Help for the Worth Family in an Emergency

Hi, my name is Lindy and i am raising funds to help my close friends in this emergency.

The Worth Family Needs Our Help

Chris knew something was wrong. A professional musician, he’d begun to have trouble with his hands. He couldn’t always form the chords on his guitar properly. Then one day as he was cooking, his hand slipped and he cut himself. It was not a large cut, so he cleaned it and bandaged it. When he didn’t feel well, he thought he must have Covid and isolated for three days.

That’s when Diane, checking in on him, found him in a state of delirium. He was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a systemic staph infection. He spent 5 weeks, including Christmas, in ICU, as one antibiotic after another was tried. Finally, he seemed to be getting better. After a week in rehab rebuilding his strength, he went home. Diane had taken off from her position as an ESL teacher, and son EJ, an honors student on mid-semester break from Bard College, pitched in as Chris’s needs for visitors and hospital advocates shifted into need for 24/7 at-home care.

Chris presumably on the mend, EJ returned to college.

Recently, Chris relapsed. Back in ICU, the original source of his hand difficulties was found to be a rapidly progressing arthritis of the spine and neck. But the news is much worse: the infection never really cleared and has settled in his spine and around his heart. If he lives, it will be because one last antibiotic has enough impact to allow him to go home. He is not expected to walk again nor to regain the full use of his hands and arms.

EJ has withdrawn from this semester of college to help. Their lives have been turned upside down.

The bills have piled up from months of medical costs, travel costs (to and from Springfield where Chris is hospitalized), even vet costs when the beloved family dog required emergency surgery.

Diane has used up all her vacation, sick leave, and personal leave time. She is now on leave from her teaching position awaiting determination of how much partial pay she may be eligible to receive and for how long, and how much of the over $200,000 in medical bills incurred thus far will be reimbursed by insurance.

Planning for two equally devastating possibilities, not knowing which will materialize, Diane and EJ have met with hospice. If Chris can come home, retrofitting the house with a ramp, widening the downstairs bedroom door, and making the bathroom accessible is estimated to cost $15,000.

Right now, the family needs $35,000. Four months of living expenses (mortgage and car payments, food, travel, installment loan payments, utilities) plus the immediate costs of home remodeling, while everyone waits to see what happens next with the insurance and the partial-pay benefits. They’ll need ongoing support beyond that while EJ looks for work for the balance of this school year and hopes to salvage the last three semesters of their degree program and Diane finds out whether she will go back to work or take an early retirement to care for Chris.

And Chris needs to be able to live the rest of his life knowing that Diane and EJ will not lose their house and car or be forced into bankruptcy.

Please donate what you can and share this widely.

I am increasing the total by $5,000 so that we can pay for additional health care for Chris. Di and EJ have been doing most of the care since he has come home. He is immobile and extraordinary pain. He is cognitive and aware. He is able to feed himself, but they do most everything else and they need professional assistance. An extra 5000 would help them while they figure out a life plan.

Fundraiser organized by Lindy Whiton. Funds go to Diane Worth.