This site was set up to help a friend in need. Today, it is Dave Kaskeski's family. For those who do not know, Dave was brought Home to our Heavenly Father on May 8th, 2007. He was surrounded by friends and family.

Dave's History

Dave:
Dave was a truck driver. He drove car carrier rigs. One day, in 1998, as he was loading his rig, he slipped and his leg landed between two pieces of rebar. One piece caught his ankle and tore his leg open, down to the bone, and up to the knee. It was a severe injury to be sure, but not life-threatening, and not career stopping. He got patched up and went on the typical regimen of antibiotics, pain killers, etc., etc. Somewhere in the middle of the trauma and the antibiotics, he developed Vasculitis, an auto-immune disease. Some liken it to Lupus where it attacks, arbitrarily, an organ, causing failure. A severe enough case of Vasculitis is career-ending, and guess what...Dave's career was over. He couldn't be driving if he went into renal shutdown, or heart failure, or...pick your worst case scenario. His wife, Pam, didn't work, she was a homemaker. Now they were without income. And the worst was yet to come.

Because the doctors could not decide what triggered the Vasculitis, his former employer refused to pay any workman's compensation or disability. As far as he was concerned, the injury was not career-ending. So they went to [legal] war. Pam had to go out and find a job, which she did. She loves her work as a kindergarten para-educator, but it doesn't exactly make them rich. Imagine the salary of a kindergarten teacher...now imagine her helper, which is how she is seen in the eyes of the payroll department. Her salary (supporting a family of four) is low. During the legal actions phase which will be discussed shortly, Pam held two other jobs. This proved too much strain on the family, so she had to quit one

As you can imagine, the medical bills were mounting. Insurance covered hundreds of thousands of dollars but Dave and Pam's exposure was still in the many thousands. Fortunately, the house they live in is protected. It's Dave's homestead. They also took in a young teacher who works with Pam, Susan. Susan was new to the area and all alone and needed exactly what the Kaskeski's had to offer. Their love. She helps with the bills, and they love her like their own daughter. Now that I have met them both, I thank God that Dave has Pam, and I thank God that Pam has Susan.

Now, in order for Pam to take care of Dave, she has to take a leave of absence from her job. This means taking time off with no pay, but being able to keep benefits and insurance. Her job offers the policy of other employees donating their vacation and sick time to Pam. However, Pam only receives one day for every two donated. To get her by for the next 7 weeks, which is the least she will need in order to take care of Dave in his most critical time, her fellow employees will have to donate 70 days of their own vacation and sick leave. If she doesn't receive enough days donated, she will go without pay for the duration of her leave.

Vasculitis:
There is a way to keep this disease in check. In fact, with proper medication, not only can you keep it in check, but it can eventually be eliminated. The treatment, however, is corticosteroids. These steroids are the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of medicines. Although they stop the Vasculitis from attacking healthy organs, they cause Osteoporosis. The more you take, the worse the Osteoporosis. Well, Dave had to take a lot. In fact, he's still taking a lot. He now has what's called Steroid Dependent Vasculitis. The way you're supposed to take steroids is by starting with a big dose, then gradually reducing the dose, allowing your body to take over with it's own steroid production enough to keep the disease in check. In Dave's situation, however, his body never kicks in. They have tried weaning him off the steroids for years, but to no avail. Every time they reach the end of a regimen, he goes into organ failure. So they keep him on them. Now, because of the effects of massive corticosteroid use, he has the skeleton of a 90 year old man. That's why, every time we turn around, he's getting another joint replaced. He has had multiple surgeries including both shoulders and one knee replacement. His latest was to be Achilles Tendon surgery and that's when they found the mass in his chest.

The cancer is Stage 3B Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, and it has spread to his Lymph Nodes. Don't bother Googling it, it's serious. And this is where the Kaskeski's rise to the occassion and face this illness head-on. They chose the most aggressive course of treatments because they have faith and hope. Dave has to have 5 radiation treatments per week and chemo once a week for 4-6 months. We all know how sick Dave may become as side effects of the treatments. This is one more obstacle they must overcome. But in all my life, I have never seen so much determination and courage in the face of such sobering odds as I have with them. They all know the odds. But it will not stop them.
And all this, from a fall on a truck.

The Legal Battle:
Dave's former employer continuously denied Dave's eligibility because no one, including the doctors at Johns Hopkins, could confirm that the career ending Vasculitis was caused by the injury and subsequent medication regimen. Dave and Pam won the disability battle but due to specific state laws, in the end they won the equivalent of about two years of Dave's gross salary, before they deducted truck payments and expenses.

Because Dave's employer was in NJ, they have a whole different set of workman's comp/disability laws than most of the other states. There is a chart with the maximum amount of settlement for any possible injury. The loss of an arm gets one set amount, and the chart works up to the full loss of body ie complete disability which also gets a pre-set amount regardless of any details. Then you deduct lawyer fee's and a clause that says we have to put a set amount away to prevent medicaid from having to invest more than something like 20,000 in lifelong medical expenses... this from a chronically ill man, with unpredictable flare ups that had proven to be severe.

Going from a very physical job, active most of the time, to being bed-ridden, on all kinds of medications, his doctors suggested he find a hobby. So he took up guitar and sat in at his church band. Needless to say, the Martin bug bit him, he found the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum (www.umgf.com) and it brought new meaning to his life. I am NOT overstating this. The significance of the forum in his life was and is, now more than ever, huge. And just like the rest of the members and our wives, all Pam saw was him spending time on the computer talking to a bunch of guitar freak geeks like you and me. She never went to [an annual] Nazfest, never met anyone else on the forum. It was a hobby that kept him occupied, no more. She didn't get it. Until I knocked on their door, I think she was numb to the idea that there were actually people on the other end of his keyboard. Real people who really nurtured their friendships. We are a strong community of friends who will help the Kaskeski's take this illness on and overcome it.

The Favor:
Now I need to ask a huge favor. One that I am not very good at. But I spoke to Pam and she is so overwhelmed by the support we are giving her and Dave that she has agreed to share their story with us. They need help, and we need to dig deep.

Thank you, everyone, on behalf of the Kaskeski's.

God bless,

Johnny "12fretter" Fecco





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