Easing her emergency

When you’re young and uninsured, a sudden and devastating medical diagnosis can seem like the end of the world.

For one Coeur d’Alene woman, however, a community of caring individuals is coming together to lend a hand.

Tabatha Gass, 24, has been diagnosed with a form of Tarlov cyst, a rare medical condition that affects the nerves in the spine, causing tremendous pain and decreased mobility. Without insurance, she and her family faced the prospect of paying the full cost of a $20,000 procedure that has a 40 percent chance of working.

She doesn’t qualify for Medicaid and has been turned down for Social Security Disability. Desperate to find a way to pay for her surgery, Gass and her mother, Deanna Gass, starting thinking about fundraising.

“We were trying to grasp straws,” Deanna Gass said. “With the economy the way it is, I was thinking, ‘How are we going to pull this off?’ ”

Turns out, despite the economy, the community has been willing to get behind Gass. An account has been established for her at US Bank. Within days of the first media accounts of her plight, there was $300 deposited. A couple of weeks later, the total was up to $2,600. And on April 5, Mark Daanen, owner of Daanen’s Deli in Hayden, hosted a benefit spaghetti feed and silent auction that raised close to $9,000 for Gass’ fund.

Additional fundraisers are in the works this spring, including a pancake feed in Hayden and a golf tournament in Post Falls, Gass said.

“I didn’t think people would really go out on a limb and help a complete stranger out,” Gass said. “Everyone is, in a way, helping me get my life back.”

Gass has always had back problems. As a hairdresser who stood on her feet for eight hours a day, she expected it was part of the job.

One day last fall, though, she tried to stretch her back. Something didn’t feel right. Instead of offering relief, the back maneuver caused “instant pain,” she said.

Over the next few days, her pain became progressively, unbearably worse, resulting in a trip to the emergency room. Her primary care physician ordered an MRI. Four days later, she got the news.

A Tarlov cyst was growing in her spinal column.

She can’t work. Standing for long periods and bending over to shampoo or cut clients’ hair is agonizing. She used to play sports and ski, and now spends much of her day in a recliner. She endures stares and comments from people who wonder why someone so young needs a motorized cart at the grocery store.

It’s been a trying and frustrating experience, she said.

“I’ve always been a go-getter, an independent person,” she said. “To have my independence taken away has been hard.”

According to the Tarlov Cyst Foundation, the cysts are dilations of the nerve root sheaths. The abnormal sacs are filled with fluid and grow more and more painful. The cysts afflict about 3,000 people around the world, Gass said. Her cyst is even more rare.

Most Tarlov cysts are small and clustered, almost like a bunch of grapes. She has one large cyst – it grew an inch from October to December – and involves more nerves than is typical, she said. There are probably six or eight other people in the world who have cysts like hers, her doctor told her.

“This is not something that any surgeon here or in Spokane could go in and take care of,” she said.

She found a Kansas City, Mo., surgeon, Dr. Frank Feigenbaum, who specializes in Tarlov cysts. He’s agreed to cut the cyst away from her nerves and will discount his usual fee. The hospital, Research Medical Center in Kansas City is requiring a $10,000 down payment before surgery begins.

All told, it could cost $20,000 or more to fly to the Midwest, arrange for lodging before and after the operation, and for the surgery itself. That estimate doesn’t include any medications she may need when she gets home, follow-up MRIs or the cost of physical therapy she’ll likely need when her back heals.

For Daanen, the decision to help Gass was easy.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he said. “She was a customer. She was a nice girl who needed help. Often, it’s the people who most need help who don’t ask for it.”

While Daanen has served on charity boards in the past, this was the first time the restaurant has spearheaded anything like this. He said it was amazing to see people come out to lend a hand.

“Surely, we’ve made a big step forward,” he said. “Let’s not stop here.”