| How can I keep my mom alive and get her the medical help she will die without? |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|07:22 pm] |
This is a matter of life and death, and I wish I was kidding.
My mom has a very large tumor in her chest, and we can't do anything about it. It's bad enough that she's in the hospital through the ER every 2 to 4 weeks, and they said it needs to be taken out. Her last ER/hosp trip they found out the tumor has a tumor growing on it now. It's not cancerous, so if they can get it out, she'll have a recovery period the doctors estimate for 6 weeks, and then she'll be okay. Left alone, it's expected to kill her within months. We've been dealing with this for a year, with the first tumor diagnosed in March. The county where she lives has a very small, inadequate hospital that doesn't have the equipment or any doctors with the skills to remove this particular tumor. The hospital that's nearest that can is in another county. She can't get in the doors of that other hospital without insurance or Medi-Cal. She tried once by ambulance, and was transferred back to the small hospital 100 miles away after being stabilized.
The doctors had her apply for disability since she can't work, and she was denied. An attorney took it on on contingency, but today she got a decision on the court appeal and the court denied it. So she gets nothing. The social security office says she's well enough to be working full time, and the judge sided with them even her doctors, the ones who are professional, and her medical history since last summer show she can't. How can someone work when about a third of her time is spent hospitalized with the doctors struggling to stabilize her so she doesn't die and can live another week?
What she has now is a county coverage that only covers doctors in her county. No where else. The doctors she's seeing have tried getting her in the doors at the larger hospital, but can't.
She's under 65, not considered disabled even though she really is, isn't pregnant, or anything else, so she doesn't qualify for Medi-Cal or Medicare. She also has been turned down for private insurance. If she was accepted anyway, we don't know how the premium would have been paid since I'm not floating with extra dollars either, but I'd find a way. But she was denied anyway so it doesn't matter. I've applied for her for every medical insurance company in the northern California region.
She lives in Merced County right now, and the hospital she needs to be in is in San Mateo County, if this makes a difference at all. She worked until she not too sick last summer, a nurse for 25 years who now can't get medical help and will die, the doctors are surprised she hasn't died yet but she's close. It's really dire. She's wasting away from her organs shutting down from these tumors. On a "good" day, her weight goes up to 95 pounds, which is too little for 5'5".
What are some options for us/her, or do we have to accept she's just going to have to die?
Some suggestions made we'll try
Contacting congressmen
Trying the media, already submitted to Good Morning America on someone's suggestion
Trying Fresno's Community Memorial, and I now have some calls in waiting to hear back
I've given more information that I feel comfortable with, like my mom's location and occupation, and the hospital that can treat her and won't, hospitals she's been to, and why her disability claims were denied, even though it makes no sense how the court thinks she can work when her doctors say she can't. I know this is a new journal. I found this place by a google search for poor people and medical help. We exhausted every option we could think of on our own and from suggestions of people we know, and brick wall after brick wall is why I decided to ask publicly and online in case anyone had ideas no one we know thought of.
No one questions the cases in the media when a cancer patient is dying and can't get medical care no matter how hard they try, but I've been called a liar in the comments because my mom's sotry is just as dire. I don't care if anyone thinks that. If I can get a suggestion that works and saved her life, then what does it really matter is a few strangers think I'm lying? It's desperation that's even made me come online to ask for ideas. I wish this was all something made up. No one should die because they don't have money. But cancer patients die from not having any, and who says they're lying? People die all the time from not being able to get medical care. Getting aid requires more than being poor and having no assets. If that's all it took, don't you think every poor adult out there would have government coverage? Wouldn't you all have coverage if you only had to be poor and own very little?
My mom has no money or assets, and I'm living at the povery level, and we both eat from food kitchens and pantries. I send all money I can to help her. That's what being poor is. It's not having enough or a lot. if we had the money to pay for this, we wouldn't be poor. So just give suggestions. That's all I'm asking for, and they're free to give. |
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