Website a hub for unusual ailments
A woman in Corner has developed a one-of-a-kind website.
Shirley Porzio created A Spirit of Hope (www.aspiritofhope.com) as a means for people suffering from unusual diseases or ailments to find the medical help they need.
“The idea is for patients who need that type of extra help to send me their medical records, and I can put them in a folder on the website for doctors all over the world to see,” she said. “Doctors have so much to do. It’s impossible for all of them to know everything.”
Porzio modeled the website after www.helpingjim.com, another site she created after her husband, Jim, was diagnosed with a fungus that was literally eating the bones in his back.
Porzio said medical specialists found the fungus five years ago and operated on Jim several times to no avail; he was told the fungus would spread to his vital organs and that he had approximately six months to live.
Not wanting to give up, Porzio created Helping Jim and posted his MRIs, X-rays, CT scans and other medical records on the website. Porzio sent emails to every major hospital in the country with a link to the website, asking them if they could help.
They received an answer from a doctor at Cedar Sinai Hospital in California. The doctor and his team successfully removed the fungus and the infected bones, and surgically implanted a titanium cage in his back, saving his life.
Jim died in August 2009 from cancer that was unrelated to the fungus.
“But, we were so happy to have those few extra years together,” said Porzio. “One day I was feeling sentimental, and was asking God what I should do and how I could help others. I remembered the doctors in California saying they had never seen anyone reach out for help like we did.”
It costs $300 to have medical information posted on the site, which Porzio said covers the cost of maintaining the site. She hopes she can waive the fee in the future when the website is no longer in its infant stages.