Little Luke Parsons needs your help

Hi, my name is Cristina and I am fundraising for my friend and colleague, Tracey Parsons, and her husband, Dave, to help to pay for Luke's hospital bills.

Luke is 7 years old. He is incredibly smart, witty, sociable and charming. He also has cerebral palsy, a serious physical disability that makes every daily task challenging for him. Despite all the difficulties he faces, he’s always smiling and is a bubbly child. On 8 June, Luke had major hip surgery to prevent his right hip from dislocating fully. The first few weeks after surgery have been extremely painful for Luke but he’s doing well and is tolerating the 2-month immobilization and rehab remarkably well. Anyone who knows Luke knows how positive and happy he is. This surgery will hopefully take away the painful spasms he had been having, prevent more excruciating lifelong pain in the future and will also hopefully enable him to continue walking with his walker.

Before the surgery, Luke’s parents called Aetna, their medical insurance company, and were told that the out-of-network surgery would be reimbursed at the usual 80% with no ceiling/upper limit. The surgeon’s office also called Aetna and were told the same thing. Luke’s parents went ahead with the surgery knowing that they would need to pay $5,000 themselves and that Aetna would reimburse $20,000.

However, Aetna has reimbursed only $2,636.80 instead of the $20,000 they had committed to reimbursing. This has left Luke’s parents with a huge

unexpected debt. They already had to replace their car earlier this year to purchase a wheelchair-accessible car with sliding doors and they pay out twice a year for a hip brace and ankle foot orthotics for Luke since Aetna suddenly stopped reimbursing for those medical essentials, as well as ongoing monthly therapy expenses to help Luke to progress, walk, eat independently, move independently, participate in birthday parties and school and, in general, to live as full a life as he possibly can. This unexpected debt is a huge blow, especially given that COVID has meant that Luke’s dad has been unable to work since March 2020 and they are funding Luke’s disability expenses on a single salary.