Orange County Register

Lend 4 Health, the micro-loan blog that funds biomedical treatments, now has four open cases: A 2-year-old Sawyrr Leanord and a 10-year-old Marcellus Scott, both preparing for their first DAN! visits; 6-year-old Brock, whose mom is trying to pay for two months of hyperbaric oxygen treatments; and a 5-year-old whose family needs to pay for biomedical lab work.

Read my original story about Lend 4 Health, and about the first family to pay for treatment using the site.

So far, one person — who goes by the user name Willem — has lent money to every child on the site. He is Will Jacobs, the father of an autistic toddler in the Cayman Islands. I asked him why he believes in this site. He responds:

“My only child, Wesley Spencer, has Autism. From an early age (18-20 months) we began to get concerned as his social skills and language were lacking behind others. We were worried about the lack of eye contact, not looking at us when getting called by name, not responding to items around him, not concerned about pain and many other items that point to Autism. Even the day care he was attending was worried and communicating with us.

“Finally at the age of 3, we had him diagnosed with Higher Functioning Autism by a visiting physiologist from West Palm Beach. We live in the Cayman Islands so having the resources on a small Caribbean island is very difficult. It was even more difficult to obtain help for our son.

“I would not accept that therapy was the only way my son would recover so I did what Jenny McCarthy said in her book. I became a graduate of University of Google. I found the DAN! movement early but took 2 months to study it and feel comfortable. I found Dr. David Berger in Tampa; he is one of the lead doctors in the movement. I scheduled an appointment with him for the next time we were going to be in Tampa, in May 2007. Since then, we have been doing the DAN! protocol, biomedical, GFCF diet and most recently, completed a month of hyperbaric oxygen treatments. I do have to say that since we started the biomedical, Wesley has not been very sick. He has been VERY healthy, eats whatever foods we give him and is a champ and taking his supplements.

“DAN! is VERY costly — $360 per hour is not easy to swallow, then on top of that are all the tests and then the supplements. Wow! In one year, it has cost us close to $20,000. Factor in that a private therapist, speech, OT, flights and other travel costs to Tampa and you can buy a house in 3 years!

“Now, I do have to say that our insurance does cover a lot of things. All of the DAN! consultations are covered, all the tests are covered and any prescription medication is covered (Nystatin, MB12, DMPS Chelation). As Dr. Berger is, at first, a pediatrician they cover his fees. This has helped us very much. After some begging and pleading, the insurance is now covering speech and $18,000 per year for private therapy. I applaud my insurance company for their great assistance.

“Living international doing this is also a big challenge. With a small population of 55,000 people, it is hard to find a specialist on the island. This is why we have to go to the United States for DAN! and other items. GFCF and organic is even harder but working for the shipping industry, I order all my stuff from Web sites and then it arrives on a cargo ship. Breads from Anna, Tinkyada pasta, Namaste, Chebe are great products for us. The hard part is getting the mentality of others on the island to allow their special needs children to experience the world the same way as others is difficult. Getting the education and therapy they need is also a major obstacle, hence why we have a private therapist. I just feel that my son deserves all the same benefits and options as any other child. I will not hide him, hold him back and limit is exposure to normality.

“I feel that Lend 4 Health is a wonderful method of helping other children on the spectrum and their family. The cost of recovery from autism is very high and should be covered by insurance. Autism is a medical condition that has to be treated and paid for the same way as any other health condition is. It is time for the medical community to realize this or the nations of the world will have one of the highest epidemics on their hands. The Lend 4 Health method is one of the best I have seen to assist others. The best part of it is that the children are the ones that benefit from this the most and their families get to see the re-birth of their children. I slowly see this happening with my son.”

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