Help Warren Recover

Help Warren Recover!

As you may have heard my husband, Warren Lapine, had a cardiac event on August 7th that caused his heart to stop. CPR was started immediately by a friend and he was then airlifted to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he was stabilized. He underwent a number of tests that failed to turn up a reason for his heart stoppage, and therefore an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) was implanted to make sure he doesn’t die if this happens again. Since the doctors and tests were unable to determine why Warren’s heart stopped, there will be lots of follow up anointments and tests, all of which will have to be paid for somehow.

While we have one of the best insurance plans offered on the Health Care Exchange, we have to pay for 20-40% of all in-network bills, the deductible and out-of-pocket max are still quite high, and we have zero coverage for any out-of-network charges. This means that for anything that turns out to be out of network, we have to pay 100%, with no maximum, and it doesn’t even count toward our deductible or out-of-pocket max. The helicopter flight to the nearest hospital equipped to handle his situation is not covered by insurance at all, and can cost up to $40,000 (and they neither told us that, nor asked our consent to do it). And unfortunately, the combination of a recent higher-than-expected tax bill and a drastic drop in Amazon sales has left our family with little to no financial cushion. We’ve always tried to be generous and give back to our local and science fiction communities, and now we need your help to overcome this personal catastrophe.

Having to worry about these mounting bills is the last thing Warren, Angela (that’s me!), and our daughter need as we try to recover and move forward. You can help make the process so much easier and more comfortable by donating to this Go Fund Me. Any amount you can give would be helpful and greatly appreciated. Please share this as widely as you can so we can get the word out that Warren and our family need this help.

https://gofund.me/4da6662c