Hi Everyone.
I have just found your site—and am in urgent need of help! After a few months of being misdiagnosed—and after diagnosis, waiting for the surgical date, my mother seems to be having a recurrence, but the doctors do not wish to do anything—and just want to send my mother to a palliative care and/or hospice facility.... I believe even with whatever is happening, she is vital—and vibrant—and deserves the right to be tested—and treated, not just left to die—in a so-called comfort care facility.... Just to backtrack, my mother was having pain on the inside of her right check—and mouth, beginning at the end of December of last year, while my father was hospitalized, so we went, first to an Urgent Care facility, then to the Emergency Room, only to be told that my mother had an abscess—and needed to be treated with IV antibiotics immediately (by the Urgent Care doctor, who took a tongue depressor and broke open the area), while the ER doctors stated it was not an abscess, but a bitten area of the mouth, neither of which was true. We went back to the ER a few days later, during which time my mother was given a prescription of antibiotics—and we were told that the area would heal by resorted into itself, which sounded quite far-fetched. We called our dentist, who, by now, is far away as a result of a few other tragic happenings, which I will discuss later. She said to have someone look at it nearby, so we found a dentist, who referred us to an Oral Surgery practice in Suffolk County, NY as he said he would not even try to do anything unless and until a biopsy was performed.... Three days later, my mother was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the buccal mucosa. We were not given the stage at that time. We wanted to get two opinions—and knew that time was of great importance, so our choices were StonyBrook Hospital on Long Island—and Memorial Sloan-Kettering in NYC. We followed through appointments with both—and kept asking for an earlier surgical date, but, as fate would have it, both facilities gave the same date, with no chance of anything sooner—April 24th. By that time, the tumor already was protruding outside of my mother’s face—and was causing significant pain.... In any case, my mother had the surgery on the set date, with grafted tissue to replace what was removed. However, the graft from leg tissue was so large and heavy, it looked as if it would never reduce in size to fit in my mother’s mouth. It was obvious to them a few days later that the graft did not take, so they brought my mother back in to observe the tissue, but did nothing as there may have been a slight chance that the graft would take.... The artery was functioning, but not the vein—and the tissue turned blue, purple and black.... Nevertheless, my mother was brought in a few days later—-within the same week, for a third surgery to replace the first graft with a new one. She got through all the surgeries—and supposedly all the cancerous tissue was removed. The plan was to possibly follow with radiation and chemo or just radiation—in about six to eight weeks when the wounds had healed. However, as my mother is elderly—and has a tendency to want to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, the hospital’s psychiatric team came to “medicate” my mother for her anxiety—in addition to her having mitts so she would not try to pull-out her trach, etc..... If the medications truly helped her so-called delirium, without deleterious side effects that would be OK. However, each one was as bad as the previous ones—and I had voiced my concerns. Unfortunately, much time was spent on this issue, which meant that the real reason my mother was at the hospital was sort-of placed on the back burner—and I kept mentioning this.... I eventually found out that my mother’s cancer is Stage IV. Fast-forward to now, my mother just finished courses of antibiotics for two abscesses, and now, it seems as if a new tumor has formed on the other side of her face, which seems to have appeared over the course of a few days. I brought it to the hospital’s attention, but they refuse to do anything because they have just given up on my mother. They just are essentially letting her die because they believe she is not a candidate for surgery—as the disease will grow back—and they do not believe she would be able to tolerate radiation/chemo. I need help, as my mother is vital, vibrant—and I know, even if by miracle, she can get through this.... Please let me know if any traditional—and or any alternative treatments have worked for anyone to cure this disease.... My mother walks around, talks, sings, but the swelling in her face and neck areas is extremely obvious. She is beginning to get a little cough—and is a little sniffly. This, most likely would not be the situation if what happened to our family prior to this did not happen. The other part of our story is also horrendous—and if our situation were not so dire, I would not even mention this second half of our story, which I know is a cause of my mother’s illness. Rather than write the whole story here, please see the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse website at
www.stopguardianabuse.org /michael-tomasino-ny and if you are so inclined, please share the link for our Go Fund Me page at
www.gofundme.com /justice-for-family-being-torn-apart, as I will do whatever I need to do to save my mother’s life, and my father’s life—and our livelihood.... Thank you so much for anything anyone can do to help us in these worst days of our lives.... At the moment, our home, which is flooded was handed over to a guardian—and my mother and I had been staying at a motel because we were evicted from our apartment because the guardian for my father (who should not have been appointed in the first place) never released my mother’s funds. My father, a Korean Conflict Veteran, is in a rehab facility on a respirator—and although he is aware of my mother’s surgery, he does not know the extent of the severity of our situation. Now, the same corrupt judge has placed my mother under the auspices of the same Guardian, too, which is approximately when the hospital is deciding not to do anything to help my mother...! Even the Social Worker had betrayed my mother and me in Court.... Please help in whatever way you can.... I am all alone in this—and essentially, have nowhere to turn.... Thank you.