Life saving crowdfunding campaign begins for indie dev

An indie developer has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money for a lifesaving operation.

Called “I am going to survive”, Chicago-based Chloe Sagal is looking for $35,000 to remove a piece of shrapnel from her body, causing life-threatening illness from metal poisoning.

Sagal said that the shrapnel makes her prone to illness, weakness and involuntary twitching, and could even result in permanent brain damage. She added that if it was not removed, “eventually it will kill me”.

The metal poisoning was likely caused by a car crash from a “near fatal” car crash a few years ago, in which a piece of shrapnel may have been left behind unnoticed after a previous operation.

She claimed that her insurance company has denied to pay for the operation due to the nature of the illness and the apparent lower than normal chances of survival, given the metal object is situated in a “compromising place”. Sagal said she has also failed in her attempts to sue for malpractice and file for a medical loan.

She said that due to stress from the illness and working to find funds for the operation, including game development part-time, she may now only have months to live if the shrapnel is not removed.

“I’m not done fighting this, however, about a week or so ago, after collapsing in class I was brought to the hospital,” said Sagal.

“Apparently I have been over-stressing myself, between going to school full time, working full time (at minimum wage, of course), trying to raise money through game development projects and freelancing, family (or lack thereof), other life issues, and just dealing with this whole situation, I have too much cortisol in my system. My time frame for surviving this has lowered from a few years to a few months, with loss of many basic functions due to arrive prior to my passing.

“I don’t have time to futz with the system, right now I just need to get this thing out of me. I am a strong and independent woman, I can handle almost anything myself, but I’m setting this aside, because I do not want to die from this. I never wanted to resort to just donations (as opposed to asking for donations from people who’ve enjoyed my work), but it’s clear that this is the best option I have right now.”

During the first few days of taking to Indiegogo, the crowdfunding campaign was taken down while staff investigated its legitimacy, and republished the campaign a few days later after.

An Indiegogo spokesperson told Develop: “This campaign was frozen temporarily while under review, but reinstated as soon as its legitimacy was verified. Indiegogo’s proprietary trust and security algorithms, and our community of credible, conscious participants help to make Indiegogo the world’s largest, most trusted global crowdfunding platform.”

A number of indie developers have also pledged their support for the campaign in the past few days, including Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell, who has pledged money direct from game sales for the last three days to the campaign.

So far the campaign has raised over $14,463 with 35 days remaining.

Visit the campaign’s Indiegogo page for more information.