Hello, my name is Beverly McClellan & although I’m now 67 years old, I had my first encounter with being a hospital patient. I am not a “hospital person “, I’m the kind of person who never gets sick- so this was quite an ordeal for me. Last November, after shattering my shoulder in 3 places (something else I’d never dealt with) I was doing my PT as ordered by my doctor, which I wasn’t even very far into it, when I became severally ill. I had gotten home after PT one day & realized I didn’t feel well quite suddenly. Within a matter of minutes I was on the floor, gasping for air & rattling off incoherent mumbo jumbo- I had no idea what was happening to me. At that same time , my 85 year old mother had one of those “Mothers Intuition” moments, she suddenly felt that something really bad was happening to me, so she actually told my brother to come to my apartment to check on me. Now this was something extremely rare in our family, it had never happened before. My brother arrived & found me on the floor trying to speak but I couldn’t say anything that made any sense. He immediately said he was taking me to the nearest ER. When we arrived, the hospital there said I needed to be transported to a large hospital in Little Rock, AR. I live in Sherwood AR which is only about 20 minutes away. When I arrived at the bigger facility I don’t really remember what all took place, but do recall there was a lot of people around me & I became suddenly paranoid- as if they were taking me to a torture chamber. I resisted them in every way I could. I remember some talk about putting me on a ventilator & that really scared me. I kept trying to get away from them, but I couldn’t. The next thing I knew I was in the CCU unit with oxygen hoses in my nose. I still kept fighting them; I actually pulled out my IV & told the doctor I knew he was a cop! I was saying the most outrageous things! I also thought everything in the room was upside down! To make a long story shorter; it ended up that I had a very bad bacterial infection in my right lung & they inserted a chest tube. The tube was to allow all of the pus in my lung to drain. It was like a clear water hose where you could see what seemed like gallons of this white stuff draining- gross, I know, but that’s how it was. I ended up staying there a little over two weeks while it kept draining. We thought it would never end. I became so week I could barely stand up, & had to use a walker when released from the hospital. I had a lot of pain & a lot of PT to do because of the illness, & I had home care when I was released from the hospital.
Immediately the hospital bills, radiology bills, diagnostic bills, doctor bills etc came pouring in. I had a Medicare Advantage plan in which I had to pay a lot of out of pocket expenses. It has & still is bleeding me dry. I was only working part time, & receiving a small amount of SS Survivor money from when my husband died in 1999. I am still so overwhelmed with all the bills I keep getting & know I have no way of paying them. It overwhelms & depresses me greatly. I feel it will never end. I am struggling so much now- I had worked hard to finally get my credit score up & now I feel it will be sabotaged by all the bills I’m unable to pay. I have already been turned over to collections on a couple of things & am so worried about how to deal with it. It consumes my every waking minute. I need help with these bills & am at a loss as to how I can come up with thousands of dollars to pay everything. That’s why I’m appealing to you, & I have never asked for money before. I feel very alone & am so very anxious & depressed over all of this. Now my hair has literally fallen out, & I can’t tell you what that does to a woman. I’m asking for any help you could possibly give me to get all of this under control. I honestly don’t know the total amount- there’s so many different things to pay. I’m just asking for whatever you may think will help- & anything would help. If you feel so inclined please send money to my paypalme.bmcclellan account I created for this purpose. I would be forever grateful I can promise you that.
Thank you for hearing my story.