Joyce O'Rourke Heart Fund
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Joyce O'Rourke is a mother, grandmother, veteran registered nurse, and nursing instructor. Recently, during a trip to visit her six-month-old granddaughter, Joyce fell ill while preparing to travel home, and was taken to the hospital. It was discovered that Joyce has Ruematic Heart Disease that had gone undiagnosed for far to long.
The doctors said that Joyce's heart valves were functioning at 10% efficiency and had been for quite some time. This also caused 2 litres of fluid to gather in Joyce's lungs, causing extreme shortness of breath and pneumonia symptoms for years. Doctors declared that Joyce was unfit for travel and needed emergency heart valve repair and replacement. Luckily, Joyce was scheduled for surgery with the most experienced cardiothoracic surgeon in the United States. The surgery was a near perfect success, and not long after her vavles were replaced and repaired, the doctors were able to drain a full 2.5 litres from her lungs.
Joyce was discharged from the hospital after three weeks, to recover at her daughter's home. Recovery was extremely difficult as Joyce needed a portible oxygen supply, and had doctors appointments multiple times per week. Additionally, as a side effect from all of the medication and trauma, Joyce had an extremely low appetite and problems with nausea, limiting her daily caloric intake to 500 cal. Because of this, Joyce needed to return to the Hospital for readmission and is continuing recovery there.
Joyce is medically insured with a western regional insurance company. Because she is currently outside of their coverage area, her medical insurance company has offered a very limited response to assist with the medical billing process. The offer is reimbursement for the cost of her medication and oxygen, but only what has been deemed medically necessary, and only after she pays out of pocket. However her insurance company doesn't deem all of her perscriptions as medically necessary and will not reimburse her for the entire cost. Currently Joyce is on 10 medications to include injections, which totals over $400 a month in pharmaceutical costs. Joyce also pays a co-pay every time she enters a medical facility, which has been a total of 11 visits. Joyce has now ran out of sick leave due to her misdiagnosed pnuemonia earlier in the year, and is still unable to travel. This may also lead to a signifcant change in Joyce's income.
As Joyce's children, we are trying to help assist her financially, as she is quickly becoming unable to sustain the cost of her own medical care, let alone her current cost living.
This page was setup to help illeviate the financial stress that Joyce is under, as stress is a serious medical concern. The financial goal was set with a "bad case scenario" in mind, to differ medical and travel costs over the next three months. We all hope that it won't come to that, and that Joyce will be able to return to good health, home, and the job she dearly loves as soon as possible. Thank you for your support.
The doctors said that Joyce's heart valves were functioning at 10% efficiency and had been for quite some time. This also caused 2 litres of fluid to gather in Joyce's lungs, causing extreme shortness of breath and pneumonia symptoms for years. Doctors declared that Joyce was unfit for travel and needed emergency heart valve repair and replacement. Luckily, Joyce was scheduled for surgery with the most experienced cardiothoracic surgeon in the United States. The surgery was a near perfect success, and not long after her vavles were replaced and repaired, the doctors were able to drain a full 2.5 litres from her lungs.
Joyce was discharged from the hospital after three weeks, to recover at her daughter's home. Recovery was extremely difficult as Joyce needed a portible oxygen supply, and had doctors appointments multiple times per week. Additionally, as a side effect from all of the medication and trauma, Joyce had an extremely low appetite and problems with nausea, limiting her daily caloric intake to 500 cal. Because of this, Joyce needed to return to the Hospital for readmission and is continuing recovery there.
Joyce is medically insured with a western regional insurance company. Because she is currently outside of their coverage area, her medical insurance company has offered a very limited response to assist with the medical billing process. The offer is reimbursement for the cost of her medication and oxygen, but only what has been deemed medically necessary, and only after she pays out of pocket. However her insurance company doesn't deem all of her perscriptions as medically necessary and will not reimburse her for the entire cost. Currently Joyce is on 10 medications to include injections, which totals over $400 a month in pharmaceutical costs. Joyce also pays a co-pay every time she enters a medical facility, which has been a total of 11 visits. Joyce has now ran out of sick leave due to her misdiagnosed pnuemonia earlier in the year, and is still unable to travel. This may also lead to a signifcant change in Joyce's income.
As Joyce's children, we are trying to help assist her financially, as she is quickly becoming unable to sustain the cost of her own medical care, let alone her current cost living.
This page was setup to help illeviate the financial stress that Joyce is under, as stress is a serious medical concern. The financial goal was set with a "bad case scenario" in mind, to differ medical and travel costs over the next three months. We all hope that it won't come to that, and that Joyce will be able to return to good health, home, and the job she dearly loves as soon as possible. Thank you for your support.
Organizer
Nathan Wolf
Organizer
Bellevue, NE