HELP OFFSET THE MEDICAL BILLS FROM CONNIE'S FALL

THIS GFM WAS SET UP AT THE REQUEST OF CONNIE'S HUSBAND GLENN

On Friday morning, February 16, 2024, Connie was getting out of bed when she took a misstep & tripped over a box. As she stumbled across the bedroom towards the dresser, she found herself unable to get up from the floor without help from Glenn. She immediately saw her primary care physician who did an exam (without imaging), diagnosed it as an Achilles tendon rupture and advised her to see an orthopedist.

Due to the extended President's Day holiday weekend, Connie was unable to see an orthopedist until Tuesday, February 20 and she stubbornly hobbled around on a cane, with help, all weekend thinking her injury was a simple tendon tear. The orthopedist took x-rays and sent her directly to the hospital for surgery -- she had a displaced calcaneus fracture. (Her heel bone was not only broken, but also out of alignment & pushing towards the skin at the bottom of her foot.) She had surgery the next day to repair the heel bone with a plate & screws... or, as she put it, to "tighten loose screws".

After a week in the hospital, she is being discharged on February 28 to an inpatient rehab for "sub-acute care" & physical therapy for up to 10-12 weeks because she is not allowed to step down on her foot AT ALL until the heel bone is healed enough to bear weight on it -- not even to use the bathroom.

Here's the part that's more painful than the injury, the surgery, or the hospital food:

The inpatient sub-cute rehab costs roughly $875 (USD) per day... less the amount her health insurance will reimburse for roughly the first 6 weeks, which may be as little as $412 (USD) per day. We won't bore you with the math or scare you with the potential total bill for the 2 doctors, x-rays, surgery, hospital stay, ambulance transfer from the hospital to the rehab and to/from rehab to doctors appointments, or up to 10-12 weeks of inpatient rehab... but it's outrageous! (And it's likely to be a lot more than the goal of this GFM.)

We've been lucky to have gotten 6 weeks mostly covered by insurance, but now the INSURANCE STOPPED PAYING AS OF APRIL 12, 2024, which leaves us on the hook to pay the next 4-6 weeks entirely out-of-pocket & the skilled nursing facility already demanded an upfront payment of $12,000 as a "down payment". (We have tried to appeal this decision several times to no avail.)

*UPDATE*

As of May 5, we are now $25,000 out-of-pocket (and increasing by the day) since insurance stopped paying!

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated... even if it's just sharing this fundraiser with others. Thank you for taking the time to read Connie's story!