Hope for Maryam: Saving a Teacher's Life from Gilgit

I have known Maryam since she was a child. I worked with her late father for many years in the 1990s in Gilgit. I'm currently a patron of the school where she is a Trainee Assistant Teacher.

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Twenty-nine-year-old Maryam - an assistant teacher for Montessori and special needs students at Mehnaz Fatima Montessori and Inclusive School in Gilgit, Pakistan - is facing a severe Addisonian crisis, also known as adrenal crisis (insufficiency of cortisol, the adrenal hormone). The mortality rate exceeds 90% if not treated promptly. We need your help for supporting her emergency treatment and diagnosing a root cause, so she can achieve sustained recovery. The prognosis is good with prompt and proper treatment.

Over several months, Maryam has suffered nausea, vomiting, weakness and a 15 kg (33 lb) weight loss to now weigh only 35 kg (77 lbs). Despite multiple investigations, no one could figure out what caused the problem. This week she collapsed with dangerously low blood pressure while getting one more test at the hospital and was rushed to ER. Her situation is critical. We’ve admitted her to an ICU in Islamabad and are seeing improvement. However, with no health insurance, hospital bills are USD 500 per day and we expect her to be hospitalized for at least another week. Then, there are health costs beyond the ICU.

Maryam’s family is stretched thin - her father passed in 2017, and her mother already struggles from health problems and each of her siblings is fighting to make ends meet.

All funds will be transferred directly to her younger brother, as he is paying her medical bills.

Maryam is a trainee teacher pursuing her Montessori certification, so is not yet full-time, but is determined to continue pursuing her dreams to work with special needs children. Her colleagues and supervisors describe her as active, creative, sincere, caring a lot for the children she works with, often keeping the special ones with her for extra attention, with a soft and loving nature and strong social skills. She is very brave and always thankful. Her brother says she is a devoted sister and daughter, often helping her ill mother, who loves to go to work to care for children and to be active in community affairs too. The family cannot wait for her to get healthy and return to them well.

We pray that you can help us in this difficult time - and help Maryam recover and become a source of Sadaqah Jariyah (a source of charity that benefits others) through her work.

We are aiming to raise USD 7,500. A breakdown of projected costs is as follows:

- Initial hospitalization will be about $4,000-5,000 depending on how long she needs to be in ICU (Bill up to now is already $2000)

- Follow up costs $1,000 -$1,500 to see an endocrinologist, get brain CT, and blood tests as they monitor treatment.

- Flight to return to Gilgit, as Maryam is too sick to take the 14-hour mountain road trip, with a relative ($250 x 2 or 500)

- Regular appointment with a physician in Gilgit and more blood tests - estimate $50 per visit with transport x at least 10 in a year, so $500.

Thank you so much for your support and generosity.