[Note: I'm bumping this post to the top of my site every day, at least until we get some real traction on the GoFundMe. (Two days ago, there was not a single donation; yesterday, there was one. It's going to take a lot more than this just for short-term care and rehab.) The regular posts from NDN Silver, etc., still appear here daily; just scroll below this one to find them each day. After, of course, you share this post and the GoFundMe link. Also, just in case folks are wondering how prevalent this might become: Last weekend, the Taos News reported online that three cases of West Nile virus have just been confirmed in Taos County.]
Yes, I know you all know the handsome dude on the right. The handsome dude on the left, not so much, although you can probably tell that these two are related.
Those of you who've been reading here long enough will recall, a little over seven years ago now, when I posted a memorial piece by Wings in honor of his older brother Roy, who had walked on on the morning of June 3rd of that year. It was a difficult time, and his absence still leaves a big void. At the time, though, it did give Wings a chance to reconnect with Roy's children — including his oldest, Ona, who you see on the left. [He looks so much like his father . . . .]
And now Ona needs all the help we can give him. So does his wife, Mendy, and their two children. [If you want to skip to the link, here it is.]
Ona and Mendy live south of Albuquerque, in the Los Lunas area, where Ona works for a manufacturer of medical and pharmaceutical devices and equipment. He's very, very good at what he does; highly knowledgeable, with expertise born of long experience and hard work, and he's respected for it in both his profession and his wider community. They live in an area not far from the Rio Grande, a bosque with a thriving ecosystem (at least in most years). Ona is also an avid hunter and fisherman.
And in the first days of August, Ona was bitten by a mosquito. No big deal, normally; a little itching, a little irritation, right? Probably don't even notice it.
Unless the mosquito carries West Nile.
Yup, it's a thing, even here in Northern New Mexico, although it's been mostly confined to horses. But however rare around here, there have been cases of people contracting it, and Ona is now one of them.
And in his case, it turned into West Nile encephalitis.
Encephalitis in any form can have catastrophic consequences. In Ona's case, the clinical diagnosis is West Nile virus resulting in meningoencephalitis with respiratory failure and flaccid paralysis. After more than a month in ICU and on a ventilator to help him breathe, Ona, doctors, and family are all working on his recovery. But he's got a long, long journey ahead of him. And even with health insurance, the good kind? The costs for his recovery are themselves going to be catastrophic. Mendy has left work to care for him; she's being relieved off and on throughout the week by Ona's three sisters and their mom. Ona and Mendy have two children in high school, and the family is now without both sources of income for the foreseeable future.
There is another complicating factor here, as well: Because of the effects of the meningoencephalitis, Ona is still on a ventilator, and if they are unable to get him off it, he will need to be transferred to a facility that specializes in neurological rehabilitation. There is no such facility anywhere in New Mexico; one of the best, Craig, is in Denver, and that is where his medical team is looking at possibly sending him if necessary. Their insurance will not cover the transport costs, and Mendy has already been quoted a range between $10K and $20K just for transport alone. And the prognosis is a difficult one: It may be months before he can breathe on his own again, possibly years for what as full a recovery as is possible under these conditions.
Recently, Ona's coworkers set up a GoFundMe account on his behalf. The goal is set at $50,000, but frankly, that's a very conservative estimate. They're already talking about adjusting upwards, and rightly so. But for now, the goal remains at $50K, and while they've made very good early progress, this is a long road, too.
We've already donated. We'll do more as we're able. But this is very big financial mountain, and the family can't scale it without a lot of outside help. So here's where I ask all of you to share the link to Ona's GoFundMe, here. It's also where I ask you to donate if you can: $20, $10, $5, $1 — it all helps. Obviously, if you can afford to give three figures, or even four, that will do wonders to lessen the load Mendy's carrying right now, and free Ona's thoughts to focus strictly on his recovery. But whatever the size of your donation, just know that you'll have the gratitude of Wings and me, and the family, too.
Again, here's that GoFundMe link. Please share. Please donate if you're able. Their PayPal account is under the e-mail address mendy_ona [at] hotmail [dot] com (that's an underscore between the names); please add a note to specify. If you'd prefer to send a check, please make it out to Mendy Bernal; contact me at Ajijaakwe [at] gmail [dot] com (or by FB or Twitter DM, if you know me on there) for their mailing address. This is family, and we're all scrambling to do everything we can to facilitate Ona's full recovery.
Chi miigwech and ta'a.
Nice Aji! 😊
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