Hello everyone, my name is Shay and I have a 9-year-old daughter named Ella. Anyone who knows me knows that it takes a LOT for me to publicly ask for help, but here I am.

On Thursday July 17th, our lives were turned upside down. Due to all the wildfire smoke in the air, my daughter suffered a severe asthma attack. This asthma attack was significant and sudden, leaving her limp, blue, and struggling to breathe. She was rushed to Rio Grande Hospital, where the incredible ED staff stabilized her. Due to respiratory failure, she was flown by emergency air transport to the pediatric ICU in Colorado Springs. Thankfully, she’s now recovering and doing much better.

As you can imagine, the costs of emergency care, transport, and the ongoing medical expenses are overwhelming. We had initially asked for help with expenses as Ella recovered for several days in Colorado Springs. The funds received during that time were used towards medications, food, toiletries, transportation, and gas (to her follow-up appointment in Denver and then back home.) Thank you to everyone who helped us. Whatever is left will be used towards the bills we have yet to receive.

At this time we are extending the GFM to ask for assistance with medical bills. Despite paying $900/mo for health insurance, our co-pays are outrageous. We have received the first wave of very large medical bills, and it's not pretty.

We will owe money for the initial ER visit, the ambulance ride to the airport, the emergent flight to Children's, the 2nd ambulance ride to the hospital from the airport and then the actual PICU stay.

In addition to the $37,877.06 charge to our insurance for the hospital stay, our insurance has also been billed SEVEN separate times by each doctor who cared for Ella at the hospital. We will owe copays for that as well.

So I’m reaching out to ask for your help. If you have a few extra dollars to spare, we would very much appreciate it. We are stretched very thin, especially with missing several days of work to tend to her medical needs and follow up visits. So, all additional donations will be used directly towards medical bills accrued during this difficult time.