Our mother, Jamie Burgh, has recently been diagnosed with life-threatening stage four lung cancer. We are asking for help to get her home so she can improve her quality of life and heal. We want to provide mom with the relief, security, dignity, and safety to live at home while receiving treatment and enjoy a sense of comfort and feel that she is being looked after by people who care about her.
The story:
Our mother, Jamie Burgh, was experiencing hip pain and having trouble getting around in the summer of 2022. On her way back from physical therapy, she fell and broke her arm, and severely dislocated her elbow, which resulted in five surgeries. Being a widow and living alone on a fixed income from social security she was unable to heal at home and has been recovering from these surgeries in a skilled nursing facility. At the nursing facility, she fell again while the staff was showering her. She hit her head and landed on her hip, which led her to be admitted to the hospital for X-rays and a CT scan which revealed multiple small fractures in her hip and pelvis. Investigating these fractures led to the finding of lesions caused by previously undetected non-small-cell adenocarcinoma. She was transferred to another hospital much further from home, where she was eventually diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
Our mom’s biggest wish is to go home, which will not be possible without 24 hour home health care. She is currently living at the sub-acute rehab center, while recovering from the surgeries on her arm. Due to the cancer spreading to her bones, her hip fracture makes her unable to walk or stand and puts her at risk for another fall. Because of the injuries to her arm, she cannot use a walker or move around in a wheelchair without assistance, nor can she lift herself in and out of bed. If we cannot raise the funds to bring her home she will have to live permanently at a nursing home. Since living at the sub acute rehab center since October 2022 (5 months now) her morale has decreased as she does not receive much attention due to short staffing and limited resources at this facility. We have witnessed her unable to get proper care with her physical therapy, waiting hours for medication and falling out of bed at night, laying there for hours before an attendant found her to put her back into bed. We are extremely concerned about the fact that she is already immunocompromised and will be even more immunocompromised when she begins chemotherapy and further cancer treatment.
We have been advised by her physicians, including the attending physician at the nursing home that she should not be in the facility while undergoing treatment and that she will not be able to receive any physical therapy, occupational therapy, or other rehabilitative assistance simultaneous to her cancer treatments.
We are planning on using the money for adaptive devices not covered by insurance, additional physical therapy and occupational therapy, transportation, home health aides, and other medical and travel expenses. We also want to explore possible experimental treatments or clinical trials that could potentially save her life or improve her quality of life.