Nancy needs your help - Don't turn a blind eye

Hi, my name is Jadelyn and this fundraiser is to support my mother Nancy. In September my mother suffered from an retinal artery occlusion, or eye stroke, which happens when blood flow to your retina is blocked. This medial emergency resulted in complete blindness in her right eye as well as a mountain of medical debt due to being uninsured.

She awoke early on September 21st and discovered she had no vision in her right eye. Though painless - it was quite concerning. She messaged me around 7am asking if she should go to the ER or wait it out. Knowing this was potentially a medical emergency I advised her to wake my father and have him bring her to the closest emergency room.

She arrived at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, NH (about a 20min drive from their home in Hill, NH) and by 10:30am the attending doctor provided her diagnosis. Without specialized equipment and specialists she was at risk of permanent blindness. The hospital wanted to emergently transfer her to Mass Ear and Eye in Boston. However, due to being uninsured, securing ambulatory transportation meant an out of pocket cost of $3,500. The doctor advised they would not be able to administer any preventative treatment to her if she decided to transport herself - and so the payment was made to coordinate her transport.

There facility certainly conveyed a sense of urgency, as with all medical emergencies, but the ambulance did not arrive for several hours. She finally departed at around 1pm. The drive to Boston would take a few hours, but we were hopeful that they would be able to quickly assess her condition and intervene.

She arrived via ambulance to Mass Eye and Ear through their Emergency Department at approximately 4pm. At which time no nurse, provider, or other staff reviewed her chart or assessed her condition. It seemed the sense of urgency had been left back at the previous hospital - despite them calling for report their findings in advance of her arrival.

After 2 hours of waiting in triage my mother approached a nurse with concern surrounding the previous doctor stating time was of the essence. She was originally quite dismissive until she returned to review her chart. She then brought in the attending doctor who stated too much time had passed for them to attempt any intervention to save her vision. She would be permanently blind.

They again transferred her to Mass General for additional testing - CT scans, lab work, and a consult with neurology all to determine what had originally caused the stroke to occur. Not only were all of these tests out of pocket - they unfortunately did not provide any insight as to why it happened or if it could happen again.

My mother was forced to retire early due to neck surgery a few years prior. She left a position she loved and with it lost her insurance. Her now fixed income and limited retirement savings have put her in financial hardship to say the least. Not only is there the direct impact of permanent blindness to process on a physical and emotional level, but now the reality of collections from each of the three hospitals has become overwhelming.

While we certainly cant predict when a life changing emergency occurs - we can reach out to our village to help support us. I hope you consider a donation if you are able and please share her story so that others may also.

Those of you who are lucky enough to know my mother personally know she would do the same. Thank you for being here.