Please help my wife pay for her surgery

Hello, my name is Midori. Hope has been my loving partner since 2017, and my wife since 2018. We are both trans women, and Hope is BIPOC Mexican and Puerto Rican. Although we are in minority groups, we have been fortunate enough to make ends meet and have social support thus far. Now we face a daunting challenge that is simply beyond our scope.

Back in 2022, Hope began having more and more frequent bouts of chest pain, particularly at night which made it difficult for her to sleep comfortably. We tried treating it as GERD, and then as lactose intolerance. On October 16th, Hope had a flare-up so bad she knew it had to be something worse. So we went to the ER and hoped it was something simple. After some testing, Hope was diagnosed as having a gallstone and the doctor recommended immediate surgery for removal.

It was a full day before a bed could be freed and Hope would be able to have the procedure. Upon surgery, her gallstone was found to be larger than expected and was also becoming inflamed, so the surgeon opted to remove her gallbladder entirely.

We knew making a hospital visit would be pricey. Hope has insurance through her employer but it only covers screenings and preventative care. At the beginning of 2022, Hope had broken her foot and also had a couple of doctor visits for that, which we were already paying out of pocket for. We prayed that by now she would hit some kind of deductible and that her insurance would cover at least a reasonable amount, but we still expected we would be paying a bit. Her care and health was the most important thing on my mind.

Over two months later on December 23rd, right before Christmas, Hope received a call from the hospital. Somewhat predictably, her insurance barely covered any of the surgery. Less predictably, we were now on the hook for over $40,000. We figured it would be rough, but not over half our combined annual income rough. And this doesn't even cover the ER visit.

Thankfully Hope is doing much better now health-wise. But this debt is far beyond something we can ordinarily manage. It will weigh us down for years to come, and we still have no guarantee there won’t be interest added or we won’t get sent to collections if we don’t pay fast enough. We are both call center employees. We have support from our parents but they are all retired. We dislike relying on handouts, but to this extent, we don’t have anything else. So we hope anyone out there can do whatever they can to help lessen our financial burden, even slightly, so long as they are able. I’m not sure what to expect or what I can do as thanks, but we will be forever grateful and in your debt.

Thank you so much for considering our situation and for your kindness.