Help Martha Recover

My wife Martha Elliott is a US Army veteran and she is suffering from post-ICU delirium caused by being intubated for two weeks due to Covid-19. Martha has been bedridden for months and cannot care for herself nor even walk. She continues to struggle with delirium among other medical issues and has symptoms similar to dementia. Martha was fully vaccinated but experienced an infection before the vaccine was fully effective.

Martha was a senior clinical researcher employed in pharmaceutical research specializing in oncology. She is very smart. Her sisters nicknamed her “doc” years ago. Anyone who knows her appreciates her quick wit and sense of humor. Martha is well educated and can have a conversation on a wide range of topics. Right now Martha struggles with cognitive impairment.

How did Martha go from one extreme to the other? Why does Martha need your help? How can you help Martha to recover and regain her confidence to walk? How can you help repair Martha’s cognitive abilities? Please take time to read through and learn how you can help.

Martha was leading an ordinary life when everything changed in March of 2021. While at home as she was starting to walk down the stairs she fell and broke her ankle at the joint (triangular fracture of the leg, ankle and foot). She fell because she doesn’t have depth perception due to a detachment of her retina last year. The corrective surgery caused a cataract to develop totally obscuring her vision in her right eye. She told me she could see the handrail but as she grabbed for it she grabbed nothing but air.

After surgery at Allenmore, Martha ended up eventually at a rehab facility for 35 days. While there she got infected with Covid-19. She was home for 4 days and then we had to call 911 again. She was hospitalized at Tacoma General and eventually she was intubated.

When you are intubated you are heavily sedated. The sedation is so the patient doesn’t awaken and try and remove the breathing and feeding tubes. Studies from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and others show the patient does best with daily in-person visiting with friends and family. These provide reassurance to the person who is in a twilight zone. Their world is a scary one of incoherence, and profound horror. In fact Martha later told me she remembered waking and trying to scream for help but no sound would come out, further terrifying her. A video call was the closest thing I had to a visit. Not being able to visit in-person is the inhumane part of Covid. Whatever was going on in her mind I was certain it was scary and lonely.

Through daily video calls I could see Martha and she could hear me. I sang to her, told her news about the world and the weather. I noticed Martha responded by fluttering her eyes when I sang to her the “Duncan song.” Earlier in life Martha made up a song she would sing every day to our (now deceased) dog named Duncan. I could see her visibly react to the song and certain other key things. I put on a brave face and only afterward would I cry.

On May 21 Martha was extubated. And on May 22 Martha and I spoke very briefly on the phone. Her voice was raspy and as she described it she had a sore throat. I was overjoyed! I cried tears of joy this time. I still could not visit in-person.

Within a day or two I learned Martha was delirious. I researched and discovered a common occurrence called “post-ICU delirium.” This happens sometimes to people who have to be intubated and sedated for a long period of time. Martha had been sedated with Propofol and Versed for 15 days. The NIH study I read stated there is a marked increase of these instances with the high number of people with Covid-19 being intubated.

This is what affects Martha to this day. Martha at times is confused, delirious, anxious, combative, restless, and forgetful. The condition seems to wax and wane as she has good days and bad days. On her bad days Martha shows signs of hostility and aggression. On her good days she is sweet, kind, and gentle, even if still confused. Martha is completely dependent on others and requires 24-hour skilled nursing care.

Martha was hospitalized except for a brief period in June when she was at a different rehab facility. She was then hospitalized again for pericardial and pleural effusion, or fluid buildup around her heart and lungs. On July 19, 2021 TG discharged Martha to Heartwood Extended Healthcare, a skilled nursing facility. Martha began PT and OT as well as continued treatment for her ankle surgical wound. She is still there as of this writing.

So why the Go Fund Me request for help? When hospitalized Martha received 100% coverage from the VA. What is not covered are Martha’s Medicare copay costs. We never envisioned a day like this because of the outstanding health benefits of being a veteran. The VA does not provide coverage for regular veterans for skilled nursing and rehabilitation. They do for both service-related injuries and veterans with greater than 70% disability ratings. Martha doesn’t qualify.

Medicare covers either home or skilled nursing facility coverage 100% for the first 20 days. After that the next 80 days you must pay a copay of $185.50 a day. After this the coverage is over for one floating calendar year and the cost of being in a skilled nursing facility is then 100% or nearly $300 daily. https://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers Due to my income we are not eligible for state Medicaid assistance (Medicare and Medicaid are different things). So we are in the middle where we don’t earn enough to cover the costs, and we don’t earn so little as to qualify for Medicaid.

Thus far we have co-pays for 15 days in April at Manor Care; 8 days at Orchard Park in Tacoma, and through the end of September the co-pays at Heartwood in Tacoma. The total costs of these co-pays are 97 days X $185.50 or $17,993.50 thus far. The next step is to bring Martha home and I will care for her personally while taking time off work.

Enabling us to make these payments will help Martha to recover. Thank you for your prayers and your financial assistance. You can also help by spreading the word. Please post and re-post the link for Martha’s Go Fund Me!