Joe Wickstrom, founder of Nether Regions and bassist of Atriarch, has hit some hard time when it comes to his health. Come on in and help a dude out!
There's really no way better I can describe Wickstrom's situation than his YouCaring.com fundraiser site, which I strongly encourage you to check out and donate to after reading:
Joe Wickstrom, founder of Nether Regions, bass player of Atriarch, formerly of SubArachnoid Space, Anzio Bridgehead and Divine Rite has been around. We often call him "The Terminator" because the man has always looked more like a sexy vampire than his actual age. In his time, he's been shot and stabbed and survived to tell the tale.
Because he's so tough, he finds it very difficult and embarassing to ask for help. Unfortunately though, he needs it. In the past couple of years, he's had an artificial graft implanted in his leg to keep blood flowing. And that graft continues to fail, sending Joe repeatedly back for more surgeries, medications, pain and suffering.
Even with health insurance, the daily deductible for hospitalization is $250 and Joe spent 10 days in the past 2 months there. That $2500 on top of the $800 in payments he still had to make from 2011 adds up. Each medication is a $25 dollar copay and he has 8 which is $200 a month which he needs to pay BEFORE they give him the meds. And this is the killer……. he now has daily blood draws which are $20 a day payable at the time of service which is $600 a month. He has to make 5 doctor visits a month at this time which are $20 each.
Beyond all the medical expenses, Joe can barely afford to live and eat now. He's slipping behind financially, on a ton of medication, and sometimes having to choose between buying meds or food. We as a community cannot let this go on. We can help pull him out of this mess in a hurry. What he needs is about the same the average band needs to make a record. Let's do this.
Hell yeah! Amazingly enough, at the time of writing Joe has received $5,067 of his $6,666 goal with 72 days left to go! Let's make that Protest the Hero kickstarter look stupid, huh?
