Mia is an incoming college freshman and pre-med student recently diagnosed with Nutcracker Syndrome and is awaiting a required auto transplant surgery in December. She needs help to receive medical care while attending college - especially for student health insurance - and to minimize work to avoid back pain, hematuria, tachycardia, and blood clots until she recovers.

Mia was a track athlete who already overcame great odds, including 6 hip surgeries in 8th and 9th grade to correct hip dysplasia - requiring a total of 24 weeks in a wheelchair, 24 weeks on crutches, and months of physical therapy to return to competing and making it to state championships. She also fought back from a broken collarbone her Junior year just 8 weeks before she went to nationals.

Unfortunately, Mia was unable to compete in track her senior year due to increasingly dangerous, unexplained medical problems which were finally diagnosed a couple weeks before graduating high school this May. This means she missed out on scholarships and is also facing massive medical bills and unpaid tuition until she recovers.

Mia is very lucky that a specialty team is located in her hometown of Denver and has accepted her case due to its complexity (this is often treated at Mayo Clinic.) She will spend a week in the hospital over the holidays to recover from the surgery.

Her single mom took 6 weeks of Family Medical Leave to condense all Mia’s early treatment requirements, including 21 doctor appointments, CT and nuclear medicine tests, and an initial surgery, so Mia could still start college in the fall.

This 6 weeks of treatment led to $5,843 in out-of-pocket medical expenses, but it SHOULD have helped her reach her insurance's out-of-pocket maximum for the year of $6,000 - setting her up for the surgery in December without expense.

Unfortunately, the day her mother returned to work, she was laid off. This ended Mia’s current health insurance and finished wiping out family savings (after all the previous care) on these initial expenses. Because she is over 18, these new expenses can also damage her credit.

Mia worked two jobs during senior year - while also taking 4 early college classes - to cover a lot of her college expenses.

However, due to this situation Mia urgently needs to cover:

$4,288 student health insurance - one time payment for the school year

$2,500 for new out-of-pocket maximum for treatment

$1,000 in flights home from college for treatment

In order to avoid complications, she also needs help with:

$8,400 to cover $1,400/month in tuition payments September through February until she can return to her planned restaurant and childcare work while in school.

Because of Mia’s experience with the health care system, she wants to become a surgeon in an underserved community or otherwise specialize in Neuroscience with an emphasis on pain management. Her A+ senior thesis was a 24 page paper on this subject!

Please help her stay on her path despite this significant setback.