Desperate for help, needy post pleas online | The Columbus Dispatch

With forthcoming treatment and medications expected to cost $3,000 a month, Mercier -- who has no health insurance -- finds himself in a crisis."It's very humiliating," he said. "I never thought I would be in this position." Lacking options, Mercier recently tapped an unlikely source of salvation: the Internet.

Last month on the Columbus and Zanesville editions of craigslist, a no-cost, online-classifieds Web site, and on the New Jersey-based Wishuponahero.com, he pleaded for help of any kind -- a few dollars, a prayer, a meal...