Help Caroline Get Surgery to Walk and Dance Again

Last year I was working as a substitute for Pittsburgh Public Schools, covering for a teacher who did not return. I put in many unpaid hours to meet my students' needs despite not being qualified to be a full teacher. On April 2nd, 2024 I fell at work at Liberty K-5, a Pittsburgh Public school. It was a terrible working environment, but that’s another story. Due to my injury occurring at work, I had to go through worker’s compensation and could only see their approved doctors. They sent me to urgent care, and the Nurse Practitioners I saw insisted that there wasn’t anything wrong with me, it was just an ankle sprain that would go away if I elevated and iced it. I insisted it was more serious, and the doctors continued to gaslight me and downplay my symptoms. I was still working this whole time, teaching 5th grade English while I could barely walk and received almost no support or sympathy from PPS. The 10 and 11 year old students I taught showed me more empathy than my superiors. I continued to receive terrible medical treatment while I could barely walk. I was sent to exercise my injury in PT and told to “give it time.” 8 months later, I can barely walk, and my quality of life is a mere fraction of what it was. I’ve found a new doctor who treats me like a human being, and we had scheduled a surgery that could restore my ability to walk. The worker’s compensation insurance has denied the claim to cover the costs of the surgery and I’ll need to reschedule the appointment and show I can cover the costs, I’m still waiting on a full estimate, but I want to get this published for now so I can start collecting funds. If my insurance later decides to cover the surgery, I will use these funds towards my recovery, and acquiring accommodations like grocery delivery which is very painful for me to do my grocery shopping.

Please donate so I can get the surgery to restore my ability to walk and can go back to my happy and adventurous self.