Fundraisers and appeals are almost always for very worthy causes, but rarely are they matters of life and death.
Unfortunately for Footscray single mother Kirsty Wesner, the gofundme page she has launched is one of the exceptions.
“I absolutely will die,” Ms Wesner said bluntly of what will happen if she can’t raise the $41,600 needed to travel to the Philippines to have life-saving surgery next month.
Ms Wesner, a 41 year-old mother of three, needs to have a physiologic duodenojejunostomy with antroplasty, or the Alvear procedure as it’s more commonly known, a specialised surgical technique developed and performed by Filipino-American surgeon Dr Domingo Alvear.
The procedure is one of the few known treatments for Superior Mesenteric Artery Compression Syndrome (SMACS), a rare digestive disorder that Ms Wesner has suffered from since birth and which is slowly killing her.
SMACS involves the duodenum – the first part of the small intestine – being squeezed by two arteries, the SMA and the aorta.
“The two arteries press the duodenum really tightly, which limits anything being able to pass through, so if I eat anything, quite often it won’t be able to pass through, staying in my stomach for hours or days,” Ms Wesner explained.
With symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and weight loss, SMACS was always difficult for Ms Wesner to manage, but since a downturn in 2023, she’s been unable to work, is largely bedridden and increasingly at risk of death.
“I’ve lost over 35 per cent of my bodyweight, going from over 60kg to 40kg,”she said of the toll the last three years had taken on her.
“I struggle to maintain electrolytes and have chronically low potassium leading to arrhythmias which can be fatal.”
To make matters worse, Ms Wesner also suffers from Ehlers Danlos, a genetic condition that causes organs, ligaments and connective tissue to stretch, prolapse and drop.
“It kind of just pulls everything down,” she said of the condition which puts even further strain on her abdomen.
Having a combination of rare disorders has made accessing viable treatment in Australia even rarer, with Ms Wesner claiming local doctors lack knowledge about her ailments.
Instead, she sought treatment from Dr Alvear in the Philippines, where the US based surgeon visits two or three times per year to perform the procedure named after him on SMACS patients.
“It’s not a huge surgery, it’s about a three inch incision and takes about three or four hours,” Ms Wesner said of the Alvear Procedure which will widen the gap in her intestine through which food can pass.
She’s booked in to have the procedure in Manila on 18 February, but only on the proviso that surgical fees are paid by 9 February, with flights, visas and accommodation expenses added on top.
With under three weeks to go and more than $35,000 still needed, Ms Wesner is facing a daunting task with even more daunting consequences if she fails.
“I won’t have another opportunity to access it,” she said of Dr Alvear’s treatment.
“I will die without this surgery.”
To donate, go to: https://gofund.me/69ead6056
