San Dimas congregation appeals to help ailing couple

Feb. 27--SAN DIMAS -- Pastor Bob Harmon and the New Hope Fellowship congregation put their faith into action as they dig into their limited funds and appeal to the public to help a seriously ill couple in the San Dimas church.

"We are a small congregation and our members don't have much money, but we're doing what we can to help Brian and Violeta Ellis through this tremendously troubling time," said Harmon about the fund-raising efforts for Brian who suffers with colon and liver cancer and his wife Violeta who has multiple sclerosis.

The minister is appealing to the public to help the financially strapped couple pay for medical and living expenses. Checks can be payable to New Hope Fellowship with a memo specifying the Ellis fund and sent to the church, 114 W. Second St., San Dimas, 91773. The donation is tax-deductible. Additional information: 909-599-3901.

"This is an extreme situation and getting worse," Harmon said. "Brian has always been financially responsible, but he's been a plumber in construction and cannot work now because of his health. Violeta cannot drive or work because of her MS episodes. They need help and we are doing what we can to help them even though we are a small, low-income, mid-income congregation that shares church space provided by the generosity of the San Dimas United Methodist Church.

"We care about and love our members just as God cares about and loves us," he continued. "I'm so proud of our congregation because people give out of love, even when they have needs themselves. God's love is for all of us. Some of us are broken and disillusioned and need more at different stages of our lives. Helping others is a matter of spiritual commitment for us."

Brian said their church has nurtured them through major crises and they can never find the words to fully express their appreciation. The health crisis they face now has also humbled them and made them more aware of the love of strangers and their church brothers and sisters, Violeta said.

"I can't put her on the street," Brian fretted. "I was raised to believe a man took care of his wife and family."

"You've taken good care of me," Violeta tearfully interrupted her worried husband.

Violeta got sick three years ago. She initially thought she was tired, weak and sick because of stress at work. She attributed frequent falls and imbalance to clumsiness. When numbness and extreme pain attacked her limbs, she went to Dr. Morris Kukhad, a rheumatologist. When the pain and numbness worsened, he called Dr. Faisal Qazi, a neurologist and friend, and asked him to meet her in San Antonio Community Hospital's emergency room. Poking her with needles caused no response from Violeta. Results of a MRI prompted Qazi to immediately admit her.

"I was given morphine, but that did nothing to ease the pain. They say there's no worse pain than childbirth or a toothache. That's a lie," Violeta lamented. "This was 10 times worse. It was a pain so severe I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

A spinal tap and additional tests revealed scar tissue in her spinal cord and evidence of MS in her brain, the latter going back five years. The diagnosis of MS was made on April 27, 2011. In three days, her body totally shut down within three days. She underwent steroid treatments, was sent to Casa Colina for additional therapy after being additionally diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and, despite increasing numbers of MS episodes, she gradually moved from "a dark place back into the light" with Brian's and church members' nurturing and Qazi's care.

"Dr. Qzai is an amazing physician and human being. He never stopped seeing her even when she lost insurance after her job fired her. She still has episodes and gets spasms, but we were coping," Brian recalled.

Then the other shoe fell.

When he first experienced pain last October, a medical misdiagnosis claimed he'd pulled his sciatica nerve. It was not nerves. It was colon cancer.

Coping became nearly impossible when Brian, who'd never had a colonoscopy, passed out and fell during a middle-of-the-night restroom run in mid-November. Violeta heard the thump of his fall, got up and found him on the floor in a pool of blood. She thought he'd hit his head when he fell, but the extreme amount of blood on the floor and which soaked the towels she put under him countered that assumption. She quickly dialed 9-1-1. Paramedics noted Brian's extreme weakness and increasing blood loss.

Noting blood loss and increasing, paramedics rushed him to Chino Valley Medical Center. The couple live in the unincorporated area between south Pomona and Chino, but Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center was too far away considering the extreme blood loss. He was admitted to Chino Valley on Nov. 19, diagnosed with fourth-stage colon cancer on Nov. 22 after a colonoscopy revealed a 10-inch cancerous tumor and underwent surgery on Nov. 25.

"I was politely kicked out of the hospital the next day because I had no insurance." Brian calmly recalled.

Violeta's reaction was not so calm.

"All of this was before Thanksgiving. I was angry and felt, since I was already so sick, this cancer should have happened to me instead of my wonderful husband. I wondered what we had to be thankful for until I talked with my adopted mom whose first name is ironically Faith, and our pastor," Violeta said. "They and the members of the church helped restore my faith and hope."

Brian is now under the care of Dr. Swapnil Rajurkar, a Pomona oncologist. Lesions were recently found on his liver. Surgery is pending to remove half his liver after an infection is cleared up.

"They hope it's just an infection and not a cancerous tumor in the lesions," Brian said.

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