Franklin Academy’s Joel Arencibia: A True Miracle
Donation protected
You don’t have to help, you get to help! UPDATE: Joel is HOME!!!!
Immediate need is to help him with expenses related to needed therapies!
For the past couple of years, Joel Arencibia has been passing along sage advice to our 7th and 8th graders as a teacher at Franklin Academy in Pembroke Pines. He is loved and respected not only by his peers, but by the students who had the honor of walking into his classroom.
In December of 2021, Mr. Joel Arencibia was admitted to Memorial West Hospital due to complications stemming from COVID-19. After being admitted, his health steadily declined to the point of dangerously low oxygen levels, exceedingly high inflammatory markers, and patchy areas of infection all over his lungs. After much decline, he was transferred to the COVID-ICU at Memorial Regional Hospital.
For three months, Joel laid in a hospital bed fighting for his life. Miraculously, in the past few weeks Joel began to improve. He is finally on the road to recovery and needs to transition to an Acute Physical Therapy Center; however, the insurance company has not approved this coverage. Now is when Joel needs us the most!
See Joel’s own words that he shared via a text message to us: “I'm doing great and getting stronger each day. Every nurse that comes in or people that treated me while I was in a coma can't believe the condition I'm in after everything I went through and having to be in a coma on ECMO for 57 days. Everyone is saying I'm a miracle success story.
Right now, I have so much more potential to get stronger fast but I need to go to an acute physical therapy center, but the insurance is denying it even though everyone here, nurses, all my therapists, and doctors are all on my side saying that going to the Memorial Rehabilitation Institute at Memorial Regional Hospital South facility is where I need to go.
After a peer to peer meeting between the rehab doctor and the insurance where the rehab doctor strongly urged that I needed to go to the south facility, they still denied it. The doctor here at Memorial left official notes in the system strongly urging me and my family to appeal the denial, which is what we are doing right now... fighting the insurance company.
Right now I'm only getting very limited rehab that is only challenging me a fraction of my potential.
In summary, it seems the insurance company wants me to be discharged and go home or go to a nursing facility, which is not going to give me the rehab I need. It all comes down to money. The acute rehab center that is best for me costs 3x as much as the nursing facility per day, but I'm not going to be given the opportunity and challenge to get stronger there and will seriously delay my full recovery. My nurse yesterday said if that was the case I would probably just be better off just going home and work on conditioning by myself.
Everything medically is great with me, except I still do need a constant small amount of oxygen. So wherever I go after this I would need access to an oxygen tank.
Doctors say that I will have permanent scarring in my lungs that will affect my lung capacity for the rest of my life and limit the activities I will be able to do. Right now my lung capacity is only 1/5 or 1/6 of what a normal person's is. So I won't be doing any heavy exercise for a while until my body adapts and I expand my lungs to compensate.
So that's it. I feel great. I feel normal. I don't feel short of breath until I start exerting myself exercising with the therapists but every day I adapt and get better and better.
I lost 40lbs and a lot of muscle so I still have that journey ahead of me to strengthen everything back up. But I am not allowed to leave my bed or try to even stand or walk without someone with me, which there never is someone available for that until the therapists come in, but they are coming on a limited basis, so my recovery is going a lot slower than it could.
My goal was to be back to normal by the end of May, but right now with the insurance denying the therapy I need and basically being confined to a 4x8 prison (my bed) it doesn't look like I will meet that goal.
But I will fight tooth and nail and work my face off every way I can to get back to normal as fast as I can.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and sacrifices many have made; financial sacrifices, time sacrifices, and all other sacrifices made that I don't even know about.
I don't have the words to express my gratitude for all of you in my life and I am thankful to be a part of the Franklin family.”
As his Franklin family, we are asking everyone in and out of his community to help by donating what they can to help alleviate the financial strain of the medical bills and help him get the therapy he so desperately needs. On behalf of the Franklin Academy family, we appreciate the outpouring of love, prayers, and support shown over the past few months and undoubtedly, in the months to come.
Immediate need is to help him with expenses related to needed therapies!
For the past couple of years, Joel Arencibia has been passing along sage advice to our 7th and 8th graders as a teacher at Franklin Academy in Pembroke Pines. He is loved and respected not only by his peers, but by the students who had the honor of walking into his classroom.
In December of 2021, Mr. Joel Arencibia was admitted to Memorial West Hospital due to complications stemming from COVID-19. After being admitted, his health steadily declined to the point of dangerously low oxygen levels, exceedingly high inflammatory markers, and patchy areas of infection all over his lungs. After much decline, he was transferred to the COVID-ICU at Memorial Regional Hospital.
For three months, Joel laid in a hospital bed fighting for his life. Miraculously, in the past few weeks Joel began to improve. He is finally on the road to recovery and needs to transition to an Acute Physical Therapy Center; however, the insurance company has not approved this coverage. Now is when Joel needs us the most!
See Joel’s own words that he shared via a text message to us: “I'm doing great and getting stronger each day. Every nurse that comes in or people that treated me while I was in a coma can't believe the condition I'm in after everything I went through and having to be in a coma on ECMO for 57 days. Everyone is saying I'm a miracle success story.
Right now, I have so much more potential to get stronger fast but I need to go to an acute physical therapy center, but the insurance is denying it even though everyone here, nurses, all my therapists, and doctors are all on my side saying that going to the Memorial Rehabilitation Institute at Memorial Regional Hospital South facility is where I need to go.
After a peer to peer meeting between the rehab doctor and the insurance where the rehab doctor strongly urged that I needed to go to the south facility, they still denied it. The doctor here at Memorial left official notes in the system strongly urging me and my family to appeal the denial, which is what we are doing right now... fighting the insurance company.
Right now I'm only getting very limited rehab that is only challenging me a fraction of my potential.
In summary, it seems the insurance company wants me to be discharged and go home or go to a nursing facility, which is not going to give me the rehab I need. It all comes down to money. The acute rehab center that is best for me costs 3x as much as the nursing facility per day, but I'm not going to be given the opportunity and challenge to get stronger there and will seriously delay my full recovery. My nurse yesterday said if that was the case I would probably just be better off just going home and work on conditioning by myself.
Everything medically is great with me, except I still do need a constant small amount of oxygen. So wherever I go after this I would need access to an oxygen tank.
Doctors say that I will have permanent scarring in my lungs that will affect my lung capacity for the rest of my life and limit the activities I will be able to do. Right now my lung capacity is only 1/5 or 1/6 of what a normal person's is. So I won't be doing any heavy exercise for a while until my body adapts and I expand my lungs to compensate.
So that's it. I feel great. I feel normal. I don't feel short of breath until I start exerting myself exercising with the therapists but every day I adapt and get better and better.
I lost 40lbs and a lot of muscle so I still have that journey ahead of me to strengthen everything back up. But I am not allowed to leave my bed or try to even stand or walk without someone with me, which there never is someone available for that until the therapists come in, but they are coming on a limited basis, so my recovery is going a lot slower than it could.
My goal was to be back to normal by the end of May, but right now with the insurance denying the therapy I need and basically being confined to a 4x8 prison (my bed) it doesn't look like I will meet that goal.
But I will fight tooth and nail and work my face off every way I can to get back to normal as fast as I can.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and sacrifices many have made; financial sacrifices, time sacrifices, and all other sacrifices made that I don't even know about.
I don't have the words to express my gratitude for all of you in my life and I am thankful to be a part of the Franklin family.”
As his Franklin family, we are asking everyone in and out of his community to help by donating what they can to help alleviate the financial strain of the medical bills and help him get the therapy he so desperately needs. On behalf of the Franklin Academy family, we appreciate the outpouring of love, prayers, and support shown over the past few months and undoubtedly, in the months to come.
Organizer and beneficiary
Franklin Academy PPK8
Organizer
Hollywood, FL
Joel Arencibia
Beneficiary