Some very big and very expensive developments. This is Roy's son, Wings's nephew. This is family. Please help.

Wings on the right; his nephew Ona on the left.
I took this seven and a half years ago, at the memorial
for Roy (Wings's brother and Ona's dad).

February first, and it's time to update this in a new post. I think most everyone knows by now that Ona Bernal, the son of Wings's late brother Roy, is gravely ill. When you hear the phrase "catastrophic illness?" This is what that means.

You can read all the details in the longer post, found here, or the secondary one, found here. But there have been some very big and very expensive developments since just before Christmas, and donations have dropped off nearly to nothing. There have been a grand total of five donations in the last twenty-nine days, a whole month, essentially ($270, to be exact, $100 of which was from us). Meanwhile, expenses mount.

First, the quick version of the background: Around the first of August, Ona was bitten by a mosquito carrying West Nile virus. In Ona, the virus turned into West Nile encephalitis. His formal diagnosis is West Nile meningoencephalitis with respiratory failure and flaccid paralysis. What that meant, in practical terms, is that for months a ventilator is doing his breathing for him most of the time, and most of his body was paralyzed; he could move his eyes, his head and neck a little, his hands and feet a little. It also meant more than six weeks in ICU, with everything touch and go; then transfer to a "transitional" facility of sorts, such as is available in New Mexico (and no, it wasn't remotely where he should have been, but it's what was available). Where he needs to be is a neuro rehab facility that can help his body relearn how to respond properly to signals, but there isn't one in this state. There's a good one in Denver, but to get there (aside from the financial costs), he first has to be able to spend a certain number of consecutive hours breathing without help from the ventilator. He couldn't do that with the treatment available in Albuquerque, and so finally, on December 21st, his insurance company approved his transfer to go to what's known as an acute long-term transitional facility, a place that has the resources and expertise to help him transition off the vent and work on other forms of physical therapy, while treating various conditions that arose secondarily in Albuquerque. That facility is also in Denver.

It's a logistical nightmare, and a financial one, too. His teenage son and daughter, both in high school, are currently staying with relatives, while Mendy, his wife, stays up in Denver to be with him while he undergoes numerous different therapies and procedures, many of them excruciatingly painful and otherwise difficult. She's been home once since December 21st, for a few days last month, and likely won't get back home again for another week or so (and that will only be for a few days again before she has to return to Denver). It's upended the whole family's entire lives, and meanwhile, all the usual costs continue to accrue, like their mortgage, while new costs are being added for Ona's medical care and the logistical expenses that attend it. Like I said, go here for the full story. Then go here to donate to the family's GoFundMe. We've given, and we'll be giving more as we can. But donations have slowed drastically since the holidays; most days, there've been none at all. And that's not going to be enough.

So please share the GoFundMe link. Because this is Roy's son, Wings's nephew. This is family. Please help.

Chi miigwech and ta'a.