Melanie's Medical and Hard Times

One of my dearest friend's, Melanie has been struggling very hard for quite some time. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know. My mission is to help her get some relief from the extreme financial burden of her medical bills and her awfully challenging financial state due to this.

Melanie has been self employed for 20 years. In 2012, she tore her meniscus and had to deal with insurance for six months before she could have the surgery. Due to ongoing physical therapy and loss of income she was never able to recover financially. 

In 2015, both her hips began to deteriorate. She was in excruciating pain for a year while doctors misdiagnosed her. As a result, she was prescribed pain medications that she did not need and had serious adverse side effects that kept her in excruciating pain.

At the end of 2015, Melanie was told that both her hips were so severely damaged, they both needed to be replaced. Her right hip was so damaged and the bones were so thin, the prosthetic hip didn't hold and a second immediate emergency surgery was required two weeks after the first. In June, her second hip was replaced after physical therapy for the first hip. Her sciatica was not corrected after her surgeries and had to see a spine specialist. She was diagnosed with osteoporosis and scoliosis and needed to have spinal decompression surgery. More physical therapy was required as she had bone on bone impacts in her neck.

In May of 2016, she had to have her third hip surgery. Due to complications she had to stay 4 days at Cedars Sinai. In total, Melanie spent 17 days in Cedars and 30 weeks of the year in physical therapy. As a result, she missed lots of work opportunities as she is self employed and she continued to fall further and further behind on bills.

As a result of all these medical complications, Melanie is drowning in medical debt and has fallen so far behind she struggles to pay the necessities such as rent, car repairs (she often doesn't have transportation as she can't afford her car's needed repairs and certainly cannot afford a new car.

I am reaching out to ask anyone that can help this cause. Melanie is one of the most beautiful human beings I have ever met with the absolute biggest heart. She has just fallen hard on very hard times and I'm hoping this campaign and help her just get back on her feet so she can return to a normal life and have the basic necessities in life that we all take for granted.