Beto's Medical Bills

On December 15, 2022, Adrian Police Department found my dad, Audberto Nunez, unconscious on the bottom steps that lead up to his upstairs apartment. He was immediately taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Jackson, MI. They admitted him due to blunt-force trauma to the back of his head. Upon arriving at the hospital, he was placed on a ventilator due to the strain that was being caused by the head injury. I had no idea that any of this had occurred. One whole night had passed without me, or my 3 siblings being notified that our father was in the hospital and in critical condition. By the good graces of God, a nurse at the hospital was able to look through his phone to try and see if she could get into contact with the next of kin, and from there she was able to find me.

While at Henry Ford, in Jackson, they were unsuccessful in stopping the bleeding from his injury nor were they equipped with handling his other extensive injuries he was then airlifted to DMH. My father is not married so I am the designated POA and have to make all his final medical decisions. Since being admitted to DMH, he has since suffered more complications such as brain swelling for which they had to perform surgery. It was either get surgery or have him pass on. I chose to fight for him. These past three weeks have taken a toll on our whole family. After not seeing any type of progression with our father, the doctors brought up the option of performing a craniotomy. Since then we have gone through neuro storming. High heart rates or low heart rates, high blood pressure and high fevers. He also developed pneumonia due to his head injury which resulted in a chest tube being inserted to drain the accumulating liquid. Finally, we had a breakthrough in the beginning of January where he was completely off sedation although he is still on the ventilator for support. My dad has still not responded such as movements, opening his eyes or talking. He still has some neuro storming here and there and doctors are still trying to get that under control. They now have inserted a trachea and a PEG tube for feeding so they can take out the GI tube from his mouth.

We are now facing a huge hospital bill, 50k for the helicopter transfer and 30k as of 1/12 for the hospital stay. We're facing costs for rehab and therapy once my dad gets discharged and may be sooner than we thought. Since my father doesn’t have medical insurance and can’t obtain any due to his illegal status in the US (working on it), he’s not eligible for it. Sadly, we are left to pay for everything out of pocket. He would be needing special therapy, special feeding food, 24 hours around-the-clock nurse care is needed. In the end, everything comes up at an expensive cost.

Audberto Nunez is 47 years old, from the south of Mexico, the last of his siblings, he came to the US at a young age looking for the American dream like a lot of our Latinos do. He is a father to five children, Brenda (me), Maria, Enrique, Aracely and Aujalique. My dad has done so much for the community, always lending a helping hand. He has so many supportive friends and families who are keeping him in their prayers. He was such a hard labourer, working on side jobs to make ends meet. He worked day-to-day jobs, and he has no other financial support other than his kids, which we make minimum wage and support our families. We ask for help to give him a fighting chance to live. A little goes a long way, it would mean a lot to the family and most importantly my dad.