A spinal cord infection ( abscess) that was mistaken for strained back muscles constricted around my spinal cord. I got out of bed and dropped to the ground completely paralyzed. So began my nightmare.
I wasn’t supposed to live through the surgery to remove the abscess around my spinal cord on that day. Then I wasn’t supposed to ever move a finger after I survived the surgery. Left fortunately alive , but paralyzed from the neck down, my prognosis was grim.
“ You won’t experience any recovery after a year to maybe a year and a half” the Doctors were insistent. I never accepted their predictions and continued my training.
After 4 years I began to walk on a Walker with assistance. After 5 years I became fully independent again and after 6 years I began to regain my personal functions.
Fortunately as a lifelong physical fitness fanatic and expert , I never accepted the idea that my body couldn’t heal. I remember telling my Doctor at my one year follow up appointment, You are one hundred percent successful at being unsuccessful. He laughed and I never returned.
I focused on nutrition, alternative therapies and supplements to replace the pharmaceuticals . The pharmaceuticals saved my life but now ironically inhibited my recovery. So I made my own path.
Modern medicine saved my life, as my X-rays will attest. In my next phase, holistics, diet and innovative training got me to independence. Now groundbreaking stem cell therapy has presented the opportunity for me to regain the rest of my life back.
However, like everything on this journey to recovery, the therapy has a cost. For fifty thousand dollars I can have my life back. Or at least a much further improved version of the life I’ve already regained so much of. With a financial and physical goal in mind we are partnering with Help Hope Live once again. This time it’s our goal to complete this recovery and walk away from the wheelchair forever.
With Help Hope Live’s assistance back in October of 2019 we were able to raise funds to fuel my recovery after our family exhausted every resource. Four years of rehabilitation therapy, nursing care and unemployment left a once prosperous family completely broke. From those fundraising efforts 3 years ago I was able to recover my independence for the first time in over five years. It wasn’t an easy task over Covid essentially on my own training.
Well “ what a long strange trip it’s been” as Jerry Garcia used to sing. That is especially true over the past three years. Covid was new territory for everyone.
But through innovative nutrition, holistic supplements, self training and perseverance I was able to get better. I was unwilling to quit and loose sight of the amazing progress that was made just because of Covid.
Now fully independent, able to feel and activate my entire body, I can see the finish line. Encouraged by my own progress, it’s true . But exuberant over the results reported from The Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama.
They are the world leaders in stem cell therapy and have documented uncommon results. Thankfully all of the stem cells are from umbilical cord sources and are free from ethical concerns as well.
I was first introduced to The Stem Cell Institute on the Joe Rogan Podcast. Joe had a discussion with Dr. Neil Riordan of The Stem Cell Institute . The success stories were miraculous. Dr. Riordan was accompanied and strongly endorsed by Mel Gibson who he and his father received treatment there with tremendous results.
Secondly my enthusiasm was renewed and heightened by Tony Robbins new best selling book “ Life Force “. The Stem Cell institute was featured in chapter 1. Tony Robbins himself obtained miraculous regenerative results averting major shoulder surgery by stem cell therapy at The Stem Cell Institute in Panama. They have proven track record of success endorsed by highly credible people.
With my personal training success, in conjunction with the regenerative stem cell therapy, I’m certain my recovery will be accelerated and complete. What was once impossible has now become inevitable.
My hope is that my story provides hope to those given a hopeless prognosis like I was. What If I listened to the limitations the Doctors imposed? Well, I’d be lying in bed changing channels with a “ sip & puff” remote control in diapers like the Doctors predicted. I’m completely independent instead. I just wouldn’t want a child to spend their life in a wheelchair if someone could show them it’s possible to get better. A prognosis is a doctor’s opinion not necessarily your destiny. I aspire to set an example of what is possible.
My life isn’t completely restored yet but I get better all the time. Other people can get better too. I want to be a literal walking billboard for what is actually possible for physical recovery.
Lastly I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank You to everyone who has supported our family over the past seven years. Our family, friends and community have been incredibly generous with their time, treasure, intentions and encouragement.
We are eternally in their debt. This has been a very challenging endeavor physically, emotionally and financially for our family. Our vision is that this final leg of the journey be crowd and corporately funded. Everyone close to us has given so much already. Hopefully we can ask everyone to get the word out to a broader audience and help realize a complete recovery.
Thank You for any and all support
Best Regards
Frank G
Family and friends of Frank Guirlinger are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with Catastrophic Injury.
Frank has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility to the full extent allowed by law for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button.
For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.
Thank you for your support!
You Can Help Make a Difference
My name is Frank Guirlinger and prior to July 23rd 2015, I was living what would appear to be the American dream. I had a nice home, 2 wonderful kids, a lovely wife and a very promising career. Like many other 46 year old men, I assumed that I was experiencing some middle age aches and pains. The years of high school wrestling, water-skiing and working in the trades had seemingly caught up to me.
The morning of July 23rd, I was lying in bed when I suffered what can only be described as a full body cramp from the neck down. I called for my 11 year old son to call 911. I was eventually rushed to Detroit Receiving Hospital where they performed 2 emergency surgeries. An abscess/ infection had developed in my spinal cord and paralysis had set in. I was unable to swallow or breathe on my own and spent the next 40 days and nights in Neurological ICU fighting for my life. I recall struggling to keep one eye open with blackness setting in, I prayed to God to take me or leave me. He left me. I pray, in time, to understand and fulfill His purpose. Eventually my condition stabilized.
I was transported to University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor where, over the next 4 months, I learned to breathe on my own, swallow, operate a motorized wheelchair and come to grips with the indignity of it all. I still considered it all temporary and thought I would return to normal shortly. The doctors and staff tried to introduce me to life as a quadriplegic. They said that any progress would come in the first 18 months. Beyond that, there was little that could be done. At 18 months, I could only move my hands and feet.
Well, I’m sort of a stubborn guy who believed that I could will myself beyond what the doctors thought possible. I continued on with physical therapy and 4 years later, I can now stand and take several steps with the use of a walker. It may not sound like much, but it’s miles for me. I may not return to the days of water-skiing with my kids, but my near term goal of full physical independence is very achievable.
The reason that I’m reaching out now is because this is all very expensive. In home care, medical supplies, physical therapy and limited work opportunities have exhausted all of the family savings. I’m reliant on the kindness of strangers in order to continue the fight. I know that once I can be physically independent, I can get back to producing for my family and, one day, I can be on the giving side of these donations. For now, I’m asking for your financial help so that I may continue the progress.
Family and friends of Frank Guirlinger are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with Catastrophic Injury.
Frank has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility to the full extent allowed by law for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button.
For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.
Thank you for your support!
