receiving this advanced surgical treatment. But the surgery and post surgery care will cost roughly $100,000. Crowd Funding is our only chance.
I would not be able to put this campaign together, if it weren't for a special person who insisted on helping. I am too humble and feel humilated to let the world know what catstrophe our lives have undergone.
Please help see my daughter through.
My daughter, Lauren, was once an athlete and fitness professional helping others improve their own health and quality of life. She inspired others and helped others by improving their phsyical condition. She transformed herself from body builder, to yoga instructor, to endurance athlete and a dancer. She worked hard all her life since the age of 14. Nothing could stop her. She gave and gave. Now we are asking the people and the universe to help her in return.
She taught Yoga in many places
She Rock-Climbed Devils Punchbowl in Mohave Desert
She climbed Machu Picchu in Peru, South America
(the Mountain in the background) with her bare hands and feet
And she had a boyfriend and a great social life before.
She won trophies in all natural Collegiate National Body Building in Oregon and Washignton and medals in mountain bike races at Mammoth Mountain and Castaic Lake.
She worked with actors Dustin Hoffman, Steve Martin, Fergie, Romany Malco, David Spade, Anna Paquin and more.
She not only was a nationally certified fitness expert, but a stand in actress and a comercial and art model.
Back to the car accident and medical complications:
She was blind-sided by a 17 year old provisional driver. The first surgeries were performed at UCLA medical center, done without any informed consent and without my daughter knowing, nor me and her father knowing.
The hospital called us after they had already operated on her. So we left immediatley to the airport to catch the next flight to arrive to see our daughter in the Neurosurgery ICU. We stayed there with her.
We discovered much later, that UCLA had fused her spine. These spine fusion surgeries took 10 hours to complete and discovered much later that the hospital implanted rods, screws, cross-link bars and a plate to fuse her spine.
The surgeries, however, caused further surgical complications soon after.
33 staples down her spine
Video in the Neurosurgery ICU
When she was discharged from a 2 week hospitalization where she was on an EKG, Morphine pump, blood draining through tubes from her spine collecting in bags which were changed daily, she slept 18 hours a day in this hard body cast for another 3 1/2 months. She didn't see the light of day or feel the sun on her skin. She had lost 20 pounds while in the hospital.
She wore this cervical/thoracic hard body cast for 3 1/2 months.
By 3 1/2 months, she finally had the body cast or brace removed.
But her spine began to literally split open underneath the skin over the next several weeks.
We brought these complications to the attention of the UCLA surgeon, but he did not diagnose this and instead continued to put her worsening symptoms off.
As her spine slowly split open, the titanium cross link bar was felt under the skin, and her back bones were literally poking out and pushing through her skin.
Conseqently, her head was slipping forward and she couldn't hold herself up. 4 vertebrae were already fused by this time, so she permanently lost mobility in her spine. But now she is also suffering from severe spine fusion deformity. It was medically necessary to have the musculoskeletal tissues put back together to her spine. Her muscles were splayed off the bone, and retracting farther and farther apart.
My heart is permanently broken to see my daughter so catastrophically injured.
Those are her back bones sticking out of her body
Those are her back bones sticking out of her body, her head was fused forward and she couldn't hold herself up.
Taping was tried to keep her shoulders back and try to keep her head up.
Back bones sticking out, muscles splayed off her spine, metal can be felt under skin
My daughter's head was literally slipping forward. She was having trouble keeping her balance. The forward heaviness of her head she describes as being in severe exhaustion like she's having to climb Mount Everest every standing moment.
Without the muscles attached, anyone's head would feel like 100 pounds, combined with a kyphotic spine fusion, she can't fix her own posture and is chronically battling a fixed position of her head.
An X-Ray of her spine recreated and imposed over a normal spine to show her spine deformity
Her head was like the one on the right here below
These are the muscles that are splayed off her spine
I fed her, took her to the bathroom, rolled her out of bed, placed her in bed, cut her toenails, combed her hair, gave her sips of water and watched her suffer in intolerable pain as my own heart broke.
I came down with vertigo from the diffuclty in care giving, and my husband suffered undiagnosed strokes from the stress. We had to live with her for almost a year.
The surgeon who had performed this emergency surgery abandoned her after these surgical complications, so we had to go with a new surgeon.
My daughter did not have any savings, nor health insurance, so her father and I used our mortgage payments for this medically necessary surgery. The 2nd surgeon was expensive. We spent $100,000.
While taking care of my only daughter, my husband was having symptoms from his undiagnosed mini-strokes, falling down.
Her father had to hold onto me constantly while I was taking care of both him and my daughter in her small apartment at the same time.
Eventually, my husband and I were unable to pay our mortgage on our house because of these unrelenting surgery and medical bills.
My husband and I had to file for bankruptcy. Eventually we lost our house; Our house which our family grew up in since 1977.
And our lives have also been catastrophically changed. My husband is recently permenantly in a wheelchair. This is us as we changed and also suffer losses with our daguhter's catastrophic injury.
Without the muscle attached to the bone, the spine is not stable and begins to deform.
She went thru yet another reconstrcutive surgery, this time with a piece of mesh.
Here is a collage of the intra-operation where the reconstructive surgeon attempted to reattach the muscle tissues.
And she is still hunched over, and painfully disabled suffering from spine fusion deformity, neural and joint compression, para-spine musculoskeletal ruptures, massive muslce spasms, severe headaches, massive scar tissue, spine joint abrasion and chronic pain
My daughter requires a multi-disciplanary team of surgeons, but it is not free and we lost our house supporting my daughter financially and paying surgeon fees.
Without the funds to have this team of surgeons, and support post-surgically and undergo through rehab after, my only daughter will continue to worsen.
I've lost all my energy, and I worry that I won't be there to help my own daughter, if something happens to me. I had the help of a friend to put this campaign together, or I would have been unable to do it.
My daughter is fighting for her life, and on all levels can't afford another bad surgery because of not having enough funds. This is our last chance to hire an advanced surgical team.
My daughter suffers in chronic disabling pain, lack of mobility, depression and on daily pain medication. Because of my own health problems and having to be a caregiver to her father, my daughter is now alone
She has no social life, unable to work and her life is only about daily pain managment, in a controlled environment. No one deserves this pain and suffering. She is still young and has a chance at the correct surgical repair.
I feel that everyone forgot about my daughter. She was once an inspirational athlete and fitness instructor. She helped so many people. Please help her in return. This is my only daughter, and I want to see her survive this.
Organizer and beneficiary
Suad Kattuah
Organizer
Santa Monica, CA
Lauren Kattuah
Beneficiary