Fred's Transplant Fund

Hi, this is Fred's story.  I am not Fred.  My name is Dennis Wingo and I am helping Fred as he is very sick and his family is not good with the Internet.  

I know Fred from the Google Lunar X Prize.  He had a great team, called Frednet that wanted to open source their effort to land a vehicle on the Moon.  Since this was a non profit effort, it had little chance of success, but the team learned a lot and they did good work.  

I guess that this is a metaphor for Fred's life in that he was not given much chance to survive as a kid, but he did, and thrived, and has done good stuff for the world.  Isn't that what life is about in helping our fellow humans, helping to do good stuff for the world?

Fred will be uploading videos and telling you about his life, but his mom asked me to help them and so here I am.  I know that you the reader may see many of these types of entreaties and why should you help this particular one?  Because Fred's life has been to help do good stuff for the world and there are not enough people out there doing that.  

He has a great story but I will let him tell you more in videos.  I asked him to do something that he is loath to do, which is to make video's to tell you about his life and his interests and why you the reader should watch them and if you have it in your heart, to help, so that you too can help do good stuff for the world and support someone who wants to do more.

Linda is Fred's mom and so here are her replies to my questions.

 

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Questions.

1. What exactly is the procedure?

MVOT...multi-visceral transplant.

2. Where will it be done?

Miami Transplant Institute

3. What will it cost?

There are different cost involved. The transplant is 75% covered by insurance up to some lifetime limit...75% of $750,000. Other cost are having to live in Miami while waiting and for recovery. Must live within 4 hours of the Institute while waiting for the organs with a caregiver. Six months up to a year afterward must live within easy travel to the Clinic for weekly visits. Insurance cost is contingent on being able to keep the current insurance.

4. What larger benefit may this treatment bring to others suffering this malady?

It is an early stage experimental transplant. The disease has been misdiagnosed for decades. Irritable bowel syndrome patients need to be tested for neuroendocrine cancer. Although it can occur anywhere within the body, most Common areas are intestine and pancreas. Any person who has this disease can be diagnosed and treated before a procedure of this magnitude is necessary.

Steve Jobs had this type of cancer in the pancreas but was not correctly diagnosed and did not receive the correct treatment. He received a liver transplant when in reality he should have had a multiversial transplant He did not raise awareness as one would have thought he would. He had the money to do so.

I had cancer of the pancreas for over 20 years before being accidentally found. This is common. I felt fine except occasionally. Even though they removed all my tumor, I am predisposed to have it reoccur anywhere. The tumors are very small in the beginning and hard to find. I use myself only as an example because I am sure there are others who have been as lucky as I.

The benefit to mankind is that there is hope if found early enough.

Only about 22 persons have undergone these MVOT transplants with about 90 percent success rate. This treatment is the only hope for those who were misdiagnosed to be able to return to normal productive lives.

5. What are Fred’s long term goals?

"To return to a normal life and work to send man back to the moon or Mars, eventually. This is also my opportunity to raise awareness about this little known disease that destroys the lives of creative people everywhere."

On the NorCalcarcinet.org site is a list of famous people who had this disease, if you would like me to look this up.