Help Bridge Kyle's Healthcare Gap

“‘What is the bravest thing you’ve ever said?’ asked the boy. ‘Help,’ said the horse.”
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

               

My name is Catherine Wood and here is a little bit of our story.  I met my soulmate Kyle in 2008, the "old fashioned way" at a bar.  It was love at first sight.  Six years later we were married and ready to start the rest of our lives together.  We had just purchased our first home in Tampa in 2015 and welcomed our first child, Colette, in 2017.

In 2019, four weeks before the birth of our second child, Kyle had three grand mal seizures while out with friends celebrating his 33rd birthday. A large mass was discovered in his brain. He spent two days in the ICU before a brain biopsy to confirm that it was, in fact, cancer. The day after our son Donnie was born, Kyle and I took a call from a surgeon at Duke University to plan for his next steps. “Awake craniotomy” it’s called. When Donnie was three weeks old, Kyle boarded a flight to NC for what would be the start of a very long journey of treatment. If anyone knows Kyle, they know how determined he can be; he sailed through the maximum radiation and chemotherapy doses over the following year.

In September of 2020 we got the news that Kyle’s recent MRI was abnormal. One biopsy later he started a new treatment and a new chemotherapy, but that did not stop his decline. In April of 2021, Kyle made the extremely difficult decision to stop working and leave Seminole Electric. He had to leave his second family, the one who had watched him get engaged, and then get married, and also helped him welcome our two children.
Currently, Kyle has lost the use of his right arm and his right foot. He has difficulty speaking, as word finding is a challenge. His short term memory has also suffered. With all of these symptoms, Kyle cannot be left alone for a long period of time. This means I am unable to obtain a job that will provide income and health insurance.

 

We need your help to bridge the gap until Kyle can qualify for Medicare in mid 2023.

 

While on disability, we will need to cover the entire cost of Kyle's health insurance’s premium: $12,000 a year. Kyle's out-of-pocket maximum is $3,000 a year. We also need help covering the cost of other treatments, home health aids, supplies or supplements that are not covered by insurance.

 

$24,000 total for Kyle's health insurance premium over two years.

$6,000 total out-of-pocket max for Kyle over two years.

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$30,000 minimum cost for Kyle's healthcare over the next two years.

 

People are always asking me, "what can I do?" and until now there was so much needed it was a difficult question to answer. Now the answer is clear. The magnitude of asking for a large amount of money is not lost on me, but Kyle's care is one of the biggest challenges we are facing. Any donation amount will help us tremendously, even the littlest bit will make the biggest difference.

 

We certainly have been blessed with so many caring and special people in our lives. Family, local friends and Kyle's Seminole Electric family already helped in so many ways. You never know who your “family” and community are until you have a crisis, and our huge "family" has really pulled through.