Help Save Madeline’s Spine
Donation protected
On February 16th, 2019, Madeline Veitch and Andrés Pletch welcomed their daughter Agnes into the world. Since then, Madeline has experienced a succession of medical complications culminating in the most serious threat to her health to date. On June 5th, Madeline was rushed to the ER after collapsing in immobilizing pain. She had been suffering from significant back problems in the weeks prior, which everyone chalked up to the postpartum recovery process. After a series of scans, doctors discovered that Madeline had compression fractures on eight of her vertebrae. Further tests and consultations resulted in the diagnosis of Pregnancy and Lactation-associated Osteoporosis (PLO), a rare condition in which a new mother’s body is incapable of preventing the leaching of calcium from her bones during the production of milk. In a bitter irony, Madeline’s act of sustaining her daughter’s life had diminished her own body’s ability to sustain her own.
A librarian at the State University of New York at New Paltz, Madeline is fortunate to have very good health insurance. As the current debate over healthcare in the United States reveals, however, even the best insurance is not enough to shield patients from the exorbitant costs of medical emergencies. To make matters worse, this is not the first medical emergency Madeline and Andrés have experienced since the birth of Agnes. After a complicated labor that resulted in an emergency c-section, both Madeline and Agnes developed blood infections that resulted in Agnes spending the first week of her life at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The day after Madeline and Andrés brought Agnes home from the NICU, Madeline was then rushed to the ER, as her c-section incision had become severely infected. Her incision had to be reopened and cleaned, after which doctors attached a device known as a wound-vac to help heal the now open wound. A week later, Madeline noticed a pain in her right calf. Her doctors ordered a scan that revealed that she had developed a DVT blood clot. For the last three months, Madeline has been taking daily injections of an anti-coagulant named Lovenox to deal with the blood clot. During her most recent medical emergency, Madeline learned that Lovenox is known to contribute to osteoporosis.
Over the past week, Madeline and Andrés have experienced the highs and lows of the United States’ healthcare system. In some good news, Madeline’s doctors have secured for her the best possible treatment. Madeline is in contact with the PLO unit at Columbia University, the only research team in the country currently studying this rare condition. Her multi-year treatment will also be overseen by doctors at the Helen Hayes Hospital, which is home to one of the nation’s premier osteoporosis centers. In the short-term, however, the limitations of the insurance-based system have been glaring. None of Madeline’s fractures have impacted her nervous system, so while she is experiencing a high degree of pain, she has not lost control of her body. Still, her doctors stress that she is at a high risk for additional fractures, thus increasing the risk of permanent disability. Surgical interventions have been ruled out, as stabilizing any individual vertebra runs the risk of increasing the stress on adjacent vertebrae, which could result in additional fractures. While everyone agrees that the ideal solution would be to place Madeline in a rehabilitation center or a skilled nursing facility to protect her spine until she is safe to return home, at this point insurance will not cover such a program unless she is actually paralyzed.
Moving forward, Madeline and Andrés face some daunting challenges. They must immediately convert their small home into a makeshift rehabilitation center, complete with the necessary equipment to protect Madeline’s spine. They must also arrange to safely transport Madeline to her many appointments throughout the Hudson Valley and New York City. Finally, they must organize a team of family, friends, and paid help to support Madeline in her rehabilitation. Most important of all, they must do all of this while minimizing the impact on baby Agnes. In this regard, the costs have already been dear. Madeline has not been able to pick up Agnes in over a month, and some of her doctors suggest it will be another year before she can do so safely. Because the main contributing factor to PLO is lactation, on June 9th, Madeline breast fed Agnes for the last time.
The past four months have taxed this new family, both physically and emotionally. As this fundraising campaign confesses, it has also taxed their finances. Though Madeline is fortunate to benefit from New York state’s new Paid Family Leave Act, the benefit only extends twelve weeks of leave at half-pay. That benefit has long since expired, and Madeline is currently on medical leave for three months, also at half-pay. Prior to this succession of medical emergencies, Andrés Pletch was teaching part-time for the Bard Prison Initiative and other regional colleges, looking forward to devoting the rest of his time to caring for Agnes. He has now also assumed the role of full-time nurse to Madeline and has already had to abandon many of his teaching commitments for the fall. Madeline and Andrés have dedicated their professional lives to higher education, knowing that they would never earn large sums of money. But they never could have prepared for the financial hit caused by this succession of medical emergencies. So far, they have severely stressed their modest savings, and the long road ahead promises to be very expensive. It remains an open question what will happen to Madeline’s job and health insurance if she is unable to return to work after her three-month medical leave is up.
Determining how much money Madeline’s family needs to raise to weather this storm seems like an impossible task. Recent articles on the proliferation of GoFundMe medical campaigns reveal that the median goal for such fundraisers is $50,000. This seems like an absurdly large amount of money to hope to raise, and yet it also seems inadequate given the long road ahead. But it is a place to start. In future updates to this campaign, we will provide a more detailed accounting of how these funds are being and will be spent. For the time being, rest assured that we will use them to effect any and all measures necessary to protect Madeline’s spine, to support her through this long recovery, and to meet the unforeseen challenges that lie ahead so that she can pick up Agnes once again.
Please share this campaign far and wide. If you would like to contribute funds directly, please contact Andrés Pletch.
A librarian at the State University of New York at New Paltz, Madeline is fortunate to have very good health insurance. As the current debate over healthcare in the United States reveals, however, even the best insurance is not enough to shield patients from the exorbitant costs of medical emergencies. To make matters worse, this is not the first medical emergency Madeline and Andrés have experienced since the birth of Agnes. After a complicated labor that resulted in an emergency c-section, both Madeline and Agnes developed blood infections that resulted in Agnes spending the first week of her life at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The day after Madeline and Andrés brought Agnes home from the NICU, Madeline was then rushed to the ER, as her c-section incision had become severely infected. Her incision had to be reopened and cleaned, after which doctors attached a device known as a wound-vac to help heal the now open wound. A week later, Madeline noticed a pain in her right calf. Her doctors ordered a scan that revealed that she had developed a DVT blood clot. For the last three months, Madeline has been taking daily injections of an anti-coagulant named Lovenox to deal with the blood clot. During her most recent medical emergency, Madeline learned that Lovenox is known to contribute to osteoporosis.
Over the past week, Madeline and Andrés have experienced the highs and lows of the United States’ healthcare system. In some good news, Madeline’s doctors have secured for her the best possible treatment. Madeline is in contact with the PLO unit at Columbia University, the only research team in the country currently studying this rare condition. Her multi-year treatment will also be overseen by doctors at the Helen Hayes Hospital, which is home to one of the nation’s premier osteoporosis centers. In the short-term, however, the limitations of the insurance-based system have been glaring. None of Madeline’s fractures have impacted her nervous system, so while she is experiencing a high degree of pain, she has not lost control of her body. Still, her doctors stress that she is at a high risk for additional fractures, thus increasing the risk of permanent disability. Surgical interventions have been ruled out, as stabilizing any individual vertebra runs the risk of increasing the stress on adjacent vertebrae, which could result in additional fractures. While everyone agrees that the ideal solution would be to place Madeline in a rehabilitation center or a skilled nursing facility to protect her spine until she is safe to return home, at this point insurance will not cover such a program unless she is actually paralyzed.
Moving forward, Madeline and Andrés face some daunting challenges. They must immediately convert their small home into a makeshift rehabilitation center, complete with the necessary equipment to protect Madeline’s spine. They must also arrange to safely transport Madeline to her many appointments throughout the Hudson Valley and New York City. Finally, they must organize a team of family, friends, and paid help to support Madeline in her rehabilitation. Most important of all, they must do all of this while minimizing the impact on baby Agnes. In this regard, the costs have already been dear. Madeline has not been able to pick up Agnes in over a month, and some of her doctors suggest it will be another year before she can do so safely. Because the main contributing factor to PLO is lactation, on June 9th, Madeline breast fed Agnes for the last time.
The past four months have taxed this new family, both physically and emotionally. As this fundraising campaign confesses, it has also taxed their finances. Though Madeline is fortunate to benefit from New York state’s new Paid Family Leave Act, the benefit only extends twelve weeks of leave at half-pay. That benefit has long since expired, and Madeline is currently on medical leave for three months, also at half-pay. Prior to this succession of medical emergencies, Andrés Pletch was teaching part-time for the Bard Prison Initiative and other regional colleges, looking forward to devoting the rest of his time to caring for Agnes. He has now also assumed the role of full-time nurse to Madeline and has already had to abandon many of his teaching commitments for the fall. Madeline and Andrés have dedicated their professional lives to higher education, knowing that they would never earn large sums of money. But they never could have prepared for the financial hit caused by this succession of medical emergencies. So far, they have severely stressed their modest savings, and the long road ahead promises to be very expensive. It remains an open question what will happen to Madeline’s job and health insurance if she is unable to return to work after her three-month medical leave is up.
Determining how much money Madeline’s family needs to raise to weather this storm seems like an impossible task. Recent articles on the proliferation of GoFundMe medical campaigns reveal that the median goal for such fundraisers is $50,000. This seems like an absurdly large amount of money to hope to raise, and yet it also seems inadequate given the long road ahead. But it is a place to start. In future updates to this campaign, we will provide a more detailed accounting of how these funds are being and will be spent. For the time being, rest assured that we will use them to effect any and all measures necessary to protect Madeline’s spine, to support her through this long recovery, and to meet the unforeseen challenges that lie ahead so that she can pick up Agnes once again.
Please share this campaign far and wide. If you would like to contribute funds directly, please contact Andrés Pletch.
Fundraising team (2)
Andres Pletch
Organiser
New Paltz, NY
Madeline Veitch
Team member
