Help steve help
Steve Simeone is a world-traveling American stand-up comedian, podcaster,
humanitarian. His weekly podcast is called “Good Times with Steve Simeone” and is a
regular at The World Famous Comedy Store in Hollywood.
After attending a blood drive at a local Children’s Hospital, Steve made it his mission to
help as many families as possible. He began organizing charity events for children and,
with the help of his comedian friends, regularly organizes pizza parties, toy drives, and
provides financial assistance to families in need.
What is Help Steve Help?
Regular Hero has partnered with Steve, and the comedy community, to create a
campaign to help kids and families in need.
Our mission at Help Steve Help is to help families with children who have severe health
conditions. Despite the many challenges they face, these families are active in giving
back to their community. We believe it’s time for them to be rewarded.
Whether it be financial relief from bills, or providing a joyous experience for the family,
we aim to help them in any way we can during this difficult time.
We are a huge proponent of the kindness feedback loop, it’s what sets us apart from
other charity campaigns. How? Once we’re able to provide a family with some financial
relief, or a joyful experience, they nominate the next family for us to help. Keeping the
kindness feedback loop going.
BABY GABRIEL
Our son, Gabriel was born with a Congenital Heart Defect (CHD). At his 4-month check-up during these past holidays, his pediatrician noticed a heart murmur, so we were referred to a cardiologist where further tests and evaluations were given. That resulted in finding out he has two issues: Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection/Return (PAPVC/ PAPVR) with Atrial Septal Defect (ASD).
That means some of his pulmonary veins connected in the wrong place to his heart, with a hole in his heart between the two upper chambers. These defects cause a problem with his blood flow, can cause problems with his lungs and breathing, and make his heart work harder than normal. His little heart is working like he’s on an elliptical all the time just to operate. His ability to eat properly and gain/ maintain healthy weight progress are hindered as a result. While he’s playing, he continues to make progress in his physical development, but he gets tired quickly and becomes frustrated. Recently, he started heavily sweating when eating and sleeping and has been increasingly tired throughout the day. It has now gotten to a point where his heart is struggling to keep up with him, which means he is experiencing heart failure and his growth is not accelerating as it should.
The only option to fix these defects is open-heart surgery. Originally, we were told surgery would happen between ages 1 – 2 years old. However, when we recently had our consultation with the surgeon, we received unexpected news. His surgery needed to happen as soon as possible because his heart’s struggle was starting to catch up with him as we mentioned above. Gabriel is 7 months old and had open-heart surgery in February. His surgery was successful, praise God! He had great doctors and nurses that cared for him. He was in Cardiac ICU for 4 days, and both parents stayed with him the whole time. There were many ups and downs- seeing him right after surgery, being there with him through pain, but on the positive side also seeing him react to us being there and even clap at one point. It was an emotional, physical, and mental roller coaster- but overall he wowed everyone, including the doctors and nurses, with his quick recovery and happy demeanor even as he was in pain in the hospital.
His recovery was progressing well enough that he was able to go home on the 4th day! It is still a process of recovery- he cannot do everything he wants to do, has to be cared for and held in certain ways, is still in pain at times, and is still adjusting to everything, including emotionally as we've seen with his reactions to some things and he's been wanting to be held all the time. We also have to keep him away from groups of people and take precautions to avoid him getting sick until he is fully recovered, as any illness can be very bad as the heart and body recover. That means mom also has to take similar precautions since she is his main source of food and always in close contact with him. We still have several weeks of this, but he is making great progress and able to play and smile often! He is a strong little man that is already impacting people!
We appreciate any support to help him and our family through this. There are out of pocket expenses we were not prepared for, and we already have outstanding bills from last calendar year from tests and when he was diagnosed with these conditions. Doctor appointments with his pediatrician, cardiologist, specialists, surgeon, hospital visits, and anything needed for recovery/ aftercare all add up- from medical bills themselves to other expenses. Mom has not been able to work to stay with Gabriel and will need to stay home with him until he is fully recovered.We also ask for prayers during this time for Gabriel’s complete healing with no complications.
DONATe a $1
HERE TO HELP BABY GABRIEL
Steve and the comedy community are asking you to say #ImGivingABuck and simply… give a buck.
Together we can create an army of $1.
Just one dollar a month can make all the difference