A neck fusion so I can live instead of survive

Hello everyone,

I assume you have come to this page because you want to support me in raising the money needed for my fusion surgery. This amount includes not only the costs for the surgery, but also the hospital stay, the weeks we have to spend in Barcelona before and after the surgery, travel costs… A more specific estimate can be found at the bottom of this page.

If you have found this page by chance, then in short: my name is Cato Frederiks, I am 28 years old and I have been ill for most of my adult life. In 2022 I was diagnosed (among other things) with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – long covid, but the cause is something else than covid. And that “something else” in my case is probably an instability in my neck, also called cranio-cervical instability (CCI). Because of this, there are a few vertebrae that put pressure on the nerve bundles in my neck.

One of the problems that this has caused, and which gives us an idea of how much a fusion surgery can help, is episodes of paraparesis during which I lose motor function in my legs. When I wear my neck brace, this paraparesis disappears. I have added videos of this at the top. In addition, we have seen that wearing a cervical collar also greatly reduces the other symptoms of ME. Unfortunately, wearing a cervical collar causes the muscles become weaker, which only worsen this problem in the long term.

A fusion surgery, in which a number of vertebrae are fused together, can be the answer. In the Netherlands, the specialist knowledge required to perform this operation is not available. A neurosurgeon from Barcelona is specialized in this, so I would have to go to him in order to receive this fusion surgery. The pictures on this page are largely of the specialist equipment that is available in Barcelona (in combination with the knowledge to interpret the results!) to diagnose CCI – with a bonus photo of when I was still healthy.

Would you like to contribute? Donate here! I would be incredibly grateful if you would help me achieve this goal. I can’t wait to start living again, instead of just surviving. If you want to be kept informed about the campaign, make sure you leave your email address. Of course, we will also post updates on this page!

Love,

Cato

Travel costs: €2.400

Accesible short-stay facility: €4.250

Surgery (anesthesia, materials, scans, hospital stay): €63.300

Complications insurance: €11.000

Other tests and scans: €2.500