Save Kenneth Young

Nightmare in Panama

My Father, Kenneth Young, is fighting for his life in Panama. Dad has bacterial meningitis and a collapsed lung, and is under intensive care at Clínica Hospital San Fernando, Panama City.

Although Dad has medical insurance back home, it doesn’t cover out of country treatment and we have been relying on his travelers insurance, which just ran out. The hospital is demanding payment up-front before further treatment.

We desperately need your help to keep him alive long enough to recover to the point where he can be transported back home.



Keep Kenneth Alive

Because he is a foreigner, the hospital requires money up front, and they require a large amount. Initially they required a $20,000 deposit and we were able to scramble for the cash as well as raise our credit limit an additional $15,000. However, intensive care is incredibly expensive. Some examples: to remain in intensive care costs $800 a day. To “adjust the respirator” costs $50 each time which is done many times a day. The doctors charge thousands every day and procedures such as X-rays and CT scans are also expensive. We are tapped out financially and need your help.

Please give whatever you can so that my sister Esther can have her father at her graduation this spring. So that my little brother Evan, who has down syndrome and only knows that his dad is sick, and all his friends and family can see him again.



My Dad's Story

My dad Kenneth and mom Irene had been planning this trip for years. My mom has severe rheumatoid arthritis, and we thought that the combination of warm weather, affordable living and family friends would make Panama an ideal place to retire to. One of my dad’s best friends is originally from Panama, and my parents have been planning a scouting vacation to see if Panama would work.

For as long as I remember, my dad has worked incredibly hard for my family, when my mother developed her condition my father somehow managed to balance between working even harder and being the best husband and father my entire family could ever have hoped for.

The hideous irony here, is that what was supposed to have been a well deserved trip to prepare for a sustainable retirement has turned into a nightmare for our whole family that is devouring the very retirement funds that my parents were trying to save.

Shortly before the trip, both my parents came down with the flu, despite making sure they got vaccinated. They were both feeling better in time for the flight but (according to the doctors) my father likely developed a secondary ear infection he was not aware of.

As the plane descended for the landing Kenneth’s eardrum burst. Shortly after, Dad began complaining of pain, developed a fever and became disoriented. He was brought to a local clinic where they administered antibiotics, but this was not enough. He was brought to a hospital where they informed my mother that the infection had moved from his ear to inside his skull and that he had meningitis.

Since then it has been a constant battle. Doctors put him in an induced coma and performed surgery to physically remove as much of the infection as possible. Although the antibiotics seemed to be mostly working, the seriousness of his infection meant it would not be an easy recovery under the best of circumstances. Unfortunately, there have been additional complications as one of his lungs has partially collapsed. This all means that, although his travel insurance will pay for emergency medical air transport, he is in too serious a condition to transport at this time.

I have dropped everything to fly down to Panama with my sister Esther so I can help my mother and be with my father. My mother and I are currently staying in a cheap airbnb near the hospital. The cost of living in Panama City is surprisingly, not that much cheaper than back home, but we doing everything we can to be as extremely economical as possible.