Quincy's Heart-Transplant Expenses
On June 14, 2013 Quincy Rose Rogers was born with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Left Ventricle Non-Compaction. This means that her heart was too big (more than 2.5x too large); and that the muscle fibers in her heart did not lace together to make a compact muscle, preventing correct pumping function.
Either of these could have resulted in needing a heart transplant on their own, but the combination was truly life threatening. After being life-flighted to Children's Heathcare of Atlanta Egleston, Q waited weeks to be listed for transplant, and then much longer waiting for an organ to be available.
Mom and Dad waited with her, living for the most part in a hospital room sleeping on benches or fold-out chairs. The wait was very challenging, and the surgery was even more terrifying.
Thankfully, a donor organ was matched, and Q came through surgery after some difficulty on September 4th, 2013 at just over 12-weeks of age.
Since then, Q has overcome a long string of challenges to continue to flourish despite the chronic heart condition she will live with for the remainder of her life.
Unfortunately, even with the best insurance Dad's company provides (and the cost that incurs every paycheck), the reoccurring expenses of medications, therapies, doctor's visits, biopsy and catheterizations, and the travel costs incurred to provide all of these services is simply outpacing our ability to stay ahead of the collections callers.
After four wonderful years where every day we are infinitely thankful for every extra moment we have with Q, Mom and Dad are now pushing the rock of more than $30k in medical and related debt up a steeper and steeper hill every month. It's a rock that constantly threatens to crush us.
The collections agents from Children's Hospitals are incredibly nice and helpful and understanding people, but they have a job to do, and medical services simply are not free. Dad has nearly crippling anxiety from constantly robbing from Peter to pay Paul back for a few more days.
The need is pretty urgent. Q has quite a few medical activities scheduled, and in the era of "please pay copays and coinsurance at time of service" we cannot prioritize anything in front of some of these expenses. Not food, not car, not rent. So really, the need is urgent and things are not pretty.
Q's entire story can be read at her facebook page (http://facebook.com/aheartforquincy), and we invite everyone to follow along as we continue to live each and every day like another change is just around the corner.