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My Mother's Road to Recovery

My name is Shyamala Prayaga, and I am doing this fundraiser to raise funds for covering my mother Sarvalaxmi Vemperala's ongoing heart treatment medical expenses.

My mother is visiting us from India for six months and arrived in California on March 26th, 2022. Before her arrival, I ensured she had visitor's medical insurance with the proper coverage for any unforeseen medical situations.

On March 30th, she complained of chest pain due to gas and discomfort in her left hand and shoulder. I gave her medicines, and she felt instant relief. Since this was the first time, even I thought it was gastric pain. Again, on April 9th, she had a similar chest pain, which concerned my husband and me. We took her to our family physician, who thought it was concerning, especially with its frequency and gave her baby aspirin and medicine to put under the tongue to subside pain the next time such pain occurs.

On April 15th morning, she complained of chest pain again. The severity was much more than the last two times, and I immediately gave her baby aspirin and under the tongue medicine as suggested by our family doctor. Even after taking the medicines, the pain did not subside, so I called 911. While I was still on the call trying to do what they asked me, the EMT arrived within 2-3 minutes and started checking EKG and other vitals. EKG was abnormal and showed signs of heart attack, and without any delay, they rushed her to the ambulance. Everything was happening within split seconds, and I did not get a chance to think or react. I approached the ambulance where they set her up and saw her doing big vomits. That made me very concerned, but due to covid protocols, they did not allow me inside the ambulance. They rushed her to the hospital without delay, and I followed her to the emergency department in a panicked state of mind.

After 30 minutes of waiting, they told me they had to rush her to another hospital as she required some procedure in the Cath Lab. All of this was very new for me, and I had no clue what was happening. Shifting her to another ER raised red flags about her health condition. The cardiologist rushed toward me and said, "Your mother got a massive heart attack" when I arrived at the other hospital. "On the way to the hospital from home, your mother's heart stopped for a few minutes. EMT had to give her shock treatment and CPR to bring her back. She is in a critical condition. Her artery is 100% blocked and requires immediate treatment."

I requested to see her before the procedure once, and the doctor agreed hesitantly. It was devastating to watch her on the stretcher with tubes, oxygen and whatnot. After 3 hours of waiting finally, the doctor called me to say that she was out of danger and they had to put two stents to unblock the artery. The doctor also mentioned that her heart was running at 30% capacity. after her surgery, she was in the surgical ICU for two days and later shifted to a room. Since her heart was very disturbed by the massive heart attack and working in a limited capacity, the cardiology team was not very comfortable sending her home without a life vest. She stayed eight days in the hospital, and the last two days of her stay were spent trying to figure out life vest insurance coverage. After two days, the insurance company came back saying lifevests are not covered with visitors' medical insurance and that I have to pay the out of pocket up front for three months before they can discharge her. The monthly cost of the lifevest alone is around $4300 without insurance.

They also recommended 36 cardio rehab sessions (3 times a week) to help with increasing her heart capacity and functioning, which is again not covered by visitors' insurance and needs to be paid out of pocket. We somehow managed the lifevest lease, medication cost, which is again not covered with visitors insurance to my surprise, and cardio rehab costs so far by tapping into all our savings. However, a bigger shock came yesterday evening when the insurance company started declining the medical claims, stating, "THIS CONDITION IS PRE-EXISTING AND NOT A COVERED BENEFIT. PLEASE REFER TO THE CERTIFICATE FOR ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS RELATING TO YOUR COVERAGE."

Significant medical expenses need to be paid from her April treatment, procedure and hospitalization, and ongoing expenses for her doctor visits, lifevest lease cost, cardio rehab, and prescription medicines. This fundraiser is our only hope to get her the proper ongoing treatment and medication and pay the previously incurred medical costs that insurance will not cover.

For people who know Bhargava and me, we are always the first in line to help people when they need help in whatever shape or form we can, including financially. I never imagined we would be in this situation raising funds for my mother.

Any help can help us cover her medical expenses.

Organizer

Shyamala Prayaga
Organizer
Lathrop, CA

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