Anorexia Nervosa: California Woman With Eating Disorder Who Weighs 40 Pounds Appeals For Help In Heart-Wrenching Video
“I need your help, otherwise I don’t have a shot,” former actress Rachael Farrokh said as she pleaded for help to save her dying 40-pound frame.
The 37-year-old California woman has been battling a severe case of anorexia nervosa for 10 years, and now she is seeking help in the form of funds to assist with her battle against the disease.
The form of anorexia that Farrokh is fighting with is so difficult to treat that she’s been rejected from virtually all the hospitals where she’d sought treatment because she does not meet their minimum weight requirements.
However, there’s still hope for Rachael as there’s one hospital located across the country that has the capability of helping her critical condition.
In an interview with CNN, Farrokh revealed that she turned to social media for help after exhausting all other options. She and her husband, Rod Edmonson, created a GoFundMe page in order to raise enough money to treat her crippling anorexic state.
On her GoFundMe page, Edmonson, who has quit his job as a personal trainer to care for her 24 hours a day, stated that over a 10-year period, she has had blood transfusions, blood clots, edema – and has also suffered heart, liver, and kidney failure.
“She is at a critical point,” he writes. “Her days are limited if we don’t take action immediately.”
Initially seeking to raise enough money to cover treatment at the Acute Center for Eating Disorders at the Denver Health Medical Center, Rachael stated that she was warned against attempting such a journey in her current state. She would need to build up her body mass and strength before traveling across the country to the Health Center.
“My doctor wants me to stay here (in California) and is bringing the hospital basically to my bedside,” Farrokh told CNN. “I’ll have a doctor, a registered nurse, therapist and other specialist treat me from home. My eating disorder doctor has set all of this up for me.”
Farrokh continued, “She actually has provided even extra care because right now she doesn’t think it’s safe for me to make the travel across country to a treatment center. We are trying to build up to that point to travel to a specialized treatment center like Denver Health.”
A debilitating disease, anorexia nervosa is said to be the most deadly psychological disorder out there, with four times more risk of death risk than depression.
However, the treatment of this illness is not as easy as some would think. Special care is needed to get the body back to a healthy functional state. One wrong move and the body’s metabolism can increase, which would result in even more weight being lost.
“What people don’t understand is I can’t just eat a cheeseburger because it could kill me,” said Farrokh, who’s slowly increasing her calorie intake by as small as 25 calories per day.
“We have already started. It’s going OK. I have good days and bad days just like anyone. What kept me really up and fired right now is the love and support and motivation from everyone who has reached out to me — thousands of people. I had a bulimic girl tell me she pulled her head out of the toilet and (sought) treatment after seeing my story,” she said.
Looking back at her struggle with anorexia, Farrokh said it all began spiraling down after she innocently “wanted to drop a few pounds to get better abs.” Then, over time, she went from her 125 pounds to her current 40-pound emaciated state.
Now she is seeking to encourage others to avoid venturing down a similar path.
“I want to bring awareness to this disease because it’s going unnoticed and there’s a lot of shame around eating disorders right now,” she said. “It’s inspiring me to want to get better — I want my struggle to help other women know that they aren’t alone. This terrible disease should not be kept in the closet of shame.”
Annually, there are approximately 20 million women and 10 million men who suffer from an eatingdisorder.
[Image: GoFundMe/Facebook: Rachaels-Road-to-Recovery]
