The link below has all of Summer's articles listed, including her obituary/article.
Thank you for everything my friends... Mani & Kim
An Obituary on the One Year anniversary of Summer's passing
Bend Bulletin Obituary Article June 25, 2009
This is what we have decided to do with your help
This reflects one of Summer's dying wishes
Donations are being accepted at ANY Chase Bank branch anywhere in the US for
the Summer Stiers fund.
We have obtained federal Non-Profit (501c3) status for this fund. The purpose of this fund is to raise $120,000 to purchase a hyperbaric chamber for use by all those in need in Central and Eastern Oregon. This expensive treatment would be made available and reasonably priced on a sliding scale for those in the area who for whatever reasons could not ordinarily afford the treatment.
Conditions treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy include cerebral palsy, radiation sickness, stroke, autism, multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, slow-healing wounds, near drowning, traumatic brain injury, tinnitus, fibromyalgia and others.
An account has been opened for this purpose at Chase bank,, and we ask individuals and businesses in the area who have been touched by her plight and wish to help to donate to:
Summer Stiers Fund,
823158399You can make a donation with your credit card by clicking the donate button.
Thank you.
February 19, 2009
What’s Wrong With
Summer Stiers?
Many Central Oregonians have recently read in the Bend Bulletin
of Summer's ongoing struggle with an undiagnosed disease and the world has read of her recent trip to
the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD
for study of her condition (read 8 page report)After a week of intensive study and tests, all we now know is what we knew before - that Summer's disease seems to be unique in all of medical history. There are a lot of life-threatening aspects to her disease and so far the one thing that seems to help more than anything else is treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. These treatments are expensive and our insurance carrier, while a tremendous help, sometimes seems reluctant to authorize as many treatments as Summer's doctor feels are necessary. One way around this issue as well as being a way to help our neighbors in Central and Eastern Oregon who could also benefit from these treatments but could not afford them would be to raise the money to purchase a chamber for their use as well as Summer's.
posted March 19, 2009
By Makayla Zurn, KTVZ.COM
Right now, it's worth it,' says Summer Stiers
A life of never-ending doctor's appointments, pills, poking and prodding. That's what Summer Stiers has been doing for 20 years.
The unique story of this Bend woman is making national headlines because after all this time, the cause of her illness is still unknown. At 31, her hair is almost completely gray. She hooks up to a dialysis machine every night and must take hundreds of pills. But everyone who knows Summer Stiers knows she's a fighter.
Since the age of 10, Summer's body has slowly collapsed before her eyes, starting with her eyes. One went completely blind.
That's when she and her doctors first knew something was wrong. In the past 20 years, she's seen both of the her kidneys fail,
bone tissue death in both of her legs, intestinal bleeding, osteoporosis and cavernoma of the brain, not to mention constant pain
and fatigue. What's even more painful: With all these symptoms, there is still no diagnosis. "I can't run or jump or do a jumping jack without worrying about my legs giving out," said Summer, "so not being able to do stuff that a normal 31-year old can be frustrating."
Summer started hyperbaric oxygen therapy last year, and she and her doctors have seen huge improvements in her health.
"The treatments have revolutionarily made her better, and I'm afraid it's something she's going to have ongoing into the future,"
said Dr. Robert Pinnick of Bend Memorial Clinic. "It's really a life-saving thing for her, and it's out on a limb because she has a disease that there is no diagnosis for," Pinnick said. "There isn't anyone out there like her." Unfortunately for her, without a diagnosis code, insurance will not pay for the treatments much longer. "It's just the matter of a code," she said, frustrated. "Make up one - give me a code!"
In the search for a diagnosis, Summer was accepted into the undiagnosed diseases program at the National Institutes of Health.
In December, she underwent several tests and is hoping someone will finally give her some answers. "Maybe get diagnosed, maybe help other people," she said. "But mostly it was a chance to get it on record. So when I'm gone, and someone else has these same things, they won't be lost, like I've been." The pills, the pain, dialysis, doctors and therapy - sometimes Summer asks herself, is this all worth it? "You get to a point where you ask yourself, 'How long to I do it before I don't do it any more? And it's something that's hard to ask yourself, but you just get to that point." "Is this worth it?" she asked, before answering: "And right now, it's worth it."
