ER trauma nurse Bridgette needs your help -Urgent!

This is Bridgette Candace, mother of 3 and ER Trauma RN (with her BSN, and in school for her Nurse Practitioner).

She has helped save HUNDREDS – but now after DOZENS of emergency trips to the hospital, she needs US to help save her!

WILL YOU PLEASE HELP SAVE BRIDGETTE?

HER STORY so far, as best I can remember:

In early 2022, Bridgette started experiencing atrial flutter - and was having seizures as well. Since then she has been rushed by ambulance over 25 times with seizures! She has also been intubated on life support 8 times to keep her airway open.

OVER 6 WEEKS…

as she cried for help, she was gasping to breathe – like a fish out of water – and she could barely walk due to low oxygen levels…

… SHE WAS MISDIAGNOSED AND SENT HOME from the hospital(s) 5 TIMES AS “JUST HAVING ANXIETY"; she was repeatedly just given anti-anxiety meds and breathing treatments - over and over - and then sent home.

…over 40 trips to the ER now…

Once, while in the ICU she was extubated, but then had to be immediately re-intubated as she was not breathing on her own; this was a traumatic intubation causing tracheal stenosis (severe narrowing) and several other airway issues.

FINALLY…

…Thankfully, there was one doctor (to whom we attribute saving her life) who rushed to scope her airway, and seeing that her airway opening was the size of a pinhole (or as the doctors put it ‘a Capri straw’), had her in surgery within minutes. Afterward, the doctor said, "it is a miracle you are alive"!

Meanwhile, through all of this, the doctors’ diagnoses have been very inconsistent - from ENT to Pulmonary to Thoracic Surgeons – they all have a different diagnosis!

On May 25th, 2023 she finally had tracheotomy surgery – JUST SO SHE COULD BREATHE - due to yet another diagnosis - of Laryngomalacia - which is very rare and previously only seen in newborns.

LATELY…

Bridgette was rushed by ambulance yesterday (June 24th, 2023) in respiratory failure and put on a ventilator to assist breathing through the trach. She is stable - and a Miracle by all accounts.

Her quality of life went from running in the ER on 12 hour shifts, working out and even sky diving - but for many months now has been housebound, on Oxygen and suctioning herself.

There is so much more to this absolutely horrific last 18 months…

As you see Bridgette saves lives for a living; I know SHE EVEN SAVED MINE when I had Covid and several other times.

Insurance?

She pays into her Blue Shield PPO insurance; she even bought long-term disability insurance as she thought it good to have in case she was hurt so that her family would be ok financially. It is a private policy, but they stop payments from time to time at their discretion and we have to send them monthly medical reports and fill out HOURS OF PAPERWORK and fight them monthly as they defer a portion of the medical bills to social security. It has been a nightmare and a full-time job just doing all the paperwork and calls.

SO YOU WOULD THINK that the insurance pays most of the bills, right?

WRONG!! What we have learned through all this is that if you pay religiously into all your insurance benefits, NONE of the in-home health care, PTSD/Trauma therapy, EMDR therapy, prescription discounts, well, NONE OF THIS IS COVERED UNLESS YOU ARE ON GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE (Medi-cal). After HOURS of talking to case workers, social workers, physical therapists, etc. We were told by all - even the doctors - "I am sorry you do not qualify".

SHOCKING!

If you own a home, work hard - even with several of us advocating for Bridgette - we have received NOT ONE PENNY for in-home care.

COBRA insurance? They want $1,000.00 a month to keep her insured when she is not working and disabled, FIGHTING EVERY MOMENT OF EVERYDAY JUST TO KEEP HER AIRWAY OPEN AND ALIVE.

HEALTH CARE? Really?

It has been horrific and I am beyond distraught from the level of incompetence and medical errors I have witnessed. Bridgette has been in the hospital more than home. On top of that, I needed to be at my daughter’s bedside TO MAKE SURE they do not let her blood sugars, potassium, magnesium DROP TO CRITICAL LEVELS AS THEY HAVE - EVEN IN ICU (NOT ACCEPTABLE!) as she has several other health issues, and scoliosis to boot.

There is so much to this story, and many have told Bridgette (even the nurse today), that all this is so unbelievable that she needs a Netflix series. I agree, as her story needs to be told.

NEXT UP…

Bridgette will need several surgeries - the next one July 5th, 2023 - and with all the medical bills, home care supplies for trach care, utilities bills, school loans all piling up, all resources and savings have been exhausted.

I know Bridgette has been a warrior fighting her best fight; even the nurses tell her "we learned so much from you” - and she is the patient! Her school loan has a balance of $140,000 with West Coast University and they know she is fighting for her life, but in the few days she was home, she was served with papers to pay now. This will ruin her credit and any chance of ever going back to finish her NP school, and fight for all who need it.

This is her journey.

Her Specialty has been in Mental Health and she sees the crisis in this country and wants to change the laws and go to Congress. Bridgette is a living wikipedia about the mind-body connection and also suffers from anxiety. Once we get her back up and running, she is on a mission to make a difference. Let's help her best we can to save her home for her children, get her the medical care she needs, and most important save her life!

Every penny will be greatly appreciated. It takes a village, and if you can please pray, donate and just know we will give Bridgette back her voice, and a Mother back to her children. We must be Bridgette Candace's Voice right now, and one day she will advocate for the wrongs that need to be made right in health care.

I am so sorry if I forgot so much of the details of this beautiful, smart, highly intelligent nurse, mother, sister, auntie - and my best friend that I also call my daughter.

I love our country and all the good people in it; God Bless each and everyone of you! With all I have, I THANK YOU!!