Hilda needs our help 10 years after being run over

10 years ago today, my mom—Hilda—was run over by a car, changing her life forever.

The weight of the car crushing her chest, she broke 20 ribs, 27 bones, and was in a coma with a slim chance of survival.

Through hard work that inspired so many of us, she survived. Only to later have the broken ribs that had healed into her lungs RE-BROKEN and plated back together so she could continue to live past another year.

Sadly, due to the nature and location of the accident and other legal parameters, Hilda has had to pay for these medical bills and continues to pay out of pocket for her treatment years later. And after surviving, she had to travel to Baltimore for the only doctor able to do the life-saving rib plating.

Hilda’s diaphragm and lungs were also injured. She cannot breathe the way you or I breathe.

10 years later, she still goes to therapy to work on every breath she takes.

The trauma to her systems while pinned under the car makes it so her body burns so many more calories than she takes in just to digest her food.

As a result of all this, Hilda has to see multiple specialists.

She sees a team consisting of a nutritionist, physical therapist, trainer, massage therapists, and a somatic therapist for the trauma to her body and mind—all paid for by Hilda completely out of pocket.

She has to go to dry needling in order to push air between the tight muscles in her ribs, and every breath she takes since that day 10 years ago is painful. This therapy is also not covered by Medicare.

Any time she goes to any of the specialists, each appt is over $100. And she should be seeing them regularly, but the cost is too much.

The supplements she is on are also hundreds and not covered.

And of the three hospital stays she’s had for the accident, the first one alone was 500,000 dollars. And I know there are more bills that I’m not privy to as her child.

To be honest, my mother has a lot of pride and never asked for help before. And it’s taken time for her to admit it, but she is suffering from PTSD. She remembers being run over. She remembers it everyday. Being pinned under the car. And the stress her body has gone through since that moment is not only on her body, but on her mind too. Every day she’s in pain and experiences PTSD.

As a senior citizen on Medicare, the treatments she needs she often has to put off because it costs too much on a fixed income.

We are trying to help so she doesn’t have to worry about paying for the treatment she needs in order to stay alive.

She is also on daily nutritional help out of pocket to try and help feed her even more calories as eating 3K on her own each day still isn’t enough for her to put on weight with the amount of calories her body burns just trying to keep her alive.

My mom may not have a lot, but she’s constantly looking for ways to help others. She is the first person to see an older person eating alone and pay for their meal. She takes care of her grand kids.

Every single day she is in pain, and every single day she lives her life in a way in which no one would know it. She doesn’t complain. Always says how others have it worse. She’s grateful to be alive, and she is working so hard at healing and getting stronger.

I hope you guys can help me get Hilda/my mom the continued care she needs to be able to stay fighting this fight she’s been on.

And as many of you know, that accident happened after she survived MULTIPLE brain surgeries. And she’s now also dealing with losing her vision in an eye which requires multiple expensive eye drops every day. It’s just like: how much can one person take?

We also want to set her up with easy delivered meals for her dietary needs so she and my father who has Multiple Sclerosis don’t have to worry about this or expend their energy on this and can just focus on feeling better.

Thank you all for taking the time and care to read this and help out my mom Hilda on this, the 10 year anniversary of the one of the worst days of our lives. She is hopeful and she is a fighter.

Let’s help Hilda heal.

Her daughter, Shaina