Help My Mother Get Portable Oxygen
Donation protected
For those of you who know me, you know this isn't something I would normally do, but it's gotten to the point that I don't know what else to do. Money for my family has always been tight, but we've managed to make due. My father works 7 days a week, sometimes 12, or 14 hour days. My mother was forced into early retirement in 2016, when our only working car finally died. My father managed to get rides, but my mother worked in Salisbury MA, and couldn't manage to get there. So, left with no other option, she filed for early retirement.
My mother, Jo Ellen, is a sweet, loving and caring woman, who unfortunately has been having a rough patch in life. July 7th of 2017, she was hospitalized for a kidney stone. What should have been a short, in and out ER visit, turned unto a month long hospital stay. Her oxygen levels were dangerously low, and the medical staff at Portsmouth Regional Hospital could not let her leave, so she stayed the night. The next day, I went to pick her up and got some horrible news.
My mother was diagnosed with advanced COPD, and informed that she could not leave the hospital at all until her oxygen levels had stabilised. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. After weeks of oxygen, steroid, and nebulizer treatments, they broke the news that she would need to be on oxygen for the rest of her life.
On August 7th, 2017, she was released from the hospital's care, and send home with an oxygen tank. Later that day, Lincare technicians came and set up her home oxygen system, which she rents out, and left her a few spare oxygen tanks incase of power outages. Everything seemed okay, now that she was home. That is, until, reality set in, and the bills started piling up.
The hospital bill ALONE was over $250,000 dollars. That's a quarter of a million dollars... for 30 days of care. After filing, and being DENIED New Hampshire Medicaid multiple times, she was also left with hefty bills for her oxygen tanks and her home oxygen machine. Not to mention the nebulizers, medications, and doctor's visits. She's been under constant, horrible stress and anxiety about these bills.
More importantly than the stress, my mother has become completely house bound. Oxygen tanks only last 2 hours, and are incredibly expensive, and for SOME ridiculous reason, you have to order 3 at a time. She's sunk into such a depressive state, and I worry constantly about her mental health.
I know this is long, and a bit disorganized, but we're at our witts end. I hate to do it this way. I hate that I have to ask for help. But this help isn't for me, and I'm not too proud to ask on my mother's behalf, because I know she never would. She's too proud.
So I ask, if ANY of you have even a little to spare, please consider helping me, help my mother. No amount is too small. And thank you for understanding that sometimes, you just have to ask for help.
I love and appreciate you all.
-Erin Kellenbeck
My mother, Jo Ellen, is a sweet, loving and caring woman, who unfortunately has been having a rough patch in life. July 7th of 2017, she was hospitalized for a kidney stone. What should have been a short, in and out ER visit, turned unto a month long hospital stay. Her oxygen levels were dangerously low, and the medical staff at Portsmouth Regional Hospital could not let her leave, so she stayed the night. The next day, I went to pick her up and got some horrible news.
My mother was diagnosed with advanced COPD, and informed that she could not leave the hospital at all until her oxygen levels had stabilised. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. After weeks of oxygen, steroid, and nebulizer treatments, they broke the news that she would need to be on oxygen for the rest of her life.
On August 7th, 2017, she was released from the hospital's care, and send home with an oxygen tank. Later that day, Lincare technicians came and set up her home oxygen system, which she rents out, and left her a few spare oxygen tanks incase of power outages. Everything seemed okay, now that she was home. That is, until, reality set in, and the bills started piling up.
The hospital bill ALONE was over $250,000 dollars. That's a quarter of a million dollars... for 30 days of care. After filing, and being DENIED New Hampshire Medicaid multiple times, she was also left with hefty bills for her oxygen tanks and her home oxygen machine. Not to mention the nebulizers, medications, and doctor's visits. She's been under constant, horrible stress and anxiety about these bills.
More importantly than the stress, my mother has become completely house bound. Oxygen tanks only last 2 hours, and are incredibly expensive, and for SOME ridiculous reason, you have to order 3 at a time. She's sunk into such a depressive state, and I worry constantly about her mental health.
I know this is long, and a bit disorganized, but we're at our witts end. I hate to do it this way. I hate that I have to ask for help. But this help isn't for me, and I'm not too proud to ask on my mother's behalf, because I know she never would. She's too proud.
So I ask, if ANY of you have even a little to spare, please consider helping me, help my mother. No amount is too small. And thank you for understanding that sometimes, you just have to ask for help.
I love and appreciate you all.
-Erin Kellenbeck
Organizer
Loki Elara Lockheart
Organizer
Portsmouth, NH
