Actor Mark Patton, who starred in the sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street, is gravely-ill with Aids in a Mexican hospital, his manager has confirmed.
The 63-year-old was diagnosed with HIV on his 40th birthday in 1999 and given just one year to live but has managed to outlive his short prognosis.
His boyfriend, Dallas star Timothy Patrick Murphy, died of Aids at the age of just 29 in December 1988.
According to the NHS, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and diseases.
Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is a term used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by the HIV virus.
Aids cannot be transmitted from one person to another, but HIV can. There currently isn’t a cure for HIV, but there are very effective drug treatments that enable most people with the virus to live a long and healthy life without being able to pass it on.
Mark’s manager Peter Valderrama has now launched a GoFundMe page in the hopes of raising enough money to transfer the actor to an English-speaking hospital.
In a statement on the page, Mark asked his fans: ‘Basically I am asking for help I will not be embarrassed. I just want to be healthy and at home with family.’
He has explained how the hospital is ‘overwhelmed with Covid’ and that he is ‘too compromised’ to remain there.
Mark says he needs to move to an American hospital ‘where they can give me the treatment I desperately need.’
The hospital Mark hopes to be transferred to costs $300 (£245.28) per day.
He continued: ‘I feel very stupid for being overly optimistic. I thought I would be flying to Chicago today but I promise that when I am well enough to fly to USA I will.
‘I have faced these medical challenges before and I know I have a lot of fight left in me – but the last few years have been crippling for me financially. I have always lived month to month and I have been struggling with medical visits since October.
‘If anyone is able to contribute it would mean a life saving option for me to be recovering in a place that can cater to my condition.’
He signed off: ‘Thank you all. Love, Mark.’
Peter added: ‘He has been ill for quite some time now – originally it was thought to be aftershocks of covid and some hefty infections that could potentially be tackled with care and rest.
‘But now it is quite clearly AIDS related ailments that he is managing. He has been quiet for his own privacy but with the cancellation of his events at the musicbox theater and horror house shop he has decided to release his news in the hopes that his community could help him.’
Mark, who is best known for starring as Jesse Walsh in 1985’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, most recently starred as himself in the mockumentary film The Once and Future Smash, which was released in August 2022.
The GoFundMe – which hoped to raise $18,000 (£14,716.70) – has reached almost double its target, with $30,295 (£24,769.03) having been raised at the time of publication.
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