A medical emergency should not make you homeless
I’ve never made a GoFundMe before, but our friend James and his family are inches away from being homeless and need help.
James, his 7 months pregnant wife Ivanna (due on February 14th with their baby girl), 2 year old son John, 1 year old son Marshall and their 2 dogs were just like any family. Enjoying life and preparing for the new bundle of joy in the New Year.
Then it all flipped upside down.
On November 2nd James began having heavy bleeding from where you don’t want to be bleeding, and was in excruciating pain. When the bleeding did not stop, he was taken to Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. They began running copious amounts of tests, taking blood, and ran a CAT scan on him. When the results came back, they found a large mass in the colon/digestive tract. He was admitted immediately.
After being admitted, they began taking samples for biopsy. During the colonoscopy, they found 8 additional spots throughout that they also needed to take samples of. They began treatment with lots of medications and steroids to try and get the inflammation and swelling down so they could go in to stop the bleeding.
Biopsy results came back, and he’s been diagnosed with Severe Chronic Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Doctors are recommending Biological Infusion Therapy, however they will not do the therapy without medical insurance. Infusion therapy is one of the most effective yet the most expensive way to get this Disease under control. So they will continue to use medications to control the pain and inflammation until there is another option to get this under control.
They continued treatment for Crohn's disease for 2 additional weeks, before allowing him to go into home care as of November 25th to be home with his family for the holidays. They will continue home care for 2 additional weeks before he goes back in for further evaluation and to determine the next step in trying to get his health back on track.
This on its own is tough enough for a family to go through, let alone when you’re expecting a newborn in 2 months. Then they got hit with a bigger bombshell.
He’s been out of work for a month now with no medical insurance. Although he’s been discharged for a few weeks to be with his family over the holidays, they can’t even afford to get the prescriptions that he needs to keep these 2 diseases under some sort of control.
As if this wasn’t enough, things have just gone from getting rough for himself and his family to being downright helpless.
They were just served with an eviction notice.
As anyone who’s ever known James can attest, he has never been the type to ask for help, and instead has always given to help others. He went from working like every other person and providing for his family to becoming very ill and on the verge of losing everything, including the roof over their heads.
No one should ever have to be homeless because of a medical bill, yet here we are. It’s December and kids should be wondering what is going to be under the tree and not afraid that they’ll be living on the street in a couple of weeks wondering where the next meal is coming from.
Thanks to the medical system, his prescriptions alone are $537 for a 30 day supply. Because of the eviction notice, that is now deemed a luxury they cannot afford.
They have reached out to the apartment complex to try and ask for help or more time, with no luck. They have also reached out to CPS energy for utilities. No luck there either. They reached out to Sam Ministries, Salvation Army, 2 local churches and one non profit family assistance organization. There’s been no help nor leads from these organizations. Sam Ministries and Salvation Army have said they are tapped out for this holiday season and unable to provide any assistance at this time.
Their current bill situation:
Rent: $930/month
Utilities: $293/month
Car/Insurance: $360/month
Phones: $188/month
Groceries/Toiletries: $400/month
Diapers/Baby Supplies: $150/month
Current Prescriptions: $537 per 30day supply
Proposed Infusion Therapy: $1450/month
Currently behind due to being hospitalized and under care: $1972
Current hospital bill: Mid 5 figures and growing
This is not “someone else’s issue”. This is something that could happen to any of us at any time, and if it did happen to us we’d hope to hell that the people we know would rally and help you and your family out.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a hundred or a tenner. Every little bit of help you can muster will go to keeping a roof over the heads of their family, and it help James get the medicine he needs to stave this disease off.
If anyone in or around the San Antonio area knows of any other ways to help, please get in touch. I live in Canada and therefore don't know any local organisations that I can reach out to.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and on behalf of James, Ivanna, John and Marshall, thank you all ahead of time for any support your able to give.
