Surgery Urgently Needed

Greetings,              About four years ago my pathed crossed with a young lady of 16 years. She had just moved out of state away from her hometown due to upset. When I first meet Naiya Jones I had no idea how much of a part of my life and our community she would become. The first year she was in Columbia Mo., due to self-motivation she graduated High School at 16 years old! All the while working 2, 3 and sometimes 4 jobs in order to make her rent and bills, and volunteering at Oak Spirit Sanctuary on a regular basis. Over the last 3 years I have watched as this young lady poured her heart and soul into her community, hand quilting baby blankets to be added to baskets for expecting parents, and making a larger community quilt with dozens of the OSS families names separately on each square. During Covid she did a painting of the retreat center, had them printed and personally wrote and sent a card full of well wishes to (again) dozens of community members. She even created a tarot deck with community members as each individual card, many of us own this deck today. Additionally, she has been restoring our sacred Shrines and statues that have been weather worn now have fresh, new life! Oh, btw! All of this and she is going to college online too! The young lady I meet at 16 has become a strong woman, supporting herself, and her fur babies. She is set to move into a new house in October, which will be the first time she has every lived alone. She is determined to make a better life for herself and it shows. During all of this she had had severe health issues and no insurance, try as she might to find a doctor who could diagnose her pain and symptoms it took 2 years for them to realize she needed her gallbladder removed. When you don’t have insurance getting a diagnosis and treatment can be very difficult, to say the least. She was finally able to acquire insurance and a doctor that will take it. The doctors found that she has about a dozen gallstones, which causes frequent pain, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and general malaise. She has been in and out of the E.R. for gallbladder attacks, due to the bouts of severe pain. This pain has interfered with every aspect of her life and yet she perseveres. Naiya has no family support, but she has US, her community. She will need to take off work for two weeks to recover and still be able to manage her bills and cost of her co pay for surgery (Co-pay $1,000), the hospital may allow a payment plan for her co-pay, which she will only barely be able to add to her monthly budget. Losing two weeks of work is not an option for most of us and especially for a young woman who barely makes over minimum wage and is a full time student. The surgery is set for November 23rd, delaying the date would be detrimental to her health, the attacks are coming closer together and will increase pain. Additionally, not treating a gallbladder can result in the gallbladder bursting, which can lead to sepsis and life threatening complications. Considering the cost of the co-pay, time off work and fee GoFundMe charges; I am asking our community to help raise $2,500 so our young Maiden can get the medical care she requires. $1,000 for the surgery. $1,000 for time off work/bills/food etc. I have over 1,000 FB friends, how many do you have?  All it would take is $1.00-$3.00 from each of us. I realize times are hard all around, but we can accomplish much if we work together! Please donate as much as you can and share to others who may care to help. Thank you, Kerry Lynn