My name is Barbara Morris. I'm here today to try and help my daughter in law Nakia Samples, and her family. A lot of us are just one paycheck or one medical event away from losing everything and struggling to survive. I swear it seems like the most loving, giving and caring people seem to be hit with the most challenging events.

I know everyone is struggling but sometimes the struggle becomes too much to endure without help. I know that Nakia will not ask for help. She will struggle. They will do without basic necessities like food and the medical help needed to recover to at least regain the ability to function again. The holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas for the kids will be irrelevant at this point because survival is the only thing that matters right now.

Let me tell you a little bit about Nakia Samples. She is one of the most loving, caring people I've ever met. She's that person that steps up to help others as much as she can. Her job was a caretaker for others through long term care agencies. She took care of people who couldn't care for themselves. She has three kids, one who has special needs. Not only did she take care of them and her husband but she was my caretaker as well and any time a family member, friend, neighbor or stranger needed help, she was always doing everything she could no matter what her own struggles were. When her husband came down with Lymphoma, she carried the entire load for everyone while still caring for him.

Her husband doesn't always get a full 40 hours a week working because during his cancer treatment portions of his brain and thyroid was radiated and he never fully recovered his energy levels. He's due for a PET scan right now to make sure the cancer is still in remission but that is going to have to be put off because making sure the kids have food and Nakia gets the medical she needs now is more important and choices have to be made. They no longer have the copay for his PET scan. I think that alone is nearly 2K.

Tragedy struck on October 2, 2025. Nakia had been having blood pressure problems for about a year and the doctors couldn't figure out why. Thank goodness her husband took her to the hospital because shortly after arriving she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Her heart just flat out stopped without warning. 20 min. of resuscitation brought her back only to code multiple times. Organs started shutting down. She was put on life support. The doctors called her a miracle because they didn't expect her to survive. Most people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest don't. They prepared us that she may not survive and having had no heartbeat for so long, even if she did survive they didn't know how bad the damage would be. They still don't know why her heart stopped but in the process lines were run through her groin and unbeknownst to the medical staff trying to keep her alive, it cut off blood flow to her leg and paralyzed her foot totally and her leg almost totally. It's unknown if she will ever regain the use of either. The foot may never come back but there is a chance she could regain the use of her leg with extensive physical therapy and other treatments, possibly surgery. Medical treatments that they don't have the money for if she loses the ACA insurance that she did have with a 7K deductible (they now can't afford the premiums). She was/is in unbearable pain from the CPR compression damage but then when performing physical therapy exercises she tore her ham string in the very leg they are trying to save. Without physical therapy for at least a year, she will probably never regain use of that leg. It has to be continuous to stand a chance of working and still no guarantees that full feeling or use will come back. A good sign is that she's started feeling pain in it where as before there was no feeling at all. The bad news is that it's excruciating to the point she can't sleep because of it. Insurance refused to approve in house rehabilitation so they can't give her the meds she needs to help with that pain.

At this point they lost over half their income. She had no sick time benefits or vacation or any benefits with the job she had. They were paying for ACA insurance but now may not even qualify for that even if it is available still if the government lets it expire. They applied for medicaid and qualified with what is called share of cost which required that they pay over 2K each month in medical before medicaid would help and then only for the remainder of the month. Her husband barely even makes that much a month, so it's medical or food & bills to survive. It's an impossible choice. I told them to apply for EBT but now that's shut down. Their options are slim and none. Her husband would have to take off work to try and get food from the foodbank and he's missed so much work already taking care of her at home now and getting her to doctor appointments, I don't know how they can even do that.

She's applying for SS disability but that can take a year or more and they don't pay for the first 6 months and Medicare would not kick in for two years.

So I'm asking for any help anyone can give them. And if it's at all possible help making sure the kids have something/anything for Christmas. They are 7, 13 and 17. The 17 year old is doing everything she can to help her dad take care of Nakia right now because Nakia is unable to do almost anything for herself. She's also taking care of the younger ones while her dad works.

One medical event can devastate a family. Please help if you can.

Thank You.