February 20, 2011
My nephew Michael Keim (or Mikey, as I call him) is a most important person to me. He just turned 27 years old and has an immune deficiency disease that has been making him progressively ill, starting since he was 3 years old. The disease has ravaged him so much that it has totally destroyed his lungs, such that his lung capacity/function is now only 30%. He is now in dire need of a double lung transplant. The doctors at Duke University Hospital have given us a measure of hope by offering to perform a double lung and bone marrow transplant, only the second one of its kind in the whole world.
As you can imagine, an operation of this kind is extremely costly. Thankfully Mike has been a hard worker all his life and has a job that provides him with health insurance. But the hospital requires that he and a caretaker (in his case, his mom) move to Durham, NC for about a year, first to wait for a donor, and then, after the 2 surgeries, to go through physical therapy and rehabilitation. The hospital has told Mike that he is required to have $35,000 in funds to see him through this time. This is not even counting the money he will need for anti-rejection meds after his transplants (extremely expensive and usually not covered 100% by insurance).
Thus, all of Mike's friends and family are hard at work trying to raise those funds. We will be holding different fundraiser events throughout the area. Please check this website often to see which one would appeal to you. If you want to donate online, please go to the National Transplant Assistance Fund page and donate in honor of Michael Keim. Or you can also send a check. Instructions can be found at the NTAF website.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generosity, and please remember that your donations are tax-deductible.
March 10, 2011
Read an update from Mike. You might want to also take a look at my reminiscing as there are a lot of pictures of Mike there.
