Support Katie's Journey Back to Health and Work

Hello!

I’m Katie, a 28-year-old female living in San Jose, California.

On April 25th, I had an accident stepping down stairs from a venue in San Francisco that resulted in a trimalleolar fracture on my right ankle. That means I broke my ankle in the critical three points that it connects to the foot and leg; basically, I broke it in the worst way possible.

Due to the circumstances of being about 50 miles from home for my partner and myself, we were unable to seek care immediately after the injury and opted to transport myself to a closer hospital that same night under the assumption my pain would not be as detrimental as it ended up being.

Unfortunately, during my initial emergency room admission, El Camino Hospital was unable to run and accept my insurance despite them being listed as an emergency department within network on my insurance provided by my employer. The insurance itself was a “minimum essential coverage” plan, but for whatever reason, they were not able to utilize it for my care, resulting in a delay of critical care. During my three-day stay at El Camino, it was a long back and forth between insurance conversations as well as how I would be paying for current and future care. The podiatrist on call for the weekend who assessed me there told me the surgery is absolutely required and needed because the trauma of the fracture is so intense, but they were unable to do it during my stay and encouraged follow-up appointments to hopefully get a surgery scheduled out ASAP that could be covered by insurance. During my phone follow-ups the first week of May, no progress was made due to my insurance and financial situation.

By the second week of May, I was able to be seen by Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and able to get myself back on track to actually healing my injury. The team there was surprised surgery intervention hadn’t been done sooner, but from the mention of the insurance situation, the staff I spoke with understood why I was discharged without surgery.

Currently, I am being seen by SCVM without insurance and have been applying for financial assistance programs through the hospital as well as applying for disability (waiting on approval). The team at Valley Medical has been great to me but are limited in what to provide/expect for my needed future follow-up appointments as I have been unable to pay for most services provided so far. I am still going to require follow-up appointments with X-ray imaging, as well as physical therapy so that I can get back to walking and return to work and a somewhat normal life.

I have been out of work since April 25th, have used up any sick pay available, and no longer have insurance due to not working. I owe my employer for the months of May and June for the insurance “coverage provided” while out of work, and our rent is about to go up in August.

I am beyond blessed to have had some family assistance with some bills and support with medical equipment needed. It’s been very difficult to ask for help, but as the journey to recovery continues, it is inevitable. Anything helps, at the moment my main goal is to immediately pay off my employer so I have a job to go back to, and to be prepared for the upfront costs of my next appointments and imaging needed between this month and August at least.