Donate for Medical Bills

Hi, my name is Maria and I am the daughter of two very wonderful parents, Stan and Arlyn Lichtenberg. We are trying to raise funds to help with medical bills and possibly purchase a Mobility Van or Wheelchair Accessible Van.

Thanksgiving time of 2021 my dad was diagnosed with Covid-19, he was in the hospital for about a week and he lost his strength to walk or stand. He went to a rehabilitation center to gain his strength back. He came home in January of 2022. We were still working on physical therapy and helping him gain his mobility back again.

In August of 2022, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer. She has completed chemotherapy and just received her partial mastectomy surgery in February of 2023.

In December 2022, my dad's kidneys were starting to fail, so the hospital had him transferred to another hospital and they gave him some prescriptions to prevent his body from retaining too much fluid.

Christmas Eve 2022 we had our family gathering, ate dinner and had a great time. Later that night my dad was saying how he was feeling very uncomfortable and like he was bloated. The same way he felt before he went to the hospital in early December. We decided to take him to the hospital and they diagnosed him with Stage 5 kidney failure. The hospital introduced him to dialysis treatment and sent him home on New Years Eve. While he was in the hospital he developed bed sores that need lots of attention. After he got home he quickly was losing his ability to respond to me and my mom, we had family and friends come over to help us understand what was going on. His blood oxygen level was down to 70%. We called an ambulance, and he went back to the hospital and was diagnosed with Pneumonia. He was only home for two days. While he was in the hospital again, they put him on a ventilator and all kinds of IVs just to keep him going and he was on the ventilator for four and a half days. Then the hospital kept him for another three days after coming off of the ventilator. After he was released from the hospital he went to a rehabilitation center again to regain strength to be able to stand and walk again.

I left my job to take care of my dad, mom was still going through chemotherapy and working almost full-time just to keep money coming in to cover the bills. While he was in the rehab center, they were lacking staff to be able to provide enough care for my dad. I was traveling there every day to help out and make sure he was okay and to bring him food, my mom would go there every day after work to provide the same care, exercises, food, wound care, etc. Every Tuesday and Thursday I would get up at 4:00 in the morning, travel to the rehab center and help him get dressed to go to his dialysis appointment and on Saturdays both me and mom would travel at 4:30 in the morning to get him ready for dialysis. While he was in the rehab center he went to the hospital again with pneumonia. He went back to the rehab center and is now at home as of 2/22/23 under emergency because our insurance would not cover any more days spent in the rehab center. The copay for the rehab center is $200 per day, which we could not afford.

My dad is still unable to stand or walk and I am doing physical therapy with him every day to help him gain strength again. He is still somewhat recovering from pneumonia as well as battling bed sores. We are hoping to purchase a wheelchair-accessible van so we can take him to his appointments ourselves. I am only able to work a small number of hours so I can stay home with my dad to take care of him and take care of my mom after her surgery.

Any help is extremely important to me because it will help reduce stress on myself and my family so we can focus on my dad gaining strength back to walk, and my mom beating cancer.

The funds will be used on any medical bills from these times I have mentioned, and saved to be able to purchase a mobility van so we do not have to hire transportation for my dad. Any help is greatly appreciated and I appreciate the time you have taken to read our story. Thank you and God bless your heart.