Solano County, CA

Infected: Sometime before 2011, details unknown
Diagnosed: 2014
Current health: Deceased

I believe Andrew was killed by Lyme because our current medical and psychological system is happy to treat symptoms and never find the root cause of illness.

Unfortunately, Lyme disease is a very challenging illness. Far too many patients struggle for years with debilitating symptoms that are dismissed or misunderstood and frequently misdiagnosed. Below follows an emotional story shared by the father of a recently deceased Lyme patient, who struggled for years to be successfully diagnosed with Lyme.

The story of my son Andrew Greer does not have a happy ending. Andrew was an amazing, one-of-a-kind person. He deeply cared for people. He was extremely athletic and bright and kind. People who met Andrew even briefly came away knowing they had met someone who was special, who listened and cared. People who knew Andrew well knew that this perception was no illusion. Andrew loved his three brothers and his parents deeply. He loved adventure — surfing in Bali, trekking in Nepal and in the Sierras, traveling to Argentina …

Andrew’s odyssey with Lyme began in 2010. He began having pain in his hips and went to a Doctor who said he would need hip surgery. Andrew decided against the surgery and opted to treat with physical therapy and nutrition. Two of his passions. The pain turned into crushing fatigue. Andrew used to workout like he was training for the NFL. Now, he was so fatigued he could barely move and his brilliant mind became foggy.

He went to a Doctor who told him he had adrenal fatigue, and was put on a special diet and supplements. This condition turned into a feeling that his connective tissues were compromised, so he changed doctors and new blood tests were ordered. These tests showed evidence of parasites. He also began to see a psychiatrist for anxiety and depression. Andrew began having severe environmental sensitivities — so bad that he couldn’t live indoors. He moved to Kauai and worked on an organic farm to try to heal. After returning from Hawaii, he finally found a doctor who was able to determine he was suffering from Lyme. By now Andrew was very suspicious of Doctors and he opted to only be treated with natural medicine.

Last summer, the Lyme began to affect his mind in such a way that he felt that by eating he was harming people. He began to lose weight drastically. After unsuccessfully trying to get him into a Lyme-literate psychiatrist or psychologist we took him to the Stanford ER. When I told the ER doc that Andrew was suffering from chronic Lyme, the doctor said he didn’t believe in chronic Lyme. Andrew ended up in the Psych unit at Stanford where he was given psych meds, and tested for number of things. They reluctantly tested him for Lyme even though I had given them the positive test results from his Lyme doctor. The test Stanford used came back negative which is not uncommon, so they just treated him for his psychological symptoms.

Seeing that we were not going to get any help with his Lyme from Stanford, we pursued a more aggressive treatment from the doctor who had originally found he had Lyme. I think by this time Andrew was pretty sure he was never going to regain his old self and decided to end his life. He agonized over this decision for months and 2 days after Christmas he left this world.

“I believe Andrew was killed by Lyme because our current medical and psychological system is happy to treat symptoms and never find the root cause of illness. My hope is that organizations like Bay Area Lyme and ILADS are able to raise awareness and money to develop accurate tests and treatment for this terrible disease.”