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The purpose of this website is to explain the rare disease that our son has and we need your help. First of all let me tell you a little bit about our son. His name is Derek Classert and we live in Humble, Texas. He is 17 years old and a senior at Humble High School. Derek finished his junior year ranking at 66 out of 720 students in his grade. He has an overall GPA of 4.5. Derek has accomplished a lot in his first 3 years of high school. He was on the diving team his freshman and sophomore years and then he decided that he wanted to strickly work on his academics. Derek is a very intelligent young man and has worked hard to get where he is today. However, on July 12, 1999, he came down with a very rare disease called Guillain Barre Syndrome or GBS. This disease attacks the peripheral nerve system. Little is known about this disease but 50% of the people that get it has recently had a viral infection. In Derek's case he was diagnosed with Mono. Before this diagnosis was reached Derek was experiencing some tingling and numbness in his feet and hands. The doctor totally ignored his neurological symptoms and told Derek that he was having this difficulty because he wasn't eating or drinking. Everyday that went on he got worse. Five days after the symptoms started, Derek was totally paralyzed. Two days later, Derek was unable to swallow and having difficulty breathing. The doctor finally told us to take him to the emergency room because he was most probably dehydrated. Well he was severly dehydrated and within 6 hours, Derek was unable to breathe on his own and was placed on life support. He remained on life support for over 3 weeks and remained in the hospital for 5 weeks. Derek is finally back home however he has many, many months of painful rehab. He has to learn to do everything that came so natural before, all over again. He has missed his senior year at school and he is being taught at home by a homebound teacher. Derek is only allowed to take the courses that he has to have to graduate. Derek had many plans for his future. He was planning on going to a private college in Redmond, Washington. He plans on being a video game programmer. Derek was a very vibrant young man and loved riding his bike, roller blading, ice skating and working on his computer. He can do none of these things now. He most probably will not be able to start college next fall. He will still have rehab. This disease usually takes a person a year or so to recover from. With having said all of this, the reason we need your help is because Derek's medical bills have soared over a quarter of a million dollars and still rising. We are very thankful that we still have Derek in our lives however the medical bills has devastated us financially. Please open your hearts and wallets and help us to defray these costs. Thanks Randy & Leisha The account is listed as: Derek Classert Benefit Fund Acct.# 75825757. Compass Bank P.O. Box 4444, Houston, TX 77210-9830. |
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