I once again needed to lean on the APSFA as I have been doing for years. My son had a serious issue occur after having a thrombectomy, that was stopped while many clots were still in his leg. He was not under general anesthesia and none were available. He clotted again and his leg was completely blocked within 3 weeks and was seriously sick. He was on Lovenox. The Administrator guided me through this week of intense pain for my son and guided us to find a medication alternative that would help stop the clotting since all medicines tried were not working. The hospital hematology department was very impressed with the knowledge APSFA provided them about this disease and was going to recommend their patients and colleagues to refer to APSFA for more detailed information from this organization and also become familiar with group members issues regarding APS. Again, this organization is scientific, updated and is so relevant to anyone affected by this disease along with their family and friends.
As the president of the APS Foundation of America, Inc, I would like to share the accomplishments of 2009. Every year we work harder to get awareness out and work on education to the public and medical community. - Maintained 501(c)3 Non Profit Status granted under Section 170, 2055, 2106, 2522. We also were granted an advanced ruling as a Public Charity. - Filed Taxes - Registered to solicit in the states we were required to - Made all brochure & booklets that have bibliographies available – available online - Published quarterly newsletters that are available free to the public on our website – benefited at least 200,000 people - Donated & Mailed Brochures & Booklets –benefited at least 20,000 people - Donated Printed Publications to Public Libraries – Unknown number of people benefited - Invited to several large professional medical conferences. - Networking with other Non-Profit Organizations and medical professionals - Maintained our Webpage –benefiting 76,839 people based on the index page. - Maintained the forum to make it more user friendly – benefiting 183,844 people - Maintained HONCode Certification on APS Foundation of America, Inc. - Maintained HONCode Certification on APS Friends & Support Forum. - Started and maintain several blogs on various servers to get awareness out – benefited at least 200,000 people - Launched press releases – benefited at least 50,000 people - Launched Radio Public Service Announcements – benefited at least 5,000 - Fundraisers - Café Press – approx 400 items sold - Holiday Stuff - Giving Tree – 38 participated - Café Press Collectors Edition – 3 participated - Made Press in 5 different media venues that we are aware of – at least 100,000,000 people benefited - House, MD – “Instant Karma” (original air date: 10/15/09) – benefited at least 16,000,000 people. - Death of Tom Sparks due to APS – picked up by AP Wire - unknown how many people benefited (Picked up on TV, radio, internet, newspapers & social networking sites) - Mystery Diagnosis – “Falling Through the Cracks” (re- aired several times, original air date: 3/6/2006) - unknown how many people benefited - Number of Friends of APSFA: 35 benefited