Help Bring Luis A. Coppin Home

With great sadness, on behalf of the Coppin family, we would like to share that on Sunday, July 10th, while in Panama to care for family and enjoy a vacation, our father, Luis A. Coppin, was admitted to Hospital Santo Tomas in Panama City, Panama. After complaining of intense pain and nausea, he became weak and collapsed in the emergency room.

After three long grueling days in the ER, he was finally admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. After a long battle of trying to figure out information from the ICU staff there and conflicting reports on his status over the subsequent days, we learned that he had suffered from sepsis (the body’s overreaction to an infection) which resulted in organ failure. Luis defied the odds and endured cardiac arrest, dialysis and other treatments. However, we learned that he is in a coma and it is clear that the hospital can no longer do anything to help him. We were relieved to hear the news that he is now considered stable enough to be transported back to the United States. But we have hit yet another roadblock.

Although my father is insured by the military and a US-based insurance company, the hospital is uncooperative in providing the medical records needed to insure him properly. Since we are working against time, we must pay these costs out of pocket. We were advised that a Medevac would cost upwards of $30,000, which does not include the overwhelming medical fees the hospital demands to release his records.

Luis A. Coppin is a loving husband, father, grandfather and United States veteran, having served in Vietnam and the Gulf War. He is also an Elder at Solid Rock SDA Church in Far Rockaway and heads the church’s weekly food pantry, which helps feed hundreds of families in the neighborhood. Luis is truly a community cornerstone for the people who know him. We are asking for help to bring him home to the United States so that he can receive the care he truly deserves and bring him closer to his family.