Jamie McCarthy Medical and Living Expenses

Hi -- I'm Jenna -- Jamie's friend and neighbor. Jamie is the one of the only people I've ever been able to be my genuine self with.

Jamie has been through more in her short 46 years than most have in their lifetime. Jamie is a registered nurse, and during nursing school in 2000, was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor. After the end of the semester she had surgery to remove the tumor, and is now on lifelong steroids because of this. In January of 2010, she fell down the stairs and broke her back. She was told it was a sprain and to follow up with her primary in a few days if it didn’t get better. After a few days, she had an MRI and was told her back was broken. She had surgery, and since then hasn’t been able to work as a nurse due to the extent of the injury. She had a revision of her back surgery in 2019.

From being on long term steroids, she developed diabetes, and subsequently gastroparesis. It is suspected that during a gastoparesis flare, her electrolytes were imbalanced, and she suffered from cardiac arrest in November 2022 and had to be resuscitated for 20 minutes.

Most recently, on June 10th, 2023 – Jamie was trying to enjoy a bonfire at our house. She went to sit down in a zero gravity chair, and the chair tipped back. Jamie laid in my driveway, screaming in pain to call an ambulance, and that her back was broken. EMS came and took her to a local hospital. Her husband, Justin, works for a different local hospital, and has that hospital’s insurance. The hospital that they have insurance through refused to take her because of the complexity of her injury. She was taken to another hospital – it is to be determined how much of this hospital stay will be covered since they are out of network. After intubating and sedating her because her pain was extreme, they were able to finally get a CT scan, and it was discovered she had a burst T9 vertebrae, in addition to a fracture of T8 and T10.

Jamie underwent a 7 hour surgery to repair and replace the hardware in her back. She developed a brain bleed in 3 separate areas due to the surgery. She thankfully is able to wiggle her toes, but it will be a long recovery. It is still to be determined if she will walk. Justin is now off work, in order to help care for her. Short-term disability only pays 60% of salary. Their financial situation is already strained from a one income household and ongoing medical bills.

If you could donate anything, even $5, it would be appreciated more than you could ever know. Please help support one of the most caring families on this long road to recovery.