Help Sybil recover from surgery

Back in October, our friend Sybil had an accident fixing her garage door. Even though she had health insurance, she was slapped with a 7k bill not covered. Here is her story. Please help any way you can, donating and/or sharing. Thank you for your kindness.

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On Oct 16 I had to fix the garage door. I managed to get it back on track, then needed to pull the rope to get motor to re-engage with track. This takes a good bit of strength and force - and the rope broke. I could tell during the fall it was going to be very bad. Even just standing on the floor, not even from a step ladder! I had a choice -in seconds- to catch myself on my right hand or I was going to hit the back of my head on the concrete. Look, don't get me wrong here, I am seriously delighted my sister didn't find me dead on the garage floor from a massive brain bleed. She drove to my house from Tampa to take me to the ER (2 hours) so don't think I was throwing money away on an ambulance! (LOL).

 

I caught myself - on that narrow end of my right forearm and wrist breaking off the ends of the radius and ulna. I have insurance and copays and chose an out-of-pocket that I felt was reasonable (2k) but that doesn't mean insurance is actually going to work that way. I'm stunned that I can pay so much into BCBS and yet still be on the hook for 7k for doctors, surgeons, ER, anesthesiologist (etc etc) who put the 8 screws and metal plate in me. But I am. For example - the anesthesiologist is "out of network" so they won't pay for that - even though they pay for that facility where that professional works. It's so scammy. The surgeon asked for payment prior to surgery - up front. No kidding. He knew I had insurance through a supposedly good provider. And still wanted it upfront - this should have been a clue I was headed for health care hell.

 

Surgery I waited TEN days for because COVID. In a splint held on with an Ace bandage.

 

Worse? Both my jobs are hourly, not salary. So after I burned my PTO (2 weeks in) my FT company stopped paying me and I had to start reimbursing them for their portion of my health insurance ($700) - even relatively worthless insurance is needed when you are seeing an orthopedic surgeon at a Sports Injury Clinic.

 

So I have no income and am now on the hook for far more than I ever expected. I am returning to work Monday (both jobs) but am still unable to lift more than a pound, write (cursive), apply makeup, style my hair and all the stuff my boss is going to expect from his receptionist. I will do my best but the time, effort and end result are not going to live up to what he's come to expect, I'm sure. This scares me. Employment law doesn't protect us from being let go for no reason whatsoever. And if he decides to fire me, he won't have to admit it's the injury. My Program Director at the radio station won't mind as much but I only work a few hours tracking for him and cannot begin to live on it.

 

It will be at least two months before I get back to 75% with this wrist and should really be resting it and doing OT/PT but I simply cannot not work and incur more debt. Any help at all, five bucks would thrill me, because I've depleted my emergency savings (paying mortgage, utilities, food) and am on the hook for seven thousand plus - and they just sent another bill. I can't even open it.