Darby Shipp-Christensen

As all my friends know, I’ve had multiple surgeries, and after my last one, I woke up unable to walk on my own. It has been over a year since then, and I still cannot walk. I have complained about leg and knee pain since my third and fourth surgeries, and I’ve had 12 x-rays on my knee, but was always told nothing was wrong. Recently, the pain became unbearable, so I went to the hospital again. Thankfully, this time the x-ray technician and doctor took a closer look and discovered the real reason I can’t walk: my femur in my left leg has been broken for a very long time. It’s snapped in half like a fork, and I’ve been living with this pain for far too long. I called multiple doctors in my area, but no one will treat me because of my dwarfism. That’s when I got the opportunity of a lifetime—an appointment at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, a hospital that specializes in helping little people. My mom will be traveling with me for support, and I don’t know how long we’ll need to stay, but this is my best hope for walking again. The help I’m asking for is to cover our plane tickets, which are very expensive right now because it’s the Fourth of July weekend, and hotel costs before my surgery. Both my mom and I are on Social Security, so these expenses are difficult for us to manage on our own. I am asking for my friends and family to help make this come true. The doctors are positive I will walk again if I get this surgery, but getting it fixed locally isn’t an option. This is my only appointment for a long time—the next one is a year away. Your support means everything to me, and I am so grateful for any help you can give.