Spokane man battling rare disease struggles to afford $22,000 monthly medication cost

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane father is facing a devastating choice between financial ruin and his life as he battles an extremely rare disease that requires tens of thousands in monthly medication to keep him alive.

Ryan Becker, father of a one-year-old, was diagnosed with pyoderma gangrenosum around a year ago, but his case defies medical expectations. He is the only recorded case of having all three subtypes of the disease simultaneously.

"They calculated the odds at one in 17.5 trillion," Becker said. "It's the equivalent of picking the same grain of sand out of all the grains of sand on the planet four times in a row."

The rare autoimmune condition causes brain swelling and painful lesions on his skin that require two to five bandage changes daily. The constant pain disrupts his sleep