SPRING DRIVE 2006 - Part 4: Connections Discussion

[3yardsandacloud]

SPRING DRIVE 2006 - Part 4: Connections Discussion

This thread is intended to find those people who can remove roadblocks, knock down walls, and find ways around those issues that have unnecessarily complicated Clarity's situation and threatened his well-being.

Clarity requires medical attention, tests and more tests, and, we fervently hope, a long-awaited diagnosis of the underlying cause of his medical problems. Given the complexities of his case, he also needs an advocate positioned to help him navigate the bureaucracies of those social institutions which were intended to provide assistance in precisely this sort of situation but have thus far failed to do so. We hope the BuckeyePlanet community can band together to find solutions.

If you have potentially helpful skills or connections, please discuss it here. Identifying information is not necessary; the staff will contact people as the conversation requires for further information. If you do not wish to post your information here, please PM vrbryant (Clarity's brother).

GOALS

• Medical advocacy
  • Do you know people in the system who can speak on Clarity’s behalf? This could be someone with political connections as well as someone in the medical field. Access is one issue; another is that the complexity of the situation will require someone to help ensure continuity regarding the flow of information between doctors and medical institutions.

• Financial advocacy
  • Can you or someone you know help ensure Clarity’s case gets the proper attention through Social Security? With the move from Florida to Ohio, his case is back at square one and needs to be pushed through with all possible speed.

• Medical/dental care
  • Donated services (Note: Dental work would be performed in a hospital due to health complications.)

ALL donations made to BuckeyePlanet from the time of this post until the end of the Spring Drive is announced will go directly to Clarity for use in obtaining medical care, paying for past medical care, and making housing payments.

Donations can be made via:

MAIL:
BuckeyePlanet
5794 Gradey Pass
Galloway, OH 43119-8598

PayPal:
Link found on the front page of BuckeyePlanet, or in the black navigation bar at the top of most pages.
PayPal Donation Link

NOTE: Checks should be made payable to: Joanna Bryant (NOT BuckeyePlanet). Please be sure to include your BuckeyePlanet username with any donation so we can credit your account with the appropriate reward or medal. Additionally, the memo/note area (where you would include your username) is limited to 250 characters. You'll have to be brief.

RELATED THREADS

Spring Drive 1: Announcement Thread

Spring Drive 2: Incentives and Spring Drive Discussion

Spring Drive 3: Clarity’s Information

Spring Drive 4: Connections Discussion

[BuckBackHome]

I'm no doctor, but it may be worth contacting the OSU Medical school. I hate to say it, but Clarity's case may be appealing to them in a teaching-sense. There could definitely be positives for both parties.

The comment in another thread about the home makeover show makes me wonder if that new reality medical show would be a good contact.

I'll add more later. I'm still floored by everything.

[scooter1369]

I printed Clarity's write up and gave it to my wife, who works in a huge medical facility here in UA/Hilliard. She took the write up to work with her today. She's going to do some research and bounce the write up off of a few docs. It may take a few days to get some good responses. Let's just cross our fingers and hope.

[3yardsandacloud]

Thanks BiM & scooter. The connections issue is one I think vitally important. I'm betting on our small community here at BuckeyePlanet to come through for Clarity and his wife with the finances to see them through the short term. All we are really doing is buying them some time. Keeping them in a home with some food and other basic necessities. That, I think/hope we can handle in the short term (up to ??? months of living expenses).

Now the really, really, really (can't stress it enough) important goal is to get Clarity connected to people that can help him. No one (especially Clarity) wants a continuous fundraiser. Gathering enough money for them to just 'get by' is not a long term goal. It's time to get the problems diagnosed, treated and solved/cured. If this is something that can't be cured/solved, then we need to make SURE Clarity has access to some form of disability. Heck, he needs access to some form of disability benefit now.

So I see this as 3 parts.

1 Raise money for Clarity's basic survival ... however long that is needed.

2 Get Clarity connected to those in the Medical field that can help with his issues.

3 Get Clarity connected to those in the Legal, Disability and Advocacy fields so that he can secure disability benefits and medical access ... both short term and long term.

Issue #1 goes away once issues #2 and #3 are solved. So, while #1 is VERY important as our immediate goal, solving #2 and #3 will finalize this process.

So I hope that everyone will contact whoever you know that might be able to help. We just don't know where those all-important connections will be found.

[LoKyBuckeye]

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner but it dawned on me when I read scooters post. I just passed along Clarity's symptoms etc to the host of my morning show which is a health show. She has lots of contacts here in Sarasota, the surrounding area and nationally. She's very untested in trying to help by passing the information along to the doctors that she knows.

[2002AGAIN]

I'm in Austin right now, but I live in Houston, which has some of the best (cancer) medical facilities in the world. I know a couple of MDs who I could give that to, but that'll be at least a month or so, if that's ok?

Also, I just wanted to know what kind of specialists to pass this information onto? Focus on the respiratory issues, the testicular lumps, the brain....?

[HineyBuck]

I worked in disability rights in Ohio back in the late 70s and early 80s (developmental disabilities though, and I don't have many contacts from those days). The disability rights community in Ohio is very well organized, elements of it are very tough advocacy-wise, but it is (or at least was) a somewhat closed community (suspicious of do-gooder outsiders). At any rate, here a couple of suggestions.

Contact local offices of Ohio's US Senators and Clarity's Rep in US Congress. Some of them have very good "constituent services" programs (unfortunately, not all do). If you could track down the woman who staffed Sen Metzenbaum's Columbus office, she was the absolute best in cutting through red tape and getting people the services they needed (sorry, I don't have her name, and she's probably retired by now).

Back in the old days, the Ohio Le