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Hi There!
We’re a family of four that are in great need of support to help our youngest member Justin, recover from Lyme’s Disease, as well as rehab off of addictive Schizophrenic medication.
In short, he was bitten by a deer tick on an eco-estate, which had imported deer from Germany, and he came down with all the symptoms of Lyme’s Disease. In South Africa where we stay, there are no facilities to test for Lyme’s Disease and doctors automatically rule that out as a diagnosis, because it’s widely believed that one can’t contract it here. Instead, they misdiagnosed Justin with Schizophrenia and placed him on a treatment that seems to have caused even more neurological damage in the years to follow.
One of the main problems that Justin has is severe insomnia, which seems to have gotten way worse since he’s been on the anti-psychotic medication. Some of the latest research on insomnia suggests that the brain begins to “eat itself” after extended periods of sleep deprivation, which we can relate to – sometimes Justin is no different to someone with Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia. When Justin sleeps however, the majority of his symptoms rapidly improves and we strongly believe with your help that we can find a way to reverse his condition!
The Plan
While spending many hours looking for ways to solve this problem, mom found a perfect neurologist in the US who seems to be an expert in dealing with cases like Justin’s. Dr Klinghardt is an expert in neurology and devising holistic treatment protocols to help his patients heal. We believe that this doctor will be able to accurately diagnose and treat Justin. In addition, we also have found various medical centers that test genetics (unlike in South Africa) so that we may get an exact understanding of Justin’s condition.
We need funds to fly to the US to receive proper diagnosis and treatment. We need a total of $50K to cover our basic costs (it may cost more depending on what the doctor says). We will need to stay overseas for up to six months and this funding will cover airfares, modest accommodation, diagnostic tests and Justin’s treatment for six months.
We believe that Dr Klinghardt, in combination with genetic profiling will get to the root of the problem. You can find out more info about him here: http://drklinghardt.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKx_TMPQJsY
The Full Story
Every day that passes we watch Justin slip further away both physically and mentally … Some days are better than others … He suffers so much in his confused exhaustion that it’s hard to witness and difficult to live with. We honestly don’t know how he manages to continue, and so bravely, when his nightmare never seems to end.
Justin’s problems began after he was misdiagnosed with Schizophrenia almost 4 years ago following a tick bite. The eco-estate we lived on at that time, had a private game reserve that included imported deer from Europe, amongst a variety of other game. Justin contracted his bite whilst being taken for a walk by our two huskies in the game park. He lost his balance and was dragged along for a short way. Two days later, mom spotted a tick on his leg and removed it. She noticed that it was unlike any of the species we normally see in South Africa. After searching for ticks on google images, we saw that it was identical to ticks that are found on deer in Europe and in the US; and that they are the ones that give people a disease called Lyme’s disease. In South Africa, there is no test for Lyme’s Disease, since it is widely believed that we don’t have ticks that transmit this disease in our country.
In the year before, our dad died suddenly when he was hit by a car as he was crossing a street. We had no choice but to use the local government hospital to treat Justin’s condition, as we couldn’t afford private health care. The hospital staff dismissed our fears of Lyme’s disease from the start, and because he had been depressed and suffered from insomnia after dad’s death, they concluded that Justin had Schizophrenia. Initially, the anti-psychotic meds and benzodiazepines showed a modest improvement, but Justin became severely sleep deprived and was unable to sleep deeply or experience life normally.
After a few months, a family friend donated funds so that we could treat Justin privately. He was taken off the hospital medications and slowly started to recover with a natural holistic program. He made steady progress in this time. Although he was not the same person as before, he was at least able to play the piano again and integrate back into being a part of the family. During this time, mom stopped working and his older brother moved back home to help us (sister and mom) care for him, as well as put food on the table. The medical expenses were exorbitant and after a year we could no longer continue with private treatment.
By the end of 2015, two years after Justin’s initial tick bite, he was bitten a second time, but this time it was by one of our local ticks. It's usually fairly easy to recover from an acute bout of tick bite fever from these ticks, but in Justin’s case the whole nightmare we thought was behind us began all over again … We had to rush him intohospital and this time he was put on even stronger anti-psychotic medication. The doctors we saw (a different one every time) believed that he had relapsed because we had taken him off the previous prescription of anti-psychotic meds.
In spite of the latest medication, Justin has not recovered since and in the last 18 months he has deteriorated rapidly. He has lost over 24 kilograms in the last 7 months. He sleeps a few hours every 4 -5 nights. He has dream states and rapid eye movements in mid sentence and his memory is not functional. He has become very childlike and needs constant supervision and input. Since being on the benzodiazepine medicine, he has also developed obsessive behaviors, like having the same conversations over and over, bingeing on food or pacing in continuous loops through the house. He is very stressed and unable to relate to people or even our animals, although he adored them before and used to spend the most time with them.
The medications have not worked and we believe that they are making his condition worse - he has become a hollow shell of his former beautiful self. The hospital’s staff says that there is nothing we can do; except put him on even stronger medications and put him into a government institution. The place they recommend has a ghastly reputation and is like a prison for the insane - it's like giving him a living death sentence. Our family feels that this is outrageous – it is not a solution and we cannot agree to just give up on Justin, especially after we have already seen him nearly recovered the first time! Justin needs expert help that is not available in our under-resourced public health system. After reviewing all the research we could find, we believe that we need to take him overseas to the US to get a proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
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