How GSSI, A Nonprofit, is Fighting Gastroparesis

Patrick Dunegan, Rare Impact Awardee, Kentucky colonel and executive director of Gastroparesis Support Services, Inc., explains how GSSSI, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is working to fight gastroparesis, a gastric motility disorder known to be very debilitating for those who suffer from it.

Dunegan: Gastroparesis Support Services Inc. is dedicated to taking care of patients and families who travel to Louisville, Kentucky, for a GI test and surgeries. It’s basically modeled after the Ronald McDonald house, but it’s just for gastroparesis, and we're referred to by the U of L GI Motility Clinic only, that way we take care of those patients. The last thing we want them to worry about when they’re coming into the big city of Louisville, Kentucky, is their stay and their family; we want them to concentrate on their condition, and that’s what brought us to where we’re at now. Originally, it was called Jennifer’s GP House, and since we don’t have a facility to actually house people in, we decided we would call it Gastroparesis Support Services, and supplement hotels, Uber lifts, food voucher cards from restaurants so that takes care of that until we actually get a facility.