Help My Mom with Her Medical Care
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After a series of strokes, my mother was in the hospital for over 188 days. Now she's in a facility that costs a small fortune each month. Please read her story and share!

Despite being told she wouldn't make it through the night, my mother survived over 75 strokes & seizures.
After 2 months in a coma, and many other medical complications (details below), mom remains paralyzed from the chest down and suffers excruciating blasts of pain. However, mentally, emotionally and spiritually she is 90% herself. My mom is my Mom. And she wants to live.

The hospital has decided it's time for her to leave and there is nothing my dad and I can do to stop it.
Dad and I were given two options;
1) She could be released home to our care, with an aproximate monthly cost of $40,000 month.
or
2) She could apply for a bed in a medical professional residential facility with an approximate cost of $21,100 month and a 6-18mth waitlist during which time she would be at home (at $40,000/mth) for that time.
We hired a patient advocate who was able to get her hospital stay extended, and negotiated for her transfer directly from the hospital to a proper medical facility with the professional quality of care we could simply not provide at home.
We believe Mom will get the best care possible in a residential facility, surrounded by trained medical professionals, until she is strong enough so we can properly care for her at home.
Mom's out of pocket medical costs will be aproximately $21,100 per month. As soon as a bed opens, the hospital will be releasing my mom and we will need these funds to continue her treatment immediately.
This is where I hope you come in & help us...
TIMELINE
1/5/17 - My father is unable to wake my mother up. An ambulance is called and Mom is rushed to the ER at Vancouver General Hospital. In the ER she has a seizure and slips into a coma. She is intubated and put on full life support.
Multiple tests and scans are run.
1/7/17 - 2/10/17 - Mom is moved to ICU.
Numerous tests are performed. After three weeks a tracheotomy is performed and a nasel feeding tube is inserted. During this time a "storm of seizures" occurs. Doctors struggle to find the right cocktail of anti-seizure medications. Finally, a successful combination of drugs is found, and Mom is moved to Neurology ICU. We wait for her to wake up. It takes one over week. Doctors have continually warned us every day that she could die at any moment.
2/12/17 - Mom wakes up. She is not blind. She is not the five year old they said she would be. She recognizes her 97yr old father's voice on speaker phone. My best-friend from LA comes to visit and Mom recognizes her
too.
Mom develops pneumonia.
2/25/17- Her nasal tube is removed and feeding tube is surgically inserted into her stomach.
Doctors struggle to find right speed and amount for feeding tube. Mom is constantly vommiting.
Mom develops pneumonia again.
3/27/17 - The tracheotomy tube is removed and Mom can finally talk. Her first words are "Take care of your father. Tell my Dad I love him. You already know I love you. Thanks for not giving up on me Steph." The Doctors were dumbfounded at how strong and clear her voice was and that she spoke in complete sentences.
Mom develops anti-biotic resistant pneumonia and an e.coli infection.
4/1/17 - Mom begins developing blasts of pain originating from fractures in her hips from advanced osteoporosis. Doctors believe she broke one of her legs in the ER while undergoing seizures. Soon, Doctors begin discussing Mom's release to home-care, effectively ending most health insurance coverage. Estimated home care costs: $40,000 per month.
4/14/17 - Dad and I hire a patient advocate, someone well-versed in the Canadian health care system and patient rights. She was able to slow-down the discharge process, get specialists involved to begin managing Mom's ongoing, excruciating pain, and negotiate Mom's need to be placed directly from the hospital into residential care. Mom's medical needs remain too urgent and complicated to be released to home-care.
5/17 Doctors continue to search for answers and to look for the right cocktail of drugs to manage Mom's pain while retaining her lucidity. Mom remains in the hospital until the first appropriate bed for her high level of needs becomes available.
Diagnosis
Advanced osteoporosis runs in my family. My Aunt and Grandmother both passed away from complications of osteoporosis. It is a deadly, hereditary disease. One I will soon have to face myself.
The Doctors best guess is, that due to her advanced osteoporosis, Mom broke both her hips/femurs, simply by walking on them, with at least one fracture happening during a seizure in the ER. These breaks released marrow and fatty embolisms which travelled to my mom's brain causing over 75 strokes, like a meteor shower or machine-gun spray.
This trauma resulted in a storm of brain seizures that now need to be suppressed with medication for the rest of her life. Mom has suffered partial vision loss and is currently paralyzed from the chest down.

Treatments and Rehab
Mom needs extensive physical therapy to prevent further muscle atrophy, and attempt to reverse the body and leg paralysis.
She will also need speech therapy.
Mom will be on anti-seizure medications for the rest of her life.
Mom needs around the clock care, as she can't even press the call bell herself, if she needs help. She needs consistent supervision to reduce confusion and disorientation. She also needs care to change her diapers, and hygiene . She needs to be constantly re-positioned in bed to avoid bed sores. She basically needs help with everything, and it's a two person job.
Urgency of funds
There is an illusion that Canadian healthcare is free. While much is covered, Dad and I have spent over $60,000 since January, to supplement the high level of medical care that mom needs. There are many things, from medication to equipment, that insurance simply does not cover.
The hospital has decided it is time to release Mom. As soon as an appropriate bed is available, we must transfer Mom to a residential facility, not of our choosing, and ultimately we have no say in which facility or in where in Vancouver this will be.
Her insurance & disability will cover some of these costs, but the remaining $21,100 per month will fall on my Dad and me.
So we are asking for your help.
Other Ways You Can Help
There are a few specialty items that Mom needs.
*FIRST STEP SELECT ALL IN ONE medical air matrress
*20x20" Tilt Wheelchair + obus forme back + ROHO cushion + padded headrest + legrests + seatbelt
* If anyone knows of a lift that doesn't put pressure on her hips for transport to the wheelchair (or can build one!) we, and hospitals everywhere would be blown away---they only have one painful option (and apparently all patients HATE it).
Thank You
My mom is my best-friend. She spent her entire life attempting to give me a great life. She is my support system, my confidante, and my biggest inspiration.
We will never get to go to Paris together like she always wanted. My entire life she told me to never leave things too long, and yet that is exactly what she did. She was always putting everyone else first.
Thank you for reading this far, and any help no matter what is unbelievably generous and means the world to me and my Dad.
Here's the last family photo the three of us took together.
Thank you again.
Despite being told she wouldn't make it through the night, my mother survived over 75 strokes & seizures.
After 2 months in a coma, and many other medical complications (details below), mom remains paralyzed from the chest down and suffers excruciating blasts of pain. However, mentally, emotionally and spiritually she is 90% herself. My mom is my Mom. And she wants to live.
The hospital has decided it's time for her to leave and there is nothing my dad and I can do to stop it.
Dad and I were given two options;
1) She could be released home to our care, with an aproximate monthly cost of $40,000 month.
or
2) She could apply for a bed in a medical professional residential facility with an approximate cost of $21,100 month and a 6-18mth waitlist during which time she would be at home (at $40,000/mth) for that time.
We hired a patient advocate who was able to get her hospital stay extended, and negotiated for her transfer directly from the hospital to a proper medical facility with the professional quality of care we could simply not provide at home.
We believe Mom will get the best care possible in a residential facility, surrounded by trained medical professionals, until she is strong enough so we can properly care for her at home.Mom's out of pocket medical costs will be aproximately $21,100 per month. As soon as a bed opens, the hospital will be releasing my mom and we will need these funds to continue her treatment immediately.
This is where I hope you come in & help us...
TIMELINE
1/5/17 - My father is unable to wake my mother up. An ambulance is called and Mom is rushed to the ER at Vancouver General Hospital. In the ER she has a seizure and slips into a coma. She is intubated and put on full life support.
Multiple tests and scans are run.
1/7/17 - 2/10/17 - Mom is moved to ICU.
Numerous tests are performed. After three weeks a tracheotomy is performed and a nasel feeding tube is inserted. During this time a "storm of seizures" occurs. Doctors struggle to find the right cocktail of anti-seizure medications. Finally, a successful combination of drugs is found, and Mom is moved to Neurology ICU. We wait for her to wake up. It takes one over week. Doctors have continually warned us every day that she could die at any moment.
2/12/17 - Mom wakes up. She is not blind. She is not the five year old they said she would be. She recognizes her 97yr old father's voice on speaker phone. My best-friend from LA comes to visit and Mom recognizes her
too.
Mom develops pneumonia.
2/25/17- Her nasal tube is removed and feeding tube is surgically inserted into her stomach.
Doctors struggle to find right speed and amount for feeding tube. Mom is constantly vommiting.
Mom develops pneumonia again.
3/27/17 - The tracheotomy tube is removed and Mom can finally talk. Her first words are "Take care of your father. Tell my Dad I love him. You already know I love you. Thanks for not giving up on me Steph." The Doctors were dumbfounded at how strong and clear her voice was and that she spoke in complete sentences.
Mom develops anti-biotic resistant pneumonia and an e.coli infection.
4/1/17 - Mom begins developing blasts of pain originating from fractures in her hips from advanced osteoporosis. Doctors believe she broke one of her legs in the ER while undergoing seizures. Soon, Doctors begin discussing Mom's release to home-care, effectively ending most health insurance coverage. Estimated home care costs: $40,000 per month.
4/14/17 - Dad and I hire a patient advocate, someone well-versed in the Canadian health care system and patient rights. She was able to slow-down the discharge process, get specialists involved to begin managing Mom's ongoing, excruciating pain, and negotiate Mom's need to be placed directly from the hospital into residential care. Mom's medical needs remain too urgent and complicated to be released to home-care.
5/17 Doctors continue to search for answers and to look for the right cocktail of drugs to manage Mom's pain while retaining her lucidity. Mom remains in the hospital until the first appropriate bed for her high level of needs becomes available.
Diagnosis
Advanced osteoporosis runs in my family. My Aunt and Grandmother both passed away from complications of osteoporosis. It is a deadly, hereditary disease. One I will soon have to face myself.
The Doctors best guess is, that due to her advanced osteoporosis, Mom broke both her hips/femurs, simply by walking on them, with at least one fracture happening during a seizure in the ER. These breaks released marrow and fatty embolisms which travelled to my mom's brain causing over 75 strokes, like a meteor shower or machine-gun spray.
This trauma resulted in a storm of brain seizures that now need to be suppressed with medication for the rest of her life. Mom has suffered partial vision loss and is currently paralyzed from the chest down.
Treatments and Rehab
Mom needs extensive physical therapy to prevent further muscle atrophy, and attempt to reverse the body and leg paralysis.
She will also need speech therapy.
Mom will be on anti-seizure medications for the rest of her life.
Mom needs around the clock care, as she can't even press the call bell herself, if she needs help. She needs consistent supervision to reduce confusion and disorientation. She also needs care to change her diapers, and hygiene . She needs to be constantly re-positioned in bed to avoid bed sores. She basically needs help with everything, and it's a two person job.
Urgency of funds
There is an illusion that Canadian healthcare is free. While much is covered, Dad and I have spent over $60,000 since January, to supplement the high level of medical care that mom needs. There are many things, from medication to equipment, that insurance simply does not cover.
The hospital has decided it is time to release Mom. As soon as an appropriate bed is available, we must transfer Mom to a residential facility, not of our choosing, and ultimately we have no say in which facility or in where in Vancouver this will be.
Her insurance & disability will cover some of these costs, but the remaining $21,100 per month will fall on my Dad and me.
So we are asking for your help.
Other Ways You Can Help
There are a few specialty items that Mom needs.
*FIRST STEP SELECT ALL IN ONE medical air matrress
*20x20" Tilt Wheelchair + obus forme back + ROHO cushion + padded headrest + legrests + seatbelt
* If anyone knows of a lift that doesn't put pressure on her hips for transport to the wheelchair (or can build one!) we, and hospitals everywhere would be blown away---they only have one painful option (and apparently all patients HATE it).
Thank You
My mom is my best-friend. She spent her entire life attempting to give me a great life. She is my support system, my confidante, and my biggest inspiration.
We will never get to go to Paris together like she always wanted. My entire life she told me to never leave things too long, and yet that is exactly what she did. She was always putting everyone else first. Thank you for reading this far, and any help no matter what is unbelievably generous and means the world to me and my Dad.
Here's the last family photo the three of us took together. Thank you again.
Organizer and beneficiary
Stephanie Thorpe
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
Edward Thorpe
Beneficiary