Help pay Christopher Bryan McBreen's Medical Bills

Hi. My name is Christopher Bryan McBreen. I am a community theatre actor, singer, director, stage manager, and stagehand. You may have seen me on stage at DCP Theatre in Telford, PA, Playcrafters of Skippack in Skippack, PA, or at Footlighters Theatre. I've had the good fortune of working either on stage or off in 40 plays or musicals over the last 12 years. In that time, I've tried to produce art that mattered on stage. I've tried to encourage and uplift our next generation of young people to believe in themselves, to keep trying even if they didn't get cast in the role they wanted. I've gotten to direct plays that taught valuable lessons about free will, friendship, the history of voting in America (which, by the way, if you're not registered to vote, register to vote), and the difficulty of grieving a friend after they have died suddenly.

I am also a member at Indian Creek Church of the Brethren in Harleysville, PA.

I am also a Type 1 Diabetic and have been dealing with everything involved with that chronic condition since 1984.

I have a job that I like a lot and that NOW provides me with medical insurance (as of 7/1/2024). 7/1 was the first of the month after my 90th day, which is when I became eligible for medical benefits.

On June 25th of 2024, I had to go to the emergency room at Abington Hospital at Lansdale because I wasn't feeling well. For about a week or two before going to the hospital, I had no energy. I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. When I got out of bed in the morning, my head wouldn't stop spinning. The first few days of that week, I wasn't comfortable driving to work, so I called out, used some of my sick days, and I thought that I had a cold. I thought I could treat whatever was wrong with Gatorade and Cup O Noodles, but over the course of two days, I progressively got worse. I was driven to the emergency room. The doctors and nurses did some blood work and discovered that I had a hemoglobin count of a little less than 5 (what is normal is a hemoglobin count of about 14 or 15).

Hemoglobin is the part of your blood that carries oxygen all throughout your body. I'm sure there is a more in-depth and scientific explanation that would take much longer for me to explain, but I'm trying to boil this appeal down for simplicity. I was admitted to the hospital (once again, I did not have active medical insurance at this time; my medical insurance wouldn't become active until 7/1). More tests were run, and it was determined that I have a rare and chronic condition called "Auto-Immune Hemolytic Anemia," a condition that affects roughly 1 in every 10,000 people. Once again, I will try to explain for simplicity's sake: the condition causes the immune system in my body to attack my own red blood cells as if they are foreign invaders, as if they are an attacking disease.

I was transferred (and transported via ambulance) from Abington Hospital in Lansdale to Abington Hospital Main, to their oncology wing, where they had the equipment and the expertise to transfuse two pints of blood that had been difficult for the Red Cross to find that matched my blood type. They started me on treatment for the underlying condition with a medication called Rituximab, which, in combination with oral steroids, has helped my body to produce enough blood to function and not trigger the auto-immune response that goes along with AIHA.

I was discharged on 7/1, literally the date that my insurance went into effect.

A few weeks ago, the bills started to roll in. And now comes the part where I am asking for help. Asking for help, especially financial help, is very difficult to do.

The bills that have come in total $29,737.01.

And I know from past experience that sometimes new charges come in even after the initial bill is "finalized," so I'm expecting that that amount may even grow higher, hoping that it won't, but expecting that it will.

Any help that I can get from any of the online communities that I am active in, any of the theatre communities or church communities that I am active in would be greatly appreciated.