GoFundMe campaign started for ex-Ratt (Bobby Blotzer’s version) singer Josh Alan’s medical problems

GoFundMe campaign started for ex-Ratt (Bobby Blotzer’s version) singer Josh Alan’s medical problems

Former Ratt (Bobby Blotzer‘s version) and Sin City Sinners frontman Josh Alan has apparently struggled with multiple serious medical issues for quite some time and now needs help to pay for treatments at the world renowned Mayo Clinic. A GoFundMe campaign has been started by Alan‘s wife Karen Scott.

Alan was part of Bobby Blotzer’s Ratt Experience back in mid-2015, which became “Ratt” in late September 2015. The singer resigned from Blotzer‘s version of Ratt back on January 23, 2017.

The GoFundMe campaign for Alan indicates (with slight edits):

“I am starting this Go Fund Me for my husband Joshua‘s multiple medical complications and the need for him to get to the Mayo clinic. This amount will be for his initial visits and testing that need to be performed in order to get this process started. His troubles started after being implanted with a defective hernia mesh for an inguinal hernia in 2009. He was told by his doctor that he would never ever have a problem again. Starting approximately three months after the mesh was placed, he started experiencing abdominal pain. After multiple ER visits, hospital admissions, seven colonoscopies, two upper endoscopies, and scores of abdominal CT scans, and other various nuclear medicine studies, the doctors gave him various suspected causes. These included Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, just to name a few with no definitive diagnosis and no mention of the mesh. He dealt with the constant abdominal pain (equivalent to food poisoning) over the years which persistently grew worse.

One doctor in 2012 told him that a benign tumor next to his  T2 T3  vertebrae was the cause of his abdominal discomfort, resulting in a back operation in September of 2012. Over the years he has just dealt with the pain…singing and playing with his bands but ending up in the hospital about once a month when the pain was very severe. He would be admitted anywhere from three days to two weeks due to inflammation of the sigmoid colon and pancreatitis, suspected to have been caused by the above-mentioned digestive disorders. On one occasion, the hospital attempted to place an NG tube causing a detached retina that resulted in four eye surgeries to correct. After being seen by what felt like every physician in Las Vegas and being dismissed like it was all in his head, he went and got copies of all of his CT scans. He took a few online courses on how to interpret a CT scan and was able to identify the Mesh and seven tacks that began to erode into his internal organs. How could ALL of these professionals miss this??

After a year fighting with the insurance company, they finally sent him for a second opinion at USC Keck in California. The surgeon used his CT scans we brought from the Las Vegas hospitals and saw it right away. The mesh had eroded into his colon and bladder with two of the seven titanium tacks eroding into his pelvic bone. The mesh was twisted and much smaller than it was when placed. A team of surgeons at USC Keck performed a revision surgery in October of 2017 to remove the hernia mesh and the seven titanium tacks. Unfortunately, a portion of the mesh was unable to be removed as it had eroded into his inferior epigastric artery. When they sent the mesh off for testing, it showed that he had a mast cell allergic reaction. As a result, he has developed new allergies to all kinds of things. Food for starters (chicken, squash, dates, bananas). He eats this breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and if he adds anything it will result in hospitalization. Allergies to clothes, detergents, perfumes, chemicals of any kind, fragrances, and even polyester, that being the main component of the hernia mesh. He can only wear 100% cotton. If his skin comes into contact with any of these including polyester, it causes a severe chemical like burn all over his body.

Over Christmas of 2019, his body began to reject the scleral buckle that was implanted to repair the detached retina in 2017, just a few months before the hernia mesh revision surgery. After a week of pain and agony, yet another hospitalization, and five doctors all concluding that it was conjunctivitis without performing a single swab or test. He finally convinced a surgeon to remove the device. Pathology and lab results showed the same giant cell allergic response as the hernia mesh. Now, the mesh that was left behind is becoming increasingly problematic and has to be removed. Since this is considered high-risk, the only facility able to perform the operation is the Mayo Clinic, and unfortunately our insurance is not contracted with their facility.

As many of you know, he is a very talented musician and has been completely grounded since 2017. Music is his passion and has been his entire life since he was very young. To have this ripped out from under him due to a faulty medical device has been extremely painful for him to endure and has caused him a great amount of stress, anxiety, and depression. Now, any activities engaging the abdominal muscles where the remaining mesh is, causes a release of mast cells that purge through his skin resulting in what looks and feels like a chemical burn. He has been doing everything he can to combat this on his own and try to stay positive through his diet, exercise, and hours of meditation every day but it’s not enough. Thank you all for taking the time to read his story and if you can help in any way to get him into the Mayo Clinic, as it seems more so every day that his life depends on it. We would be eternally grateful. Love To All!!”