Support Laurie: Battling MS and Job Loss

I am reaching out as a last resort. Our funds have been depleted, and our friends and family are exhausted from helping us.

My wife, Laurie, worked as a credentialing specialist for Nevada Heart and Vascular in Las Vegas for the better part of 18 years. In the spring of 2024, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and then in May, she was hospitalized in Southern Hills with respiratory failure. She survived but could not return to work.

Laurie applied for SSDI with exigent circumstances but was denied. Senator Susie Lee of Nevada appealed her claim. We have spent all of our savings, and Laurie had to cash in her 401k at a penalty. In 2021, we both had 700 credit scores, but my wife's score is now in the mid-300s, and mine is in the low 500s. We are over $50,000 in debt. If it weren't for my 91-year-old mother-in-law, Laurie's mom, who has advanced dementia, we would be in dire straits. It's just the three of us: my 61-year-old self, my wife, and her 91-year-old mother, and if it weren't for the death benefits that she receives from the United States Air Force from her deceased husband's pension, we would be homeless.

Laurie is still unable to work. We were forced to move from a three-bedroom home to an apartment in June 2023. On July 15, 2023, she woke up with extreme pain in her right arm, shoulder, and hand. Her PCP gave her an injection in her shoulder and muscle relaxers, but never fully recovered. That is when she was placed on Short Term Disability. In December 2023, she applied for SSDI at the suggestion of her PCP. On January 26, 2024, Nevada Heart and Vascular Center separated her from employment. She applied for Medicaid and SNAP and was approved. With new insurance, She found a new PCP and set up appointments with new specialists for MS testing. In May 2024, she was sick at home with Strep throat and put on antibiotics. She got better, and then our youngest daughter brought a friend home who was very sick with a cough and fever, and she started getting sick again. After trying to fight it at home for a week, she called 911 on Mother's Day, May 15, 2024, and was taken by ambulance to Southern Hills Hospital with Respiratory Failure, Pneumonia, and positive Influenza A. She spent one week in the Pulmonary ICU and was then moved to Kindred for Long Term Acute Care. She did everything she needed to do get discharged and go home five days later. She is now on continuous oxygen at 3 liters daily with portable tanks and has been diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension and Chronic Respiratory Failure. The daily hospital notes indicate that she was septic while in the hospital.

She is still fighting for SSDI benefits, and we have had no income since July 15, 2023.

We are asking for any assistance you may be able to provide.