Help Lauren battle the cost of COVID-19

 
Lauren needs our help. I met Lauren as a grad student at UNCW in 2014, and she was an AMAZING teaching assistant for me. I have nothing but awesome things to say about this fantastic human being. 

Lauren is a double alumna from UNCW ('13 B.A. and '16 M.A. both in Psychology). She is on the final and hardest step of getting her clinical Ph.D. at the University of Memphis. She just moved to Augusta, GA in June to complete her clinical internship (i.e., you work a ton of hours and usually get paid close to minimum wage while trying to finish your dissertation, begin really working as a clinician, worry about securing a full-time position next year, and adjust to a new city with virtually no money).

Lauren is the person who dedicates everything to helping others and has won many awards for the immense impact that she has had on those around her. She's literally the person who is always there whenever anyone needs it, and you could call her 24/7 for assistance. Right now, she could definitely benefit from us taking care of her. 

Despite taking every precaution, she caught COVID-19 while in the hospital caring for patients. She has extremely poor health insurance based on how little she makes as a student and lives paycheck to paycheck. She has a significant amount of student loans. In addition to the normal/enormous stress of finishing a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, she has suffered many medical emergencies over the years due to her lupus. Lupus is an inflammatory disease caused when the immune system attacks its own tissues. It attacks every part of a person's body, and Lauren's body has been playing offense on itself pretty heavily.

She has been sick with coronavirus for 18 days, and as of 8/10 seemingly no progress has been made. She says she's felt awful, slept more than she's been awake, is having serious respiratory issues, plus she is alone in GA without her support system. She has been diagnosed with pneumonia related to COVID-19; her lungs are not cooperating. The medical bills are already stacking up, and she will likely have more emergency room bills to come. There will be a long road to recovery with regular chest x-rays, doctor visits, and the many unknown complications that COVID-19 has, especially for people with autoimmune diseases. Even if her body decides to cooperate soon, she may have to extend her time in GA to complete her internship. This extended timeline would complicate her lease and program completion, which would then affect her being able to secure a strong job to begin to pay her educational and medical debt.

It's not an exaggeration to say that Lauren is a warrior. Her mom and her sister, Lindsey, mean more to her than anyone, and they are helpless to help her right now. No one likes asking for help, so I reached out to her and Lindsey to tackle this project because Lauren would do it for anyone in her life. She is truly a shining example of a human being; she walks the walk all the way. 

I want Lauren to know how much the people in her life care for her; I want her to feel less stressed about the money aspect of this exhausting fight. All her energy needs to go towards healing and not worrying about the terrifying debt she feels. Due to financial costs, she isn't sure she can even afford the medical options being presented. As a student, she is not in a position to financially afford the treatments needed to beat this. 

Please give whatever you can to help! I will personally make sure that Lauren gets every penny that we raise so she can breath easier during this scary ordeal. 

Thanks so much,
Dr. Erica Noles