'Nightmare on Elm Street 2' star Mark Patton asks for help with medical bills: 'I will not be embarrassed'

Mark Patton, star of the 1985 thriller A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, is asking for help with his medical bills so he can undergo treatment for what his manager describes as "AIDS-related ailments."

Patton, 63, who is currently hospitalized in Mexico, spoke out in a statement on a GoFundMe page set up by his manager, Peter Valderrama. Created just two days ago, the fundraiser has already accumulated $30,350 in donations, surpassing its original $18,000 goal.

“Basically I am asking for help; I will not be embarrassed," wrote Patton, who rose to stardom in the film as Jesse Walsh, a teen whose body was possessed by horror fixture Freddy Krueger, portrayed by Robert Englund. "I just want to be healthy and at home with family."

According to Patton, he needs to move to the American Hospital in Mexico where he can receive the proper treatment. However, it costs $300 dollars a day to be treated there, and the current facility where he is staying is "overwhelmed with COVID and I am too compromised to remain here."

"I feel very stupid for being overly optimistic," he continued. "I thought I would be flying to Chicago today but I promise that when I am well enough to fly to the USA I will. I have faced these medical challenges before and I know I have a lot of fight left in me. But the last few years have been crippling for me financially. I have always lived month to month and I have been struggling with medical visits since October."

Patton added that the financial assistance "would mean a life-saving option for me to be recovering in a place that can cater to my condition." He signed the post simply, "Thank you all. Love, Mark."

Valderrama went into further detail about his client's condition, sharing that Patton had been looking forward to an upcoming show appearance.

"He has been ill for quite some time now," Valderrama wrote. "Originally it was thought to be aftershocks of COVID and some hefty infections that could potentially be tackled with care and rest. But now it is quite clearly AIDS-related ailments that he is managing. Mark was truly looking forward to this show for quite some time but sadly his health has taken a drastic turn for the worse."

Patton previously shared that he was diagnosed with HIV in 1999. In an interview with HIV+ Magazine, he explained how he discovered he was living with the virus.

“I found out on my 40th birthday and three days later I was in the hospital,” Patton told the magazine. “But because of the infections I had, they made me take tuberculosis medicine and that didn’t mix with those older HIV meds. There were so many side effects. It was like I was poisoned."

Though he says he nearly died at the time, his health soon improved. He went on to get married and move to Mexico.

In the present day, Patton is a fixture on the horror circuit, and he takes those events "very seriously and values any opportunity to meet with [fans] in person," according to Valderrama.

Yahoo Entertainment reached out to Valderrama, but he could not be reached at the time of publication.