#ALLforMeir

#ALLforMeir
July 30, 2017

"I am super overwhelmed by the response. It's incredible to see the different communities that are coming together from all the different parts of my life and it humbles me to see that so many people care about me enough to share and to pray and to give" Meir O'Brien

Words cannot describe how grateful we are for the feeling of community support that your donations are bringing to my brother. Each hour GoFundMe sends us a list of new donors and my brother is so excited to look at the names and reminisce about their encounters however brief or funny or intense they were. Relieving his mind from his current pain, your involvement is a blessing that reinvigorates his fighting spirit throughout the day.

In two days, we reached our goal of covering Meir's medical flight. In order to get him to stanford we need a private plane, a medical team, and Meir has to be well enough to make the flight. Meir's ability to fly, even on a medical flight, fluctuates daily. Whether he is well enough depends on where in his treatment cycle he is and how he is responding to treatment. Meir is suffering fevers and is not well enough for a 5.5hr medical transfer plus the time of ambulance rides between airports and the plane.

However, Meir's insurance was able to cover yesterday's flight to Honolulu, before we met our fundraising goal and Meir was well enough to do the 30min flight. Although Honolulu is a huge step up from Kauai because it provides chemotherapy treatments, it is still far from familial support. Thanks to all of you we now have the funds to get him from Hawaii to California, the closest State on the Mainland and we will doo so as soon as he is well enough, which will be 5-28 days depending on his response to the chemotherapy.

We are increasing the fundraising goal to defer the financial burden that 3 years, minimum, of treatments and unexpected medical expenses. But even more so for the happiness, love, and gratitude that your support brings to Meir throughout the day.

#ALLforMeir is our campaign hashtag to promote doing all we can to help Meir's 3 year battle against Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (ALL)

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To avoid GoFundMe's 7.9% fees, you can donate to chabaduchicago.com/donate with Meir's campaign title or name in the comment section and recieve a receipt for tax deduction

We will update about all offline donations to show progress towards our goal!

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Meir's Medical Flight
July 28, 2017

Cancer already took our father from us, please don’t let cancer take our brother too. While our father may have lost the battle against colon cancer, with your help we can get the medical care that Meir needs to overcome Leukemia.

Meir is the most brilliant and loving person that we know. He spends his free time flipping endlessly through the pages of inter faith texts to devour knowledge and perspective, volunteering on political campaigns and child mentorship programs, and making people laugh through his on-stage comedy improvisation performances.

Although Meir is my younger brother, he is my confidant and my role model. With his active commitment to the feminist political campaigns and the Jewish community, Meir leads by example to inspire change. As a religious studies major at the University of Chicago, Meir dreams of being a Rabbi and Politician so that he can continue to inspire impact.

Two days ago, Meir was diagnosed with  Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma when he was interning for the summer as a paralegal in Kauai, Hawaii. The treatment requires 4 to 6 weeks of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. However, no medical center on the island of Kauai has the capability to provide either of these treatments.

We need to transfer Meir as soon and as safely as possible to a medical center that can provide him the care he needs. His immune system is compromised, so he cannot take a commercial flight. The unsterile environment of a commercial plane combined with the change in air pressure would put him into septic shock, disrupting his organ function. In mid-air with no doctors, the septic shock would be lethal.

A medical transfer to the Mainland, where he can get the medical attention he needs to survive, is not covered by insurance. A medical transfer is like a portable hospital room. For the 5.5 hour flight, Meir would be able to keep getting vital nutrients through his IV and be cared for by attending doctors in the case of a Septic Shock emergency.

Meir is trapped on Kauai without proper medical treatment until we can raise the money to transfer him. He has been in the hospital fading in and out of consciousness since Sunday, unable to eat or fight off infection. A medical transfer to California would be the shortest flight from Kauai to the Mainland. This flight costs $50-60k. No donation is too small to help us save Meir’s life. Given that this is an acute form of Leukemia, it is paramount that we get him the necessary treatment as quickly as possible.