Melanie's Heart Fund

My amazing, healthy and strong best friend of twenty-four years, Melanie Comstock, suffered a heart attack on Saturday the First of August.   One minute she's fine, the next minute she's in unbearable pain and before I knew it a life-saving EMT was trying to persuade her into the ambulance.  There were two reasons Melanie didn't want to leave her house on a stretcher; her children, and the fact that she doesn't have health insurance.  The EMT calmly explained that going to the Hospital was the right decision and yet still Mel softly protested, "I don't have insurance."  "We're not concerned with that right now" he responded with great compassion. Finally convinced, Thirty-nine year old Mel complied with his instruction.  Spending the next two nights in the Falmouth Hospital ICU, Melanie, her husband Mike, and their four young children, faced a frightening, life altering existence.  Grateful she survived the heart attack, they remained shocked and confused about her fragile future.  Transported to Cape Cod Hospital the following Monday, today as I write this, Mel has learned that blockage was not the culprit of her attack. Yeah! BUT, there is a malfunctioning with the heart, and though some questions have been answered many more remain a source of fearful confusion.  Meanwhile, as their whole world has spun off its axis, unbelievable medical bills have just begun, she remains hospitalized and her husbands missing work.  We are 'no-work no-money' people.  We don't have trust funds, pensions, 401K's, savings accounts or rich uncles.  Mel and Mike  represent a young Cape Cod family just trying to raise their family in their beloved hometown of Falmouth.  I'm hopeful that the generosity and spirit of their community can buoy them during their time of need, protecting them from a world where medical problems destroy financial futures.