Help Marcia with her medical bills!
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My beloved mother, Marcia Leventhal, had a terrible medical scare this year and almost died. Thanks to God and her amazing surgeon, she is still with us, but with medical bills in the hundreds of thousands. She also has to follow up regularly with a team of doctors, and take multiple medications daily. Any help will be forever appreciated! My mom was a nurse for 30 years, always taking care of others, and now she needs our help.
The long story:
My mom, Marcia, retired last fall after a long career as an elementary school nurse. She moved down to Austin from Chicago, and we moved into a little rental house together. In May, we flew up to Chicago and then drove to central Illinois for my youngest brother's graduation from U of I. Not 5 minutes after seeing her youngest child get his diploma, Mom collapsed. In the ER, they diagnosed her with pneumonia, but after 24 hours on antibiotics she was getting dramatically worse.
After many tests and scans, they realized this:
She had a hiatal hernia ( part of her stomach had wiggled its way above her diaphragm, and was near her heart and lungs).
There was a hole the size of a half dollar in that part of her stomach.
Due to the hole, stomach contents were leaking into the pleural fluid of her left lung.
The infection that had resulted in her left lung because of the "leaking" had caused sepsis, like a toxic shock, and was causing her other organs to shut down. She was dying.
The doctors in that hospital had never seen or heard of this before. She was immediately airlifted to Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, where she underwent an emergency, 5 hour surgery. They saved her life that night, but she would spend several more weeks in the surgical ICU, unconscious and on machines.
Then she had a mild stroke, developed deep vein thrombosis in her left leg, and had a seizure. Despite it all, however, she came back. She went to weeks of physical, occupational and speech therapy, and thank God and all her doctors, she has returned to normal (except for slight memory problems). She returned to Austin on July 1st, and has been trying to relax and lead a "less exciting" life. Her doctors here couldn't believe it when they read her charts. Two of them said, "You almost died! You're a walking miracle!" So many things went wrong in her body, but somehow, she has healed!!!
Then the bills started rolling in. The airlift alone cost more than my student loans. The bills are in the hundreds of thousands. In addition to the past bills, Mom has had to follow up with a team of doctors here. She is taking some 15 medications a day to keep everything balanced, and to prevent another stroke and/or seizure.
Things are getting really tight financially. If there's any way that you could help out, we would really appreciate it!
The long story:
My mom, Marcia, retired last fall after a long career as an elementary school nurse. She moved down to Austin from Chicago, and we moved into a little rental house together. In May, we flew up to Chicago and then drove to central Illinois for my youngest brother's graduation from U of I. Not 5 minutes after seeing her youngest child get his diploma, Mom collapsed. In the ER, they diagnosed her with pneumonia, but after 24 hours on antibiotics she was getting dramatically worse.
After many tests and scans, they realized this:
She had a hiatal hernia ( part of her stomach had wiggled its way above her diaphragm, and was near her heart and lungs).
There was a hole the size of a half dollar in that part of her stomach.
Due to the hole, stomach contents were leaking into the pleural fluid of her left lung.
The infection that had resulted in her left lung because of the "leaking" had caused sepsis, like a toxic shock, and was causing her other organs to shut down. She was dying.
The doctors in that hospital had never seen or heard of this before. She was immediately airlifted to Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, where she underwent an emergency, 5 hour surgery. They saved her life that night, but she would spend several more weeks in the surgical ICU, unconscious and on machines.
Then she had a mild stroke, developed deep vein thrombosis in her left leg, and had a seizure. Despite it all, however, she came back. She went to weeks of physical, occupational and speech therapy, and thank God and all her doctors, she has returned to normal (except for slight memory problems). She returned to Austin on July 1st, and has been trying to relax and lead a "less exciting" life. Her doctors here couldn't believe it when they read her charts. Two of them said, "You almost died! You're a walking miracle!" So many things went wrong in her body, but somehow, she has healed!!!
Then the bills started rolling in. The airlift alone cost more than my student loans. The bills are in the hundreds of thousands. In addition to the past bills, Mom has had to follow up with a team of doctors here. She is taking some 15 medications a day to keep everything balanced, and to prevent another stroke and/or seizure.
Things are getting really tight financially. If there's any way that you could help out, we would really appreciate it!
Organizer and beneficiary
Áine Casey
Organizer
Austin, TX
Marcia Leventhal
Beneficiary