Vickie McGowan’s dialysis and in-home care fund

Moorpark's McGowan Family is in crisis and is asking for help. Vickie was rushed to the emergency room at Los Robles Hospital on December 26th, where she received a blood transfusion and the devastating news that her kidneys were failing.

Paying out of pocket for professional care and dialysis-related expenses is the only option to keep Vickie safe and comfortable.

Vickie is being released after her 10-day stay to an impossible situation at home. Despite her own declining health in recent years, including significant mobility and hearing loss, she has been the primary caregiver for Jim, her 80-year-old husband. Jim is a Vietnam-era veteran who has been battling Alzheimer’s for the past 2 years and needs 24-hour monitoring as the disease progresses. The waitlist for Veteran’s Administration Memory Care placement in California is several years.

Vickie was scheduled for an early-January hip replacement, but her kidney failure has postponed it indefinitely. Now, she will require regular dialysis for the rest of her life.

Vickie and Jim’s children provide support and help as much as possible, but this diagnosis and new reality for the family is more than they can handle without professional full-time and in-home care. Although Medicare covers dialysis treatments, it does not cover memory care for Jim, in-home care for Vickie , or dialysis transportation for her in California.

This will require thousands of dollars weekly in out-of-pocket expenses, which are currently unavailable. Eventually selling the family home to pay for long-term care is the plan, but Jim’s Alzheimer’s complicates things and immediate support is needed.

We are raising funds for the McGowan Family to help them transition through this difficult time. Thank you for helping.