Hi, my name is Steve and I'd like to tell you about my big brother Dan.

For over a decade, Dan has been battling with severe fungal and bacterial infections - armies of microbes that have invaded his body and caused irreparable damage. I have seen Dan go from one of the most energetic, fun-loving and strong-willed people I've known to a shadow of his former self. Over these years, I have seen Dan suffer from kidney failure and lose the strength to walk.  I've rushed to the emergency room to find Dan with the real worry that he might be dead when I get there.

But now, Dan is healing faster and doing better than he has in years. This time, when he makes healing progress, it seems to stick. He's traded away a walker for the occasional cane. Dan is more alert and sharper than I have seen in several years. For the first time since I've known him, Dan is proud of where he lives and he's happy going home.
 
As anyone who has spent time in a hospital knows, medical bills can snowball out of control. Dan has had to make difficult decisions, prioritizing his health over other facets of his life. The funds we are collecting will be used to help Dan continue paying his medical bills. This will help Dan stay in his home.

I want to keep Dan safe in a home that he loves, surrounded by friends and neighbors that have been his lifeline through these last couple years. I need your help to do that.

Thank you

Here’s Dan’s full story:


15 years ago, Dan found and married his wife. While both were enrolled in college, they moved into an apartment owned by relatives. They needed a secure space where they could live within their budget. Tragically, and unknown for years, the apartment walls, hid festering colonies of black mold and other toxic fungus. Both of the newly weds began to grow increasingly sick and exhausted. Dan seemed to decline at a faster pace. 

Dan made several trips to doctors. In an all-too-common mistake, the doctors believed Dan was experiencing strong seasonal allergies, and they prescribed him medicine which lowered his immune response. Rather than helping Dan’s body fight off this fungus, the medicine lowered the defenses for the invaders. They lived in that apartment for about six years. During that time, Dan developed chronic sinus problems, an unending migraine, heart palpitations and random muscle spasms. Dan started finding evidence of the mold and started looking for new places to live. 

Dan got an opportunity in California building electric cars and other green tech. Dan moved there and began the new adventure. Healing started slow, and sometimes new, odd symptoms would appear. Mold infections cause lasting and long-term damage, hiding in your body for years. Unfortunately, the green tech startup folded after several conflicts between the senior partners.

Dan moved back to Utah and into a new apartment. Quickly, Dan found a wonderful chiropractor who helped treat the muscle spasms and migraine, allowing Dan some reprieve for the first time in years. Due to the jump-start healing, Dan’s worst symptoms disappeared, but the infection grew worse than ever before. 3 weeks passed and Dan had contracted pneumonia and his kidneys had shut down. He went on emergency dialysis. It was discovered that one of the items Dan had originally been prescribed has now been shown to contribute to kidney failure.



Over the next year, Dan started a slow climb to recovery. He would spend each night hooked up to his dialysis machine. Slowly and miraculously, his kidneys began to recover some of their function and he was able to operate on his own for a while. 

Dan began to progress with his life. He and his wife bought a house (his current house). He found wonderful neighbors who helped support him in his worst times. He made new friends and his family had room to stay when they visited. He started working part-time consulting, scraping together the energy to work a handful of hours each week. 

After some time, Dan’s kidneys began to fail again. His nephrologist finally agreed to prescribe antifungal medication and the turnaround was instantaneous. Dan’s energy skyrocketed, and he started to work full time. Unfortunately, this improvement was short lived.  Dan’s kidneys failed again and he had to go back on dialysis. 

Dans illness would never completely disappear. He started seeking out specialists who could help him find an answer. However, the infectious disease specialists Dan met with could not collect a clean culture of the infection, and so they were hesitant to treat what they could not definitively evaluate. Because Dan’s infection persisted, he never qualified for a kidney transplant. 

Dan’s nephrologist decided that he would have to stop the anti-fungal meds. The hope was that if they could collect a good sample of the infection, they could treat the illness long-term and Dan could qualify for a kidney transplant. 

Dan became sick immediately. In the worst of it, his dialysis machine malfunctioned. He was thrown into extreme hypothermia. This led to an enormous loss of feeling and circulation in his feet and legs.

Dan’s immune response began to weaken. He developed open sores on his body connected to his fungal infection. We thought that Dan was dying, and we began making plans for his funeral. 

And then something new happened. Dan’s transplant team referred him to a local CDC representative. The CDC representative handled extreme, unusual and edge cases. This specialist was willing and able to help treat Dan based on his symptoms and history, even without being able to gather a clean culture of the infection. As Dan puts it “The meds he gave me on that first visit saved my life.”

Dan was then able to see a new set of specialists who uncovered a colony of mold in his head. The colony had probably been there for years and may have been one of the original causes of the whole nightmare. These specialists were able to remove the mold and Dan got yet another boost of healing.

Sometimes healing comes at a cost. The miracle medicine that Dan had been prescribed by the CDC representative also lead to nerve damage. Combined with the damage from the dialysis machine malfunction, Dan lost most of the use of his lower legs and fingers. To get around, Dan used a cane and a walker. He configured some ropes to help him get up his stairs safely. 



Dan continued in a low state. During all this time, he was spending 12-17 hours each day on dialysis. He couldn’t keep food down and lost 80 lbs. He had to make difficult decisions about prioritizing his health over other beloved parts of his life. Dan could barely walk, let alone do the things he loved. Dan lost his relationship with his wife. He says it was the most painful experience throughout all of it. 

And now, a year later, Dan is making his biggest recovery yet. With therapy both physical and mental, Dan is progressing more consistently than ever before. But the snowball of medical bills and debts has caught up.

Dan’s working on his consulting again, but his available workload is low. He needs to focus on healing and he needs more time to do that. I want Dan to be able to stay in his beloved home near neighbors and friends who have been his lifeline for the past year.

Your help makes this possible. Thank you for reading about his experience. Thank you for contributing to my brother’s wellbeing. Thank you for helping me help him.
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