#eric on Twitter - Eric De La Cruz CHD Battle

For long time followers of this bloggity-blog, you know all about the blessing that is Avery. Born with a congenital heart defect (CHD) called Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), she was repaired at two weeks old. We have had a few bumps along the way (an infection here, a worrying cold there) but overall, Avery is awesome.

Unfortunately, there is a man in Nevada named Eric De La Cruz who has not fared as well. He has a CHD that I had never heard of before called Dilated Cardiomyopathy (essentially his heart muscles are so weak that his heart can not effectively pump blood through his body). As per his support site, "His kidneys are having trouble because of his heart. His creatinine levels are high, his blood pressure is very low and he keeps retaining fluid. The diuretric-type meds the doctors have him on are no longer working: Lasix, Dijoxin, Aldactone, Coreg, etc. He is currently on three different IVs."

Eric needs a heart transplant and he needs it now. His body is shutting down because his heart muscles can no longer do the job. Due to the fact that he has a pre-existing condition, Eric was unable to procure health insurance. Again, per the support site, "Eric has been turned down for a heart transplant list because he is on Nevada Medicaid and there are no transplant centers in Nevada (Nevada Medicaid is only accepted in Nevada). He needs to go to California under the Medicare Disability program".

Almost 700K has been donated thus far to offset the costs that insurance will not cover (especially aided by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails). Even though he is closing in on the funds he needs now, he needs to muddle through excessive red tape to get transferred to CA. For any of my American readers, you can help by signing the petition found here (to pressure your local representatives and those in Nevada) to do what they can to aid Eric. For the rest of us, visit the support site www.weloveeric.com to learn more and, if you can, donate to the cause. Perhaps the most important thing you can do is simply use your blogs, Facebook or Twitter accounts to publicize the cause.

Thanks so much for reading this. I do not normally write advocacy posts but I am so grateful for what science has done for my Avery that I hate to see any other individual be devoid of the choice because of a pre-existing condition or superflous red tape...