Chris had his hip replaced December 12, 2025 after needing this surgery for the last 10 years and jumping through hoops to be able to receive the care he needed.

We took all the steps needed and submitted all the paperwork to ensure that we qualified for FMLA and for Washington Paid Family Leave. While his job is safe in FMLA, Paid Family Leave is doing everything they can to avoid paying out. They denied our claim the day of surgery, because he “hadn’t had surgery yet” even though we were told to submit paperwork early.

After resubmitting the paperwork the same day we haven’t heard anything from them. After multiple attempts to get someone on the phone and countless hours on hold we were told that the paperwork they told us to submit wasn’t sufficient evidence that a medical event had taken place. We’ve now submitted more paperwork but it will be another 3-4 weeks for that to be reviewed.

We now have no substantial income and Chris still cannot return to work until March.

We are asking for help to keep us afloat for the next few weeks until PFL hopefully gets it together.

As the sole provider for our family of 7 Chris’s focus should be on healing during this time and this incredibly stressful process has only been made worse by all these set backs.