My mum Rosalinda needs your help
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My mum needs your help.
My mum, Rosalinda, is a very strong woman who has given everything to raise her three children: Rosedlyn, Eduardo and I. Unfortunately, mum contracted a severe COVID-19 strain in my hometown Caracas, Venezuela four weeks ago. Venezuela as you may have heard now has a massive number of COVID-19 cases and unfortunately, like in most South American countries, the already precarious health system has now collapsed and access to medication is limited.
My siblings and I had to use all our savings to save mum, but due to the unbearable costs, I’ve had to ask for a loan to cover for her ongoing medications, oxygen machines and doctor costs.
Thank you for reading this and for helping us in this difficult time – every dollar makes a difference. This is our story:
The past four weeks have been a living hell for me and my family as due to Venezuela’s predicament there are limited beds available in public hospitals and private clinics. Too often patients with COVID-19 in Caracas are unable to be saved.
Our ‘viacrusis’ started on the 26 March 2021 when mum had a high temperature and also issues breathing. She with my dad and sister were tested for COVID-19 and the results came back negative for my mum. However, my dad and sister unfortunately tested positive. We immediately called a doctor to visit them at home. The doctor gave instructions to get basic COVID-19 protocol medications which included steroids, antibiotics, retroviral medication and a list of vitamins.
Sadly, 48 hours later my mum was struggling to breathe and needed external oxygen to help her. Her oxygen levels dropped dramatically from 92% to 79% (normal saturation in an adult is between 95-100%). The doctor who saw her immediately advised that she needed to be connected to oxygen immediately and be looked after in a hospital or private clinic.
Due to the collapsed health system we couldn’t find a private clinic to help her. My brother-in-law Marco, and my aunty Vilma (mum’s sister) drove to more than 30 clinics around Caracas to secure a bed for mum with oxygen… They couldn’t find help. No one had a bed available for mum and at this time her health was deteriorating by the minute.
In a last attempt to save mum, they went to a public hospital. The doctor in charge notified my family that they were at full capacity and refused my mum’s entry due to lack of available beds. At that stage, we were told she would likely not make it overnight unless she received oxygen, so they begged the doctor. The doctor after this, agreed to assess my mum who was already unconscious and unable to walk due to the lack of oxygen.
She was ‘admitted’ in critical condition, not to a bed but to an external tent the hospital had set up for the overflow cases of COVID-19. She was connected to an oxygen line to survive. We had to leave her there for the night and we had to come back the next day to see if she had made it or not.
I can’t explain in words what this meant for me and my family… there was nothing anyone could do, there was nothing money could do to help her… It’s only when you are confronted by this reality that you realise how lucky some of us are to live in countries that have good health systems that look after people when they need.
The next day my bother-in-law and my aunty went back to find out that she was admitted to a bed in this public hospital as a few people had died overnight... Unfortunately we lost contact with mum as she was too weak to even hold her mobile phone. For the next 11 days we had intermittent contact with a nurse and got a daily summary of mum’s condition all saying that she was receiving standard protocol treatment for COVID-19.
To our dismay, on Friday 9 April, my aunty Vilma received a heart-breaking text from mum:
‘I NEED TO URGENTLY GET OUT OF HERE
I haven’t improved, they’re not giving me medication, they don’t have staff to help us, feed us when we need.
I’m going to die here.
Please get me out
I want to live
I deserve to live...’
For a daughter and anyone to read a note like this from the person you love the most, this message got to each of my bones and made me want to be sick... I couldn’t comprehend this as we were sent photos of her almost daily saying she was stable and okay. Obviously something didn’t add up.
I’m not going into more details here because I’m still very angry, but I’ll say that mum saw and experienced hell in those long 11 days. She found inner strength to reach out and send this one text she could barely write.
Immediately, my family and I started looking for private clinics, again! We spent the whole day and night, calling and searching for a bed in a private clinic. It wasn’t until after over 20 clinics were visited again that one small clinic (which only provided basic to medium care) said: I have one bed!
Those words meant the world to us…
The next problem we faced when we got the bed was financial, as in Venezuela (like the USA) private health is ridiculously expensive... We were told the clinic (basic hospitalization excluding medications and doctors fees) would be around AU$1,750 per day.
My siblings and I put all our savings together but it still wasn’t enough so I had to ask for help and secured a loan so my mum could be saved.
We arranged an ambulance to get mum out of the public hospital which by the way, made us sign an agreement saying that mum was delicate but stable and they were providing the full COVID-19 treatment and was in ‘recovery’ – which we knew wasn’t the case but we didn’t have a choice if we wanted to save mum and transfer her to the private clinic.
After a long transfer due to mum’s poor health, she made it to the private clinic. Her oxygen level dropped to 48%. Medically she was almost gone by then.
The next 48 hours after admission, my mum was receiving COVID-19 standard treatment (same medications given in the COVID-19 protocol in USA and Spain) in an attempt to save her life. My siblings and I had to buy expensive medications that included an immunosuppressant drug that was needed six times and each injection costed US$750... Blood tests were done three times a day and retroviral medications added over US$4,000 to the bill in 24 hours after her admission which is almost impossible to pay for anyone who lives in Venezuela.
72 hours later, the doctors told us that mum needed a bed in an ICU with access to a ventilator as her lungs were giving up and had not responded to treatment as they should with the amount of drugs given and the amount of external oxygen provided (including a CPAP machine with high concentration levels of oxygen).
To be honest, this was a blurry time for me as all I could do was talk all night (Australian time) to my family and make phone calls to find medications to every pharmacy we knew, as medication is very hard to find in Caracas. We had to drive from north to south and east to west to get everything my mum needed.
After four days in the clinic we had to run again to find a bed in a clinic that provided ICU care with access to a ventilator which was almost impossible. To our surprise, a family member helped us get a COVID-19 bed in a great private clinic but she warned us about the cost - which was estimated to be between US$50,000 to US$70,000 for two weeks in the ICU.
I was planning to sell my car and a few other things to get the money to save my mum.
This is how I know God exists. Suddenly doors that looked closed and impossible to open, opened to us.
Miraculously 24 hours after being told we needed a ventilator, my mum’s lungs did a 180 degree turn for the best!
They started to work! (with difficulty but steadily). Her saturation levels went from 65% average to 85%
There was hope!
Doctors confirmed that a ventilator wasn’t going to be needed anymore as the lungs finally responded to treatment averaging 85-92%oxygen... so we could stay in this clinic until mum makes a full recovery.
Mum is now stable and recovering in the clinic.
Doctors have advised that we need to get a machine that concentrates oxygen for when mum goes home which is expected to happen soon!
Currently mum has one lung with an external bleeding which causes inflammation and the other one still has liquid in it. This means her recovery will be slow and she will need machines to support her breathing as well as targeted medications into the foreseeable future.
This is why I created this page.
Every dollar makes a difference and can help us buy this equipment and help me pay for the ongoing costs to help mum recover from COVID-19.
If you know me, you would know I normally help everyone I can as I believe that if we all help each other, even in a small way, we would be living in a different world.
Even as a professional fundraiser, creating this page was very hard for me but I believe that people who want to help us will help.
I will be forever grateful for your support in this time of need.
From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of my mum and my family: thank you for your help!
Much love,
Rosmery, Rosalinda (mum), Rosedlyn (sister) Moises (brother) and Eduardo (dad)
PS. This is mum's last trip to visit my aunty in Spain (left to right: Aura, Vilma (both mum's sisters) Mum with Gael (Andrea's son) and Andrea (cousin)
My mum, Rosalinda, is a very strong woman who has given everything to raise her three children: Rosedlyn, Eduardo and I. Unfortunately, mum contracted a severe COVID-19 strain in my hometown Caracas, Venezuela four weeks ago. Venezuela as you may have heard now has a massive number of COVID-19 cases and unfortunately, like in most South American countries, the already precarious health system has now collapsed and access to medication is limited.
My siblings and I had to use all our savings to save mum, but due to the unbearable costs, I’ve had to ask for a loan to cover for her ongoing medications, oxygen machines and doctor costs.
Thank you for reading this and for helping us in this difficult time – every dollar makes a difference. This is our story:
The past four weeks have been a living hell for me and my family as due to Venezuela’s predicament there are limited beds available in public hospitals and private clinics. Too often patients with COVID-19 in Caracas are unable to be saved.
Our ‘viacrusis’ started on the 26 March 2021 when mum had a high temperature and also issues breathing. She with my dad and sister were tested for COVID-19 and the results came back negative for my mum. However, my dad and sister unfortunately tested positive. We immediately called a doctor to visit them at home. The doctor gave instructions to get basic COVID-19 protocol medications which included steroids, antibiotics, retroviral medication and a list of vitamins.
Sadly, 48 hours later my mum was struggling to breathe and needed external oxygen to help her. Her oxygen levels dropped dramatically from 92% to 79% (normal saturation in an adult is between 95-100%). The doctor who saw her immediately advised that she needed to be connected to oxygen immediately and be looked after in a hospital or private clinic.
Due to the collapsed health system we couldn’t find a private clinic to help her. My brother-in-law Marco, and my aunty Vilma (mum’s sister) drove to more than 30 clinics around Caracas to secure a bed for mum with oxygen… They couldn’t find help. No one had a bed available for mum and at this time her health was deteriorating by the minute.
In a last attempt to save mum, they went to a public hospital. The doctor in charge notified my family that they were at full capacity and refused my mum’s entry due to lack of available beds. At that stage, we were told she would likely not make it overnight unless she received oxygen, so they begged the doctor. The doctor after this, agreed to assess my mum who was already unconscious and unable to walk due to the lack of oxygen.
She was ‘admitted’ in critical condition, not to a bed but to an external tent the hospital had set up for the overflow cases of COVID-19. She was connected to an oxygen line to survive. We had to leave her there for the night and we had to come back the next day to see if she had made it or not.
I can’t explain in words what this meant for me and my family… there was nothing anyone could do, there was nothing money could do to help her… It’s only when you are confronted by this reality that you realise how lucky some of us are to live in countries that have good health systems that look after people when they need.
The next day my bother-in-law and my aunty went back to find out that she was admitted to a bed in this public hospital as a few people had died overnight... Unfortunately we lost contact with mum as she was too weak to even hold her mobile phone. For the next 11 days we had intermittent contact with a nurse and got a daily summary of mum’s condition all saying that she was receiving standard protocol treatment for COVID-19.
To our dismay, on Friday 9 April, my aunty Vilma received a heart-breaking text from mum:
‘I NEED TO URGENTLY GET OUT OF HERE
I haven’t improved, they’re not giving me medication, they don’t have staff to help us, feed us when we need.
I’m going to die here.
Please get me out
I want to live
I deserve to live...’
For a daughter and anyone to read a note like this from the person you love the most, this message got to each of my bones and made me want to be sick... I couldn’t comprehend this as we were sent photos of her almost daily saying she was stable and okay. Obviously something didn’t add up.
I’m not going into more details here because I’m still very angry, but I’ll say that mum saw and experienced hell in those long 11 days. She found inner strength to reach out and send this one text she could barely write.
Immediately, my family and I started looking for private clinics, again! We spent the whole day and night, calling and searching for a bed in a private clinic. It wasn’t until after over 20 clinics were visited again that one small clinic (which only provided basic to medium care) said: I have one bed!
Those words meant the world to us…
The next problem we faced when we got the bed was financial, as in Venezuela (like the USA) private health is ridiculously expensive... We were told the clinic (basic hospitalization excluding medications and doctors fees) would be around AU$1,750 per day.
My siblings and I put all our savings together but it still wasn’t enough so I had to ask for help and secured a loan so my mum could be saved.
We arranged an ambulance to get mum out of the public hospital which by the way, made us sign an agreement saying that mum was delicate but stable and they were providing the full COVID-19 treatment and was in ‘recovery’ – which we knew wasn’t the case but we didn’t have a choice if we wanted to save mum and transfer her to the private clinic.
After a long transfer due to mum’s poor health, she made it to the private clinic. Her oxygen level dropped to 48%. Medically she was almost gone by then.
The next 48 hours after admission, my mum was receiving COVID-19 standard treatment (same medications given in the COVID-19 protocol in USA and Spain) in an attempt to save her life. My siblings and I had to buy expensive medications that included an immunosuppressant drug that was needed six times and each injection costed US$750... Blood tests were done three times a day and retroviral medications added over US$4,000 to the bill in 24 hours after her admission which is almost impossible to pay for anyone who lives in Venezuela.
72 hours later, the doctors told us that mum needed a bed in an ICU with access to a ventilator as her lungs were giving up and had not responded to treatment as they should with the amount of drugs given and the amount of external oxygen provided (including a CPAP machine with high concentration levels of oxygen).
To be honest, this was a blurry time for me as all I could do was talk all night (Australian time) to my family and make phone calls to find medications to every pharmacy we knew, as medication is very hard to find in Caracas. We had to drive from north to south and east to west to get everything my mum needed.
After four days in the clinic we had to run again to find a bed in a clinic that provided ICU care with access to a ventilator which was almost impossible. To our surprise, a family member helped us get a COVID-19 bed in a great private clinic but she warned us about the cost - which was estimated to be between US$50,000 to US$70,000 for two weeks in the ICU.
I was planning to sell my car and a few other things to get the money to save my mum.
This is how I know God exists. Suddenly doors that looked closed and impossible to open, opened to us.
Miraculously 24 hours after being told we needed a ventilator, my mum’s lungs did a 180 degree turn for the best!
They started to work! (with difficulty but steadily). Her saturation levels went from 65% average to 85%
There was hope!
Doctors confirmed that a ventilator wasn’t going to be needed anymore as the lungs finally responded to treatment averaging 85-92%oxygen... so we could stay in this clinic until mum makes a full recovery.
Mum is now stable and recovering in the clinic.
Doctors have advised that we need to get a machine that concentrates oxygen for when mum goes home which is expected to happen soon!
Currently mum has one lung with an external bleeding which causes inflammation and the other one still has liquid in it. This means her recovery will be slow and she will need machines to support her breathing as well as targeted medications into the foreseeable future.
This is why I created this page.
Every dollar makes a difference and can help us buy this equipment and help me pay for the ongoing costs to help mum recover from COVID-19.
If you know me, you would know I normally help everyone I can as I believe that if we all help each other, even in a small way, we would be living in a different world.
Even as a professional fundraiser, creating this page was very hard for me but I believe that people who want to help us will help.
I will be forever grateful for your support in this time of need.
From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of my mum and my family: thank you for your help!
Much love,
Rosmery, Rosalinda (mum), Rosedlyn (sister) Moises (brother) and Eduardo (dad)
PS. This is mum's last trip to visit my aunty in Spain (left to right: Aura, Vilma (both mum's sisters) Mum with Gael (Andrea's son) and Andrea (cousin)Organizer
Rosmery Alfonso
Organizer
Glen Huntly, VIC