
Help bring Rich home
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Amy. My dad, Rich, has been living in Japan for the last 20 years with my stepmom, Yorie. Last summer, he contracted Covid-19. He has an underlying blood cancer which tends to make Covid even worse. He was on a ventilator for 7 weeks. He was able to get to rehab after this, however, unfortunately, contracted another Covid infection at the end of November. Since this time, he’s been on the vent a couple more times; heart failure, bacteremia, stroke, and possible seizures are just a few of the obstacles my dad has faced. He’s currently unable to speak, unable to eat, and unable to move his extremities much. He has had some delirium. He really needs to be back in the states for rehab, particularly given the language barrier. Over the last couple of months, we have been working on obtaining insurance for him and trying to figure out the logistics of transferring him to Des Moines. As you can imagine, this is no easy task and it is a very expensive task. We found transportation from Tokyo to Chicago but no commercial airline flies medically into Des Moines. There is a company called Air Methods that would provide transportation for this journey however the estimated cost is $19,874.69 as my dad doesn’t yet have insurance. (Even once he gets insurance, there’s no guarantee it will be covered.) It can take over a month to get his insurance. This cost doesn’t include the transport from Tokyo to Chicago or any of the medical bills that are rolling in. My stepmom had to quit her job to be with him and they currently have no income. He’s only 63 so retirement is a little bit sticky right now too.
I hate making this request, but I need my dad… He needs to be here. I can’t imagine how confused he must be; being in a foreign country, without much of your native language, on top of healing from an extremely long road. He has been fighting so hard. I suspect he knows how much I need him especially after losing my brother last year.
I made this GoFundMe to try to alleviate at least some of the financial burden, to get him here as soon as we can. I appreciate any and all help more than I can ever say…
** also, for full transparency, they do have some money saved. But a good friend of mine said “someone shouldn’t have to blow through their life savings to stay alive” and that rings true to me. They will have monthly bills, moving expenses, not to mention a house and a car at some point. (Of course they will stay with us for as long as needed…) My dad would actually hate that I’m posting this.
Organizer

Amy Mcgraw
Organizer
Bondurant, IA