Save Coltons' vision
Donation protected
In early May of this year we took Colton to his appointment to a cornea specialist after being referred from his primary doctor. The diagnosis was keratoconus. It is a genetic disease that effects the shape an strength of his cornea and is rapidly deteriorating his vision. It is severe in his left eye and moderate in his right eye. His vision loss is at a fast pace and because of this, a timeline was set by his specialist for him to have an experimental surgery called cross linking. Cross linking is a surgery that will create a scar over his cornea to stop the thinning and presurve what vision he still has. We immediately set forth with a referral to our insurance even though we were told there was zero chance of the cross linking procedure being covered. The procedure is still in the trial phases with the FDA and therefore is considered an elective procedure.
We received our denial and told we can resubmit the referral in 30 days. At this time we contracted OHSU for their pricing for the procedure. It is $4,650 per eye at OHSU. Both eyes can not be done at the same time. We were then forewarned by the hospital that the company that makes the medicine used in the surgery has just hugely inflated the cost of the medication. Meaning we are looking at roughly $10,000 now for botb eyes, or $20-30 thousand in the very near future.
We never wanted it to come to this. We work very hard to support our family and thought we would have some time to come up with a plan ti cover the expense of his surgery. Now that time has been taken away from us in a hurry. If Colton does not have the cross linking procedure he will lose his vision. If we don't act fast we lose all chances of being able to afford the surgery. As many of you know, we run our own business and his vision loss would put an end to that. It would put an end to work for him period.
We are grasping for straws at this point. I have made countless phone calls and cried to total strangers on the phone after running into dead end after dead end. We don't have time to sell everything of value to come up with quick cash. We are at a point of last resorts. We are desperate to save his vision and livelihood. Any bit of help will get us that much closer to saving his eyesight.
We received our denial and told we can resubmit the referral in 30 days. At this time we contracted OHSU for their pricing for the procedure. It is $4,650 per eye at OHSU. Both eyes can not be done at the same time. We were then forewarned by the hospital that the company that makes the medicine used in the surgery has just hugely inflated the cost of the medication. Meaning we are looking at roughly $10,000 now for botb eyes, or $20-30 thousand in the very near future.
We never wanted it to come to this. We work very hard to support our family and thought we would have some time to come up with a plan ti cover the expense of his surgery. Now that time has been taken away from us in a hurry. If Colton does not have the cross linking procedure he will lose his vision. If we don't act fast we lose all chances of being able to afford the surgery. As many of you know, we run our own business and his vision loss would put an end to that. It would put an end to work for him period.
We are grasping for straws at this point. I have made countless phone calls and cried to total strangers on the phone after running into dead end after dead end. We don't have time to sell everything of value to come up with quick cash. We are at a point of last resorts. We are desperate to save his vision and livelihood. Any bit of help will get us that much closer to saving his eyesight.
Organizer
Laurel Crawford
Organizer
Phoenix, OR
