Saving Andrew
Donation protected
Who is Andrew?
Andrew is many things to many people. To his mother, he is a loving son, to his siblings a caring brother, to the people close to him a loyal friend, and to his wife Sabrina a kind and devoted husband. He loves his Jeep and his Seahawks Football. He'll talk excitedly for hours about the people and things that make him happy or he will just listen quietly to those in need of his support. These are the types of descriptions I use when describing Andrew, my best friend, my brother.
Andrew seems like a pretty cool guy right? Things must be going well for someone like that, I mean how could they not be? You would hope so, but sadly that's not the case here.
For the past 15 years of his life, Andrew has been fighting against a severe case of Epilepsy wich is a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, and/or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain. (Seizures) After being diagnosed at a young age Andrew's condition changed over time due to his body building resistances to medications and treatments that were supposed to help him. This has caused years of turmoil for him from having seizures every thirty minutes for weeks at a time, to having none for an entire year then back to having one nightly. Over many years doctors have been unsuccessful in finding a treatment to control his seizures. Andrew is now in the percentage of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. This means regardless of the amount or type of medication he takes it will never fully control his seizures and because of this his current daily amount of medication (25 pills) is not FDA approved. This causes problems being covered by his insurance provider. Think about that for a moment, my brother is only 25 years old and he takes twenty-five pills a day just to hope he doesn't have a seizure.
Anrew has gotten to point now where his quality of life is starting to drastically decrease out of his control as he is limited to what he can and can’t do and his ability to work is severely restricted. His condition is creating huge financial debt to him and his wife. Doctors have recently suggested that the only option Andrew has left at this point is for brain surgery to remove the piece of his brain causing the electrical misfire that triggers his seizures or for a brain implant to control those electrical misfires. Before any of this can happen Andrew must go through a rigorous testing period where do doctors induce seizures (that's right, force him to have them) to be able to map his brain. After Insurance this testing alone is $10,000.00 a day and he has currently been in the hospital for 10 days. He will have to do this multiple times before the doctor will have all the information they need for surgery.
As you can imagine this is a very expensive and scary time for Andrew, his wife Sabrina, and his family. My brother has done so much for me over the years and he has always gone out of his way to put his problem to the side and help others first. Andrew is stubborn and proud, and he would never ask for help even if it's obvious he needs it. (I'll probably get in trouble for making this but who cares) I want to help him in any way I can. I hope that this page will somehow ease the financial burden that is to come so that he and his wife can focus on getting Andrew healthy and back to as normal a life as possible.
Studies have shown that shown that the average lifespan of an individual after the onset of epilepsy is 12.5 years and 1 in every 1,000 people with epilepsy are known to die from sudden unexplained death from epilepsy or SUDEP. In fact, sudden unexplained deaths are more common in people with poorly controlled grand mal seizures, long seizure durations, early onset of grand mal seizures, frequent changes or adjustments in anti-seizure medications. Andrew was diagnosed with epilepsy 15 years ago and his condition is poorly controlled due to his resistances...
Please save Andrew from being a statistic.
Andrew is many things to many people. To his mother, he is a loving son, to his siblings a caring brother, to the people close to him a loyal friend, and to his wife Sabrina a kind and devoted husband. He loves his Jeep and his Seahawks Football. He'll talk excitedly for hours about the people and things that make him happy or he will just listen quietly to those in need of his support. These are the types of descriptions I use when describing Andrew, my best friend, my brother.
Andrew seems like a pretty cool guy right? Things must be going well for someone like that, I mean how could they not be? You would hope so, but sadly that's not the case here.
For the past 15 years of his life, Andrew has been fighting against a severe case of Epilepsy wich is a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, and/or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain. (Seizures) After being diagnosed at a young age Andrew's condition changed over time due to his body building resistances to medications and treatments that were supposed to help him. This has caused years of turmoil for him from having seizures every thirty minutes for weeks at a time, to having none for an entire year then back to having one nightly. Over many years doctors have been unsuccessful in finding a treatment to control his seizures. Andrew is now in the percentage of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. This means regardless of the amount or type of medication he takes it will never fully control his seizures and because of this his current daily amount of medication (25 pills) is not FDA approved. This causes problems being covered by his insurance provider. Think about that for a moment, my brother is only 25 years old and he takes twenty-five pills a day just to hope he doesn't have a seizure.
Anrew has gotten to point now where his quality of life is starting to drastically decrease out of his control as he is limited to what he can and can’t do and his ability to work is severely restricted. His condition is creating huge financial debt to him and his wife. Doctors have recently suggested that the only option Andrew has left at this point is for brain surgery to remove the piece of his brain causing the electrical misfire that triggers his seizures or for a brain implant to control those electrical misfires. Before any of this can happen Andrew must go through a rigorous testing period where do doctors induce seizures (that's right, force him to have them) to be able to map his brain. After Insurance this testing alone is $10,000.00 a day and he has currently been in the hospital for 10 days. He will have to do this multiple times before the doctor will have all the information they need for surgery.
As you can imagine this is a very expensive and scary time for Andrew, his wife Sabrina, and his family. My brother has done so much for me over the years and he has always gone out of his way to put his problem to the side and help others first. Andrew is stubborn and proud, and he would never ask for help even if it's obvious he needs it. (I'll probably get in trouble for making this but who cares) I want to help him in any way I can. I hope that this page will somehow ease the financial burden that is to come so that he and his wife can focus on getting Andrew healthy and back to as normal a life as possible.
Studies have shown that shown that the average lifespan of an individual after the onset of epilepsy is 12.5 years and 1 in every 1,000 people with epilepsy are known to die from sudden unexplained death from epilepsy or SUDEP. In fact, sudden unexplained deaths are more common in people with poorly controlled grand mal seizures, long seizure durations, early onset of grand mal seizures, frequent changes or adjustments in anti-seizure medications. Andrew was diagnosed with epilepsy 15 years ago and his condition is poorly controlled due to his resistances...
Please save Andrew from being a statistic.
Organizer
Jeff Bates
Organizer
Sultan, WA
