Need urgent medical care for worsening illness

Edit: Somehow, in 2 hours, you all have managed to meet more than double my initial goal. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Additional funds past the goal will go towards lab fees, imaging services (i.e. CT scans), exploratory procedures (scopes performed under anesthesia), medications, and potential extended hospital admission. Much love to you all.

My name is Suz, and I’m currently uninsured, unemployed, and unable to receive assistance and benefits from either of those two things. The following description may be long, but I would like to be as transparent as possible about my circumstances.

For your TLDR: I need to go to the ER. It will likely be an extended stay. I cannot receive unemployment benefits, government disability assistance, charity assistance, and prescription assistance, and all of these things are feeding into each other. My IBD has progressed to a stage that it is a major medical emergency; a respiratory infection is making it worse. It is going to kill me with sepsis unless I am able to see doctors who specialize in chronic GI illnesses and systemic bacterial infections.

I was diagnosed with a form of inflammatory bowel disease in my early 20s, which proved to be both resistant to treatment via medication and difficult to pin down for a precise diagnosis. For a while I was employed, and able to receive benefits through my work that made it so I could usually get treatment.

In September of 2021, due to the supply chain crises exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, I lost my job along with 60% of my department. My intention was to take a few days to recover, apply for unemployment, and begin the necessary work application processes to keep unemployment benefits. This did not happen.

The Monday after I was laid off, I began throwing up daily, unable to keep food and liquids down, and I could not get access to medical care. Due to procedural gumming up of the works, the COBRA applications of me and approximately 30 other workers were never processed. For 2 more months, I was uninsured, and couldn’t get coverage until I was processed and back paid my fees, which ranged from $750 to $980 monthly, and were only to be sent by a paper check. These checks were lost in the mail multiple times, and had to be re-sent.

In early-mid December, 2021, I entered the UofM emergency medical department. I was vomiting constantly, and having bowel movements that contained no feces. Instead I was outputting unabsorbed liquid, blood, and pieces of my intestinal tissue. These were not single incidents; I was in the bathroom for 4 to 12 hours at a time. I began having cardiac and neurological symptoms, at which point I was admitted to the hospital.

I remained there, and had my first gastrointestinal surgery to bypass my colon, until December 27. Follow-up appointments and multiple emergency room visits determined that while this surgery worked in the short-term, the ending 10 inches of my large colon was not going to recover. After some debate, in April and May of 2022, most of my large large intestine was removed, and I was ordered to increase my immunosuppressive medication dosage, Humira, to once a week.

Throughout all of this, while I recovered somewhat, I never recovered to the point where I could get a job. I was still regularly having days where I was at pain levels that would leave me incapacitated, even in an office job; and so, in April of 2023, my COBRA coverage ended. I could no longer afford my medication, which is ~$9,000 for a two-use carton. I could no longer afford to consult my doctors freely, despite knowing my symptoms were worsening.

My health has worsened to the same point I was at in December 2021, with an additional problem: I have some sort of upper respiratory infection, which is impacting my breathing and cognition, and is giving my cyclical fevers. I could not take my medication in this state even if I had access to it, as it is an immunosuppressant.

And I cannot get access to the hospital resources I need, because I am ineligible for financial assistance from the government, the hospital, and the company that makes Humira. Because I never applied for unemployment benefits. Because, under MI law, I would have to prove I was looking for work, which I could not do. Because I was severely ill, and battling to get COBRA coverage that I needed urgently.

Because I do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, SSI or SDI, because the criteria for applying requires pay stubs or proof of unemployment. Because my condition is not considered “severe enough” with the right diagnostic words immediately or frequently enough, and proving that it was severe would have required documentation, legal representation, and appeals that I did not have, that I could not afford. Because, later, even if I got better enough to afford these tests, I had passed the window of the income points system that allows for a person to be considered for disability benefits, as I had been unemployed without substantiation for too long.

It is similarly true for hospital and charity assistance applications. I am currently trapped in the unable to work ➡️ unable to receive medical care ➡️ unable to receive assistance spiral. And if I stay there too long, I will likely die within a few weeks or months from a sceptic condition. This was told to me by my doctors early in treating my IBD. I have tried to get access to these programs, repeatedly. Ultimately, the refusal is due to the fact that, legally, in documentation, I am not an income-generating member of society, which means my life is not worth preserving by these institutions.

$2,000 will not cover the full ER visit, but it would give me the possibility of receiving an assessment. It might, somehow, give me the documentation I need for assistance. But I would like not to die in a residence where my family wants to help me, but cannot, and might get hit with police intervention if they do nothing. Which is not their faults.

Thank you for reading this far. I would appreciate any support you can give, even if it is just spreading this. May we all strive for a compassionate world, and so make it eternal through each other.