With current economic conditions crowd funding is growing pretty strongly in the areas of healthcare as people don’t have the money and insurance is not covering some procedures such as this one. 
He cannot get a heart transplant due to his age and doctors have recommended a mechanical heart that would keep him alive for a few years but he would also need to stay near the battery that runs it. He has now found a stem cell treatment that could prove more effective and at 75 years of age would you want to try a stem cell treatment or go through open heart surgery and deal with the device? There are trials around I on this blog I have included posts about the same or similar types of procedures and right here in California Cedar Sinai has a clinical trial doing stem cell injections with the heart.
Regenerative Medicine–Reprogramming Stem Cells Grow Heart Muscle Tissue Bypassing IPS Cell Creation–New Standard Set for Stem Cell Research
Mesoblast's Heart Stem Cell Treatment to Rebuild Blood Vessels and Heart Muscles Has Positive Results–Regenerative Medicine
The stem cell procedure is available in the Bahamas and they are hoping to raise 35k via the GoFundMe website. Doctors would extract stem cells from his blood, send the cells to Israel and then reinject the cells back into his heart to bring it back to 40% capacity. Again, this really shows the US with a healthcare system that needs to be fixed. Its makes you ask is this the future of healthcare having to raise money with Crowd Funding on major procedures and treatments when other charities or options are not available? When you visit the website there are many other people doing the same. It shows where corporations are NOT people when it comes to healthcare and the fact that REAL caring people are still out there, just sad that corporate America for the most part is not on the same track. We seem to keep things out of reach here in the US and and tax the wrong entities whereby taxing data sellers could create funding for both the upkeep of the US IT system and at the same time give additional funding to healthcare. BD
Cook Medical Cancels Plans for Factory Expansions–We Need Companies That Create Tangible Products As They Create Jobs–Tax The Data Sellers/Brokers Who Make Billions With Data Mining “Killer Algorithms” And Give the Device Companies a Break
In 1960, wide receiver Gail Cogdill was elected Rookie of the Year in a rough-and-tumble old-school NFL. In 1962, he was the Detroit Lions’ most valuable player. Now it’s 2012 and, he says, he can only remain active for “two or three hours a day and then I have to lay down.”
The reason?
A failing heart that currently functions at just 18% of its optimal capacity. Despite a six-way bypass surgery and other operations over the past several years, if Gail doesn’t act soon he won’t live long.
Doctors recently recommended he get a mechanical heart transplant, which would require he remain near a battery most of the time and most likely keep him alive for a maximum of just a few years. At 75 years old, Gail says doctors told him he’s ineligible for an regular heart transplant.
The Cogdills are hoping to raise $35,000 through the website GoFundMe to help them travel to Nassau, Bahamas, next month and pay for the procedure. The plan is for doctors there to extract stem cells from his blood, send them to Israel for treatment then reinsert the strengthened cells into his heart to bring the organ back up to about 40% capacity.
http://mashable.com/2012/09/21/ex-nfl-star-heart-gofundme/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
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