Family Reunion Medical Roadblock

NEW INFO:
Hi everyone. Per the last update, the remaining fee for the hospital is now $5889, thanks to Monash Health's generous discount of $2,500, and to everyone who helped us by donating. The final bills are as follows:

Ambulance fee $1,174

Assistant Doctor fee $152

Main Doctor fee $1,630

Emergency Doctor fee $560

All these fees have been included, with the remaining hospital fee, in the total amount above. The bills are attached below, at the end of the campaign description.

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THE BEGINNING
In 1986, my father Miles Sharpe and my mother, Debra, seperated because of family pressure and disapproval. My mother was pregnant with me at the time and when I was five years old, we immigrated with my siblings to Australia.

I had never met my father. He started work on a farm in South Africa. In 1998, he suffered a traumatic brain injury while attempting to use a diesel engine to pump water for cattle after several days of poor wind. The drive shaft of the pulley uncoupled and hit my father in the head. He was rushed to hospital where he was revived. He was 47 years old at the time.  

It was a year before he could walk again. Many of his most precious memories were destroyed. Miraculously he never forgot my mother, the love of his life, or me who he had never had the opportunity to meet. My father spent years trying to find me and in 2009, he finally did through Facebook. We shared many photos as we got to know each other; the likeness is pretty uncanny:


THE REUNION
Finally, in August 2016, after chatting daily for 6 years, 3 years of visa applications, fees, and saving every penny for the trip, with his brother Robby Sharpe paying for his airfare, he got on a plane for the first time in his life to fly all the way from South Africa to Australia to meet me in person, and to reunite with my mother, the woman he had met and fallen in love with 30 years earlier:


(Sadly, Miles' brother Robby unexpectedly passed away from lung and intestinal cancer only a few days after Miles arrived in Australia.)

THE ROADBLOCK
On Sunday, 18th September, 2016, my mum and father accompanied me to the Sandown race track where I was to sing the national anthem at the V8 Supercars races. Shortly before my performance, my father collapsed from a heart attack. First Aid responded and called an ambulance. While we were only concerned about his wellbeing, my father was more concerned about the financial burden we may face. We are so thankful that the paramedics were able to help my mum convince him that he needed to go to the hospital; his life was in very real danger. 

After singing the anthem at my father's insistance, my mother and I followed the ambulance to Monash Medical Center in Clayton Vic, Australia. My father received an angiogram, which showed he had plaque in his coronary arteries. The artery in the right side of his heart was completely blocked and he had suffered a heart attack. The plaque was removed from that artery immediately, and a stent was inserted through the artery to open it up and restore bloodflow to the lower right side of his heart. He will also require further surgery to repair two other arteries on the left side of his heart. It was an incredibly frightening experience. I had just met my father for the first time, and I was already at risk of losing him.



THE COST
After spending four days at the Monash Medical Center in Clayton, Victoria, Australia, Miles' hospital bill (excluding ambulance fee, medication cost, and surgeon fee) has amounted to a total of $12,519.30AUD.

On Day 2 of his hospitalization,  my mother and I were informed by the Overseas Billing Department of the Monash Medical Center, that unless the full amount of $12,519.30AUD was received within seven days of the discharge date (Wednesday, 21st, September 2016), the Australian Authorities would be informed that Miles was in default (of medical bills).

This was very upsetting because if that did happen, it would jeopardize future visits by my father to visit us in Australia, to be with myself and my mother.


THE DETAILS
Below you will see an itemized invoice of the bill as mentioned above, exluding ambulance, surgeon, and medication costs (which will be posted as UPDATES, as we get the bills for those things).

Invoice 338143 = $11,522.00 ( bed fees, Prostheses, theatre service fee)



----Invoice 5537793 = $560.00 (emergency department fee)


Invoice 305978= $437.30 (pathology)
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NEWEST (and hopefully final) BILL:

Total = $12,519.30

New total (after donations and Hospital discount, plus new bill): $9,105AUD

THE CONCLUSION

I cannot thank the staff at the Monash Medical Center enough for their care and compassion during my father's stay. From the first aid responders, to the paramedics, to the nurses and doctors at the Monash Medical Center, the care he received was exemplary. 


And I want to thank everyone of you for reading our story. No matter what amount you've chosen to donate in support of my family, the relief and comfort it brings to us is priceless. It is always hard to face a stuation where a loved one is in real danger. It is even harder to process those complicated feelings when there is a threat of bills that cannot be paid in full and the prospect that money may mean the difference between whether or not you'll ever get an opportunity to see that loved one again.

With your help, I hope that we can pay off these fees so that I never have to worry that this visit, marred by an unfortunate medical emergency, does not bar my father from seeing me again. Being able to meet him after all these years has been truly special.
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