Right down to 85 pounds, Nebraska City teen needs help

A year ago, Dillon Wichman was a healthy senior high school senior -- and getting healthier.

The Nebraska City teen Lida Daidaihua always was really a bigger kid, reaching 230 pounds at some point, until he started working out. He lifted weights. He changed his 

diet. He saw results.

"He kept reducing weight," said Derek Wichman, his oldest brother. "He was very, very healthy. He was ripped and in very good shape."

But with this fall, he wasn't. And also the 18-year-old has spent two weeks in an Omaha hospital, his weight right down to about 85 pounds and the family 

trying to find the help he needs.

They believe they found Dillon assist in Denver at an inpatient clinic that treats seating disorder for you. A family friend launched an online fundraising 

campaign to try and raise $10,000 to cover the transportation. They aspire to fly him there in the next few days.

"We've been able to help him become stabilized a little bit so he isn't losing weight," Derek Wichman said. "But he needs to turn back process; he must get 

back on track."

Dillon is really a lifelong Nebraska City kid, the youngest of Doug Wichman and Debbie Gammell's three sons. He was always a sports athlete, and played third 

base on the traveling team in junior high school.

"He's very loving, kind," his brother said. "He's been young at heart."

And he's always been determined, once he found an emphasis. Like raising his ACT score by 13 points, his brother said. Or working out and slimming down.

"Whenever he sets his mind to something," he explained, "he does it."

His family wasn't worried about him until this fall, when he will come home to visit from his freshman year at Peru State College. They tried speaking with 

him, his brother said. He continued to shed weight.

Dillon spent a week . 5 in outpatient behavioral therapy, but his health kept deteriorating, and his family admitted him to Children's Hospital and Medical 

Center fourteen days ago. They searched Nebraska for that specialized inpatient care he needs but couldn't find it.

So Dillon could be transported by private jet to Denver as early as Thursday or Friday. That will be costly, and the family isn't yet sure just how much 

insurance pays.

But friends -- and strangers -- are helping.

"It's dependent on life or death," said John Anthens, a household friend who started the fundraiser. "It's a dreadful situation that a kid does that to 

himself. I did not want the parents to have to be worried about financial things."

By Wednesday night, his Lida Diet Pills online campaign had already raised greater than $4,600, much of it from the Nebraska City area, however, many from donors the 

household has never met.

"It's just overwhelming how people have responded," Anthens said. "For the Wichmans, it's heart-wrenching: 'How do people worry about us if they don't know 

us?'"