HELP!! Airlift Amma to NY
Donation protected
Gerry Bergstrom is in critical condition with septic shock in an ICU in a in Puerto Rico and needs to get home to Fairport, NY.
Gerry has been battling Multiple Myeloma (a cancer of blood plasma) since 2019. Although she had a fairly mild case, requiring chemo monthly over the last 3.5 years, she wanted more time with her family and fought hard to be one of the oldest CAR T-cell transplant patients!
This past March, preliminary labs showed she was in remission and, a family trip for Easter was planned as a celebration. Unfortunately, just as they were arriving, Gerry experienced a terrible setback when she suffered a delayed reaction to the CAR T, and had to be rushed to the hospital.
She is currently in the ICU at her third hospital in Puerto Rico. Her grandchildren returned home, but her daughter has remained to stay with her. She is septic and in critical condition. Her limbs are so swollen, they’re unrecognizable. She is mostly unconscious, but began opening her eyes and talking late last week. The hospital follows very different guidelines than the United States, including a mostly non-existent sterile technique for changing her central line, placing her at higher risk of death every day she is here; they don’t even wipe the ends of her central IV catheters with alcohol before connecting.
All of her doctors agree that getting her to her home oncology team at Wilmot Cancer Center at University of Rochester, as soon as possible, is critical to her survival. However, she will require an air ambulance, which Medicare and her supplemental insurance with United Healthcare do not cover and starts at more than $50,000.
Please consider donating in order to bring this Grandma and Mom home to receive the medical care and rehab she so desperately needs and deserves.
Gerry has been battling Multiple Myeloma (a cancer of blood plasma) since 2019. Although she had a fairly mild case, requiring chemo monthly over the last 3.5 years, she wanted more time with her family and fought hard to be one of the oldest CAR T-cell transplant patients!
This past March, preliminary labs showed she was in remission and, a family trip for Easter was planned as a celebration. Unfortunately, just as they were arriving, Gerry experienced a terrible setback when she suffered a delayed reaction to the CAR T, and had to be rushed to the hospital.
She is currently in the ICU at her third hospital in Puerto Rico. Her grandchildren returned home, but her daughter has remained to stay with her. She is septic and in critical condition. Her limbs are so swollen, they’re unrecognizable. She is mostly unconscious, but began opening her eyes and talking late last week. The hospital follows very different guidelines than the United States, including a mostly non-existent sterile technique for changing her central line, placing her at higher risk of death every day she is here; they don’t even wipe the ends of her central IV catheters with alcohol before connecting.
All of her doctors agree that getting her to her home oncology team at Wilmot Cancer Center at University of Rochester, as soon as possible, is critical to her survival. However, she will require an air ambulance, which Medicare and her supplemental insurance with United Healthcare do not cover and starts at more than $50,000.
Please consider donating in order to bring this Grandma and Mom home to receive the medical care and rehab she so desperately needs and deserves.
Organizer
Alexa LaDuke
Organizer
Fairport, NY