Help Bryan Ghingold get through his hospital stay

The Story:

I'm Bryan Ghingold. I'm a proud small business owner and an even prouder father to a delightfully precocious 4 year old daughter, Bayla, and we need your help with the financial burden brought on by sudden health problems that have kept me out of work and unable to care for my daughter for several weeks with no end in sight.

When I say “sudden” I’m not kidding. What was first misdiagnosed as a flu on 11/18 had me bedridden and unable to eat anything other than a liquid diet in less than a week. When urgent care X-rayed my chest on 11/23, they told me to go straight to the nearest emergency room. My “flu” was more likely bronchitis, and because it was untreated it was progressing into pneumonia.

I hoped that the ER would give me some IV fluids and antibiotics and send me on my way, but my blood oxygen levels were in the low 80s (the healthy range is from 95-100) so I spent the next six days in the hospital hooked up to an oxygen tank. During my stay my pneumonia progressed to sepsis and I also started having cough syncope events where I would cough so hard I would pass out and fall down where I stood.

But thanks to the excellent care team I had, my numbers eventually started improving and I was discharged on 11/29, albeit still hooked up to an oxygen tank that I had to wear around the clock. Even with the tank, though, breathing got harder and harder over the next three days. I couldn’t catch my breath, I was having more frequent and more severe cough syncope events, and I wasn’t physically strong enough to care for myself or for Bayla with basic tasks like cooking meals, walking our dog, or going up and down the stairs at bedtime. On 12/2, I reluctantly came back to the ER and have once again been admitted to the hospital, where I am writing this now.

This time, though, my attending physician told me that another early release is not an option anymore and that I will have to remain inpatient "until I'm well" (whatever and whenever that means). That was several days ago and there is still no discharge plan in sight. I am still on oxygen around the clock, and I am still having frequent and severe cough syncope events. Those have gotten bad enough that the attending pulmonologist has formally revoked my driving privileges indefinitely.

So I don’t know when I’m getting out of here, I can’t care for myself let alone Bayla, and truth be told, I’m scared. I want to be home, I want to be healthy, and I don’t know when I will have those things again, and I’m scared.

What I need the funds for:

I have no idea what my hospital bill will be, but it probably won’t be good. When I had neurosurgery in 2021, the copay and coinsurance for that four day long hospital stay was nearly $5,000. I don’t have that kind of money, and I haven’t been able to work while I’ve been in the hospital, either.

The two businesses I run aren’t going to carry me through this one. I haven’t been drawing a salary from IPV Litigation Services since May of this year, and Steel City Notary requires me to be able to perform duties as a notary, which I obviously can’t do while I’m inpatient at the hospital. That notary business was almost single-handedly keeping my family afloat and keeping our bills paid, and now what little I had saved up from it is all but gone. Bayla's mommy, Ellie, is a contract worker and is already contributing all she can, but she and I both know it isn’t going to be enough.

(Bayla visited and painted my toenails during my initial hospitalization)

I pride myself on being a hard worker. It pains me to ask you to give, but I am almost completely incapacitated and physically cannot work to support my family right now. I wish I didn’t need help, but I really do. I’m reluctantly asking you to pitch in and help support me and my family at this difficult time.

(just for fun, here's me dressed up at work on Halloween as Darth Vader... perhaps foreshadowing my respiratory issues. I just thought I was being festive!)

If you can’t donate money, please share this campaign as far and wide as you can. And whoever you are, thank you, even if all you’ve done is read this far. I really am truly grateful for any support you’re able to give.

Thank you!