Assistance for Moebius Syndrome Treatment

Hi everyone,

My name is Filipe and I'm 24 years old and I was born with a rare disease called Moebius Syndrome.

What is Moebius Syndrome?

Moebius Syndrome is a rare neurological condition that primarily affects the muscles that control facial expression and eye movement. Weakness or paralysis of the facial muscles is one of the most common features of Moebius syndrome. Affected individuals lack facial expressions; I cannot smile, frown, or raise my eyebrows. I also have problems with feeding.

A little bit about me.

I was born in Brazil in 2000 and I was diagnosed with Moebius Syndrome, after that, my parents started to search for treatments for my problem, but unfortunately, we never had the necessary information about the syndrome, we hadn't any ideia of what to do, we went to a lot of doctors and sometimes they didn't know what I have. But thanks the internet, years later I could find out everything about my disease and I saw a light in the end of the tunnel.

In the last year I discovered that a new treatment developed by Doctor Babak Azizzadeh can revive my face because there is nerve and muscle activity. It's a very novel surgery and the most cutting-edge treatment for Facial Palsy. This surgery will allow me to speak symmetrical, articulate my lips, close them and the most important thing, I'll be able to have a dynamic and spontaneous smile, a smile that I don't need to think to make it happen, a smile that I'm not conscious about it. In addition to this, I'll also have some cosmetic surgery to not only smile but to look fenomenal to be able to go out there and have no discrepancy with other people.

The goal of the reanimation procedure is taking a muscle from my inner thigh called Gracilis Muscle and attach in my facial nerve. It's a very long surgery that can take 10 hours to be done. And I'll need to do it on both side of my face, that means that will take 2 or 3 stages to complete the reanimation.

I'm not going to lie, being myself is a big challenge, I have to face a lot prejudice every single day. I never had friends because they are frequently walking away from me, I feel myself lonely every single day without a goal in my life. I never had a good job because they judge me because of my face and don't try to see my capabilities. I've been always making my living from casual work.

I have big thoughts, I have plans to move to Canada, being a journalist or study something related to communication. I don't wanna live this life in vain. I wish I could be happy because there's a lot of time for me yet.

Objective of this crowdfunding campaign

The objective of this campaign is raise money for my assistance. I need this money to make all possible surgery that was recommended to me like:

• Facial Reanimation
• Eyelid Reconstruction (I can't close and blink my eyes, I almost get blindness because of this.)
• Strabismus Surgery
• Orthognathic Surgery

Besides that, there's other treatments that I also need to do as well like:

• Physiotherapy Neuromuscular Retraining
• Dental Treatments (because my mouth is always open my teeth is decaying really fast and the pain sometimes is INSANE)

And because I'm gonna make these procedures in United States (except for the orthognathic surgery, physiotherapy and dental treatment) I'll stay there for months, so this money is also going to support me with:

• Homestay
• Food
• Transport
• Medicine
• Emergencial Stuffs

It's sad live in Brazil and knowing that I can work my whole life and I'll never get the money that I need. That's why crowdfunding campaign was the only option that I found.

If you can't donate for this campaign, you can donate a share in your social media, that's very important too.

Thank you to everyone who read this, thank you to everyone who will donate or already donated, thank you to everyone who shared or will share this to your friends and family. Thank you.

God bless you all.

- Filipe :)