Medical Bills And Care

My father, Terry McCabe is the most amazing man I know! He started his career by serving in the Air Force, he later worked in pharmaceuticals and retired into real estate. He served on several local boards and commissions. His newest job started on October 5, 2017 with his title being Grandpa!In 2008 he sustained a stroke and while in the hospital for the stroke his hip was broken. He fought hard to recover and has been living with his family since then with relatively few accommodations.December 23 of this year he woke up in severe pain. He went to the ER and was dismissed and sent home. He returned to the ER a few hours later and they discovered that the hardware that was installed in his hip in 2008 had malfunctioned and they needed to perform a partial hip replacement.The surgery was completed. While recovering from the surgery he experienced a series of unfortunate events due to poor care in the hospital setting. The last of which resulted in a full respiratory failure from a collapsed lung that was unnoticed until the family insisted on additional support. He was transitioned into the ICU where ultimately he had to be intubated and placed on a ventilator. He has since transitioned from the intubation to a tracheostomy. Presently my dad is at a specialty hospital trying to wean off ventilator support. Sadly, despite working his whole life and having Medicare and Private Insurance we are being told his time at the local specialty hospital is running out. We have only two options 1-send him across the state to one of 3 ventilator approved nursing homes to be “housed” or 2-bring him home with us being trained in ventilator support with the continued goal of weaning. We will be bringing him home. At this point, I haven’t slept at home in several weeks as I am bedside with him. I am on unpaid intermittent FMLA. I need to work to maintain my insurance and for my household to sustain, especially with our new baby boy. We will need significant nursing support beyond what I can be trained to provide for my father while at home on the ventilator and receiving tube feedings. His insurances will provide some limited hourly nursing support but the majority of the cost and care will be shouldered by the family. We are on several waiting lists for grant support, but it is unlikely that our names will be called anytime soon. With the medical bills from the hospitalization (not to mention the additional costs from the errors), the copays, the supportive products and the nursing care, we anticipate this cost to exceed several thousand dollars out of pocket. It’s a sad state of affairs where an 82 year old man, veteran, who worked up until he was 72 years old and served his community faithfully has to turn to crowd funding to have his medical needs met safely. Alas, here we are. Please consider helping my father be at home safely with family in order to recover and excel at his newest job as a grandpa!