Help Mary; blind single mom with medical tsunami!
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Hi, my name is Donna and I am a retired former houseparent of the Virginia School for the Deaf & the Blind, where I met Mary, a former student. Mary is a totally blind, 37 yr. old single mom of her teen daughter, Madison. I am fundraising for Mary who has cancer & has developed many other life-threatening complications since being hospitalized. She is fighting hard to survive long enough to see Madison graduate & have a stable plan.
- Mary's journey since June has been a medical tsunami! She had former kidney cancer & after a minor surgical procedure to clean up what they thought was scar tissue, weeks later this nightmare began! Mary has kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, & then developed pancreatic leukemia. She has had multiple surgeries & procedures since June. After filtering her blood several times, followed by 3-5 pints of blood each time, at $160/pint, the leukemia seems to be in remission. Mary's situation has been further complicated by getting covid while in intensive care and also spinal meningitis. She has an unusual situation with her health coverage. Because of her disability, she has Medicare as a secondary insurance which kicks in after the first insurance covers all of the deductibles and co-pays for every procedure and drug. The problem is that Mary's father took her off of his work policy, so now all of those fees must be paid out of pocket before Medicare pays anything. I have been telling their story and trying to raise money to cover all of those deductibles and co-pays for her to have treatment! It has required about $19,000 so far since June. She was turned down for Medicaid and can reapply after December 15th., with no guarantee that she will get it. Her daughter, Madison, has been right by her side through all of this. The needs are enormous and ongoing but she currently needs to have very powerful antibiotics for the spinal meningitis and the co-pay for that is about $150 a day! Since I began trying to put this fundraiser together, she has developed a large amount of fluid on the brain which is now resulting in seizures due to the meningitis. To relieve this, they need to do a craniotomy now which means removing a piece of her skull to drain the excess fluid. This surgery will be covered but Mary has to pay the anesthesiologist and a new specialized port replacing another one. It is unthinkable that they would not do this life-saving surgery because we don't have the funds together yet but that is the case!
I live on Social Security so my resources are small, with no savings, but I have a great big God and I am depending on Him to touch people's hearts to help Mary and her daughter. Thank you so much for reading and for any financial gift that you may donate. I know that it seems impossible in our country, but Mary She has no support from family so I am committed to walk this road with them with God. Mary has encountered Jesus 3 times on this journey & He has told her many things. There are a few things for her to finish before He takes her home, but the medical road will be hard & will involve help from many people. You may not be in a financial situation where you can donate, but you may know others who can, so please share their story. Thank you.
Organizer
Donna Middleton
Organizer
Staunton, VA