Help Lor Recover from Long COVID

Hi everyone - I am creating this fundraiser on behalf of our dear friend Lor. For those who haven't had the pleasure of meeting Lor, they are a PhD student in sociology with me at UCLA. They are a community builder, brilliant scholar, and a firecracker of a person. They are the president of our Sociology Graduate Student Association, and have recently won awards in recognition of their incredible teaching & service to our campus and undergraduate students. Under normal circumstances, it's impossible not to feel energized in Lor's presence.

Unfortunately, these are not normal times. Lor has been struggling with severe health issues for many months now, and it's only gotten worse. They've been juggling coursework, teaching, and research along with an endless parade of doctors' appointments, specialists, and labs. The most recent hypothesis is that Lor is fighting "Long COVID", which has triggered exacerbation of pre-existing conditions and additional new diagnoses. Over the past few months I have watched as Lor has struggled to walk, experienced terrifying fainting spells (including one that resulted in an ambulance being called in to statistics class), and now increasingly needs support for daily activities like eating and hygiene. The ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles have worsened their situation (adding not just anxieties but also difficulties due to the air quality).

So, this leads us to where we are today. It is no longer feasible for Lor to keep up their teaching and research responsibilities. They need to be able to take a medical leave of absence in order to prioritize doctor & specialist visits, rest & recovery, and figuring out some answers to these health mysteries. Unfortunately, the system is not set up to allow this. While our graduate student union has won 8 weeks of paid medical leave in our recent contract, we are not allowed to use this benefit while also on a leave from coursework. In order for Lor to go on a temporary leave from school, they must sacrifice their income. In a typical workplace, programs like State Disability Insurance (SDI) would be able to supplement this lost income. However, since graduate students are classified as "students" and not "employees", we are not eligible for SDI benefits. To top it all off, by going on a leave of absence from school, Lor will lose their health insurance, and along with it access to their primary care doctor and clinical coordinators at UCLA's student health center. They have the option to pay out-of-pocket for the insurance premium to keep their coverage - but the price is over $4,000 for one quarter (three months) of coverage. This outrageous price doesn't even include the cost of deductibles and copays.

Lor has done all of the right things. They have continuously advocated for themselves (while suffering from extreme fatigue), and reached out to all possible avenues such as the student disability center, campus case management, academic case management, and more. While everyone recognizes how vital it is for Lor to take time off from school, no one has been able to provide an answer for how they are supposed to financially do that. I have decided to create this GoFundMe as a last resort in hopes of supporting my wonderful friend. I have set the fundraising goal to what they will need in order to simply pay for their health insurance premium and replace their lost income for one academic quarter. Anything we raise above that will go towards supporting future medical and living expenses for Lor. It's not likely that these problems will solve themselves within a one quarter leave of absence, and there is a long road ahead, but I hope that our community can come together to help Lor along this journey.

Thank you for taking the time to read, share, and donate. Any amount makes a difference. Lor supports their community in everything they do, and I am hopeful that we can return the favor today.

PS - If you would like to learn more about the debilitating effects of Long COVID, I encourage you to take a look at the story of Dianna Cowern - "Physics Girl" - on Youtube as a striking example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vydgkCCXbTA

PPS - If you would like to send directly to Lor, you can use their Venmo "Lor Martin" (@dark_lor)