Saving Barry's life when insurance won't help...

We arrived in Aruba on Halloween to help me, Joy Federico, recover and enjoy some romance from an unidentified virus that nearly killed me the beginning of October. On the very next day (11/1), Barry Federico, the love of my life and my husband, woke and told me his left gland by his jaw was super swollen and sore; he also had a sore throat. We both thought it was just another cold coming on and then Barry did what most men do and never said a word about how sick he was becoming. He said this vacation was all about me and he then made the next 3 days so romantic and magical for me. We even still went fishing on Friday and he caught a huge kingfish and proceeded to eat some of it that night, telling me he couldn't eat very much because of the medical weight loss drug he had been taking. Later the next day, he admitted that it was like swallowing glass his throat hurt so much.

Barry is a tough guy, a fighter, and very loyal and brave. He also is the most stubborn man I know and refuses to go see a doctor unless he is dying... so when he woke me at 3am on Saturday, 11/4, at the Marriott Surf Club here in Aruba, I knew it was very serious. He told me he was really struggling to breathe. I called the front desk, not knowing what to do here in a foreign country. They immediately told me that we should get Barry to the hospital and that they had a Loss Prevention team that would help us.

When we got Barry to the hospital, the Ear Nose Throat (ENT) specialist scoped down into his throat and immediately looked very concerned. Within an hour we had an entire team of ENT and intensive care physicians also looked through the endoscope into Barry's throat. They told us that 80% of his airway was blocked because of a tumor-like growth and they needed to get a breathing tube in as soon as possible. This was the scariest day of my life as I had to wait over 4 hours while Barry's throat was closing up during the surgery. But my brave Barry survived and was breathing through a tiny breathing tube made more for a child, and Barry is a big man weighing just under 300lbs; but he was on life support and breathing.

The next day, the surgeons told me that it was a miracle that Barry survived. I now fully believe in miracles because they continued to happen all the next week. The team of physicians told me that they did a biopsy of the mass in his throat during the operation and that it would likely take 3 days to get the results. They had him on antibiotics, they were breathing for him and he was on full life support with tubes everywhere. The next. several days, the Marriott Loss Prevention team kindly took me back and forth to this Dutch hospital that only allowed me to see him 1.5 hours in the morning and 1 hour at night. The waiting was torture, as you can imagine.

I called my insurance, which is NH Medicaid. We could not really afford this trip to Aruba, but my mother gave it to us as a gift so I could rest and recover after my near death battle with an unidentified virus in October. My insurance said we have zero coverage outside the US, so I advised the hospital apparently we would be paying cash. I couldn't worry about money right then because all I could think about was saving my Barry's life.

Barry spent the next 5 days on life support in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) here at Dr. Horacio E. Oduber hospital. The financial adviser for the hospital, Patrick, was very kind and went over everything with me, asking me what we could afford to pay. On day 2, our bill was already up to $19,000 and that didn't yet include the 4 hour operation.

I am extremely grateful to share that now on Monday, 11/13/23, 13 days after this started, Barry is off life support, is breathing without oxygen through a tracheostomy device in his throat, and has turned the corner towards recovery. I have been thanking God and all His angels every day for saving him. Barry is hopefully moving from ICU today finally to a medium level of care ward, which is much less expensive. Patrick had advised me that it was $16000/day to have him cared for in the ICU, but the hospital was reducing my bill by 50% since I was paying cash and they said they put the health of their patients first and were not about making money but saving lives.

The Marriott Surf Club staff have adopted me and treated me like family here in Aruba while I was mostly alone, trying so hard to be strong, have faith and not worry. We didn't know from day to day what was going to happen, but they held my hand and made sure I was safe in my time of greatest vulnerability. I cannot express how grateful I am for all of their hugs and emotional support. The Marriott gave me a reduced rate, but it is still expensive because they are fully booked and it is peak season.

So, I am asking for you to help me because these incredible people here in Aruba who have saved my love's life and been there for me deserve to be paid for everything they have done for us. Please help us if you can. Now that Barry is improving, thoughts of how much this is going to cost overwhelm me with panic and I can only think to ask you and God for help. If you have any questions or want any type of proof, please personally email me at [email redacted]. I work for myself as a Regenerative Medicine Consultant, but the pandemic crushed us financially, and my pride is not too great that I will not ask for your help, because we need it.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me and hear our story. I am eternally grateful that Barry is alive and recovering, which is a miracle from God. My faith in an every benevolent higher power has been completely reborn here through this experience and I plan to write books about not only saving Barry's life but my own life or death battle just a month ago. We were put through these terrible ordeals for a purpose, and I believe I am meant to share it with people to inspire because both stories have happy endings and we need more of those in today's society.

Thank you very much for your help!

Blessings,

Joy

P.S. Barry and I are now back home in New Hampshire and both of us are slowly recovering. Thank you everyone for your love, prayers and support. We really appreciate your help in reducing this overwhelming bill with the hospital in Aruba. It is a lot of money, but I am committed to paying them every penny because they saved Barry's life and I am NOT going to cheat them! I am more angry and disappointed that our health insurance here in the states obstructed our ability to get Barry home a week sooner and into a hospital in the US where our insurance would pay, but they would not authorize a physician to physician transfer so he could be transferred to an ICU here. Their obstruction cost us 7 days x $8000/day or $56,000. Even when WE paid in cash for the air ambulance to the US, they would still not authorize Barry to get transferred to a hospital here in the states. That is what I intend to fight because I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I went through, all alone in a foreign country with my loved one on life support and insurance the only reason we couldn't get him home. Everyone knows our healthcare system is broken, but I know how we can fix it and I intend to educate and bring attention to this because it doesn't seem to matter how much you pay for insurance, when you are out of the country, they obstruct you from getting your loved one back into US hospitals and you are helpless to do anything. Please pray for me to help us get our healthcare back in the hands of our healers and out of the grips of insurance companies who only care about their profit margins, not our health or lives.