The Extraordinary Cost to Get Dad Home

Our parents, Barbara and Rich Goldman, married for 53 years this August, have spent their entire lives helping others. Our dad passed away last week, and now our mom needs your help.

Our dad had a distinguished 22-year career as a general surgeon and reaching the rank of Colonel with the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He served at Camp Darby in Italy for three years, and then he and mom moved back to the United States, where he served in Virginia and New Jersey before his final position at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. He then went on to continue his medical career in the private sector.

After they settled in San Antonio, our mom used her background as a teacher of visually impaired with a masters in special education, to found a local nonprofit that provides intensive therapy for and serves people with severe disabilities. Over the past twenty years, the organization has grown to serve hundreds of children and adults every year. Well past the age when most people retire mom still works full-time as CEO. Dad also volunteered and served as a board member.

So it is with great humility that we are now reaching out to the community our parents have served for so many decades to ask for help.

In mid-September, Mom and Dad traveled back to Italy to re-connect with the country and visit good friends. During the trip Dad started to feel tired. After feeling worse and worse, they decided to go to a local medical clinic to have things checked out. After receiving care, including multiple transfusions he seemed to be improving. But then he suddenly got worse, and so they transferred him to the ICU in Pisa, Italy. Within a day, Dad was on a ventilator, facing major organ failure and septic shock.

Dad spent two weeks in the Italian ICU, while they ran test after test, looking for the cause of his illness, while providing support for his lungs and kidneys. Meanwhile, Mom continued to work to bring him home. Even after the Italian ICU team stabilized him, it was imperative and recommended that he be transferred home for continued ICU care.

Like most experienced international travelers, our parents had purchased travel insurance for this trip. It included ample protection. But when it came time for Dad to be flown home on a medical air ambulance, the insurance company stalled and the process was arduous and complicated.

Of course, all medical guidance was that we could not wait. Dad needed the care of expert doctors in the United States. Jonathan, the oldest of us, flew to Italy to help our mom. After a great deal of paperwork and bureaucracy, they were finally able to make arrangements for a medical air ambulance to fly Dad home with the required medical support team. Mom worked to assemble the necessary $187,000 to pay for the air ambulance flight, and she flew home with Dad on October 19, three weeks after he first became ill. Upon landing at the airport in San Antonio, Dad was immediately transferred to the ICU at Brooke Army Medical Center.

Unfortunately, this story has a very sad ending. The amazing doctors did everything they could, but after eight more days in the ICU, Dad passed away on October 27. Rachel and Megan were able to be with Mom at his side.

Now Mom is left to absorb the costs of unplanned medical and extended stay expenses . We are reaching out to our generous community of friends and family to ask for your help to offset these extraordinary expenses. We always believed that buying travel insurance was the very best way to protect against large, unanticipated expenses. But it turns out there are surprise delays and loopholes that can snag even the savviest consumer.

Our dad was a kind, loving man, devoted to our mom, his three kids, our partners, and his two beloved grandchildren. He was also devoted to our country, which he served honorably throughout a long career in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Thank you so much for your support for our Mom and our family at this difficult time. We are grateful for every kind word and gesture of support. If you are unable to contribute, sharing our story will help.

Jonathan, Rachel, & Megan Goldman