His son suffers from a rare neurological genetic disorder and now the teen depends on his father for all of his basic needs, including his food. When he was forced to pay out of pocket for the special formula. The medical supplier didn\u2019t reimburse him. That\u2019s when he called Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
Fourteen year old Ali Cevik hasn\u2019t always needed a wheelchair. For the first eight years of his life he was a healthy active boy. But then his family started noticing changes.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cHe started regressing in school at first. We\u2019d have meeting with teachers, \u2018Hey, he\u2019s not doing so good here, he\u2019s not doing so good there.’\u201d<\/p>\n
He then started having difficulty in other areas.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cLittle by little, physically, he couldn\u2019t ride a bike, he couldn\u2019t, you know, talk fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was diagnosed with Niemann-Pick disease. A genetic disease that affects roughly one in 1 million people in the United States.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cIt\u2019s basically Alzheimer\u2019s for kids. You start losing your full body control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali can no longer eat on his own, he now lives on a combination of special formulas.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cThat\u2019s his lifeline. If he doesn\u2019t get that, he just dies.\u201d<\/p>\n
His feeding schedule has to be precise.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cWe put them in his feeding bag and there\u2019s a pump. We hook up the pump to it, and we feed him every six hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not cheap. His meals are thousands of dollars a month. Thankfully insurance covers it.<\/p>\n
But recently Ali\u2019s food was running out and the medical supplier hadn\u2019t received payment from the insurance provider so his dad paid for the formulas.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cIf the insurance doesn\u2019t pay for it, I\u2019m ready to pay for it, and I gave him my deposit for $2,550.\u201d<\/p>\n
The supplier promised to refund the money once the insurance company paid, but they only reimbursed half.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cIt\u2019s extremely, extremely frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, he came up with the cash so his son wouldn\u2019t lose his life saving special formula. But now the medical supplier won\u2019t reimburse him. Can the medical supplier take his money, and the insurance company\u2019s money?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: No, nobody can get paid more than once for their service. In fact, it\u2019s become such an issue, that there\u2019s a new law in Florida that requires that refund, in a timely manner.<\/p>\n
We called the medical supplier. They never called us back. But Ali\u2019s dad says they did contact him. <\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cAs soon as I called you guys within the next couple of days, I got my money back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great news for the family, who says Ali\u2019s life is hard enough, they shouldn\u2019t have to worry about him running out of food.<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cHe\u2019s in an industry where people are desperate, not just a little bit their lives depend on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully Ali has one thing going for him. A father who won\u2019t quit.<\/p>\n
Brandon Beyer: \u201cYou\u2019re glad you called Help Me Howard?\u201d<\/p>\n
Muslum Cevik: \u201cI\u2019m extremely happy I called Help Me Howard.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a beautiful family, such a dedicated father. <\/p>\n
Medical suppliers have to refund you within 30 days or they face fines and other disciplinary actions.<\/p>\n
You got a problem? Need a hand? Here\u2019s how to reach us. It\u2019s Help Me Howard, I\u2019m Brandon Beyer, 7News.<\/p>\n
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD: Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His son suffers from a rare neurological genetic disorder and now the teen depends on his father for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-125131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Email:\u00a0helpmehoward@wsvn.com<\/a>
Reporter: Brandon Beyer at\u00a0bbeyer@wsvn.com<\/a>
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN<\/p>\n