Grief Coaching and Spiritual Living

Part 15 From Financial Peril to Resilience and Relief

Dr. Donna

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Navigating a healthcare crisis can be emotionally and financially overwhelming, as our guest poignantly illustrates through her personal journey. Her story unfolds with the heart-wrenching reality of her son's illness and the staggering medical expenses that threatened their financial stability. With raw honesty, she shares the relief of discovering that Stanford, along with a compassionate social worker, orchestrated crucial Medi-Cal assistance. This coverage amounted to a lifeline for her family, preventing the financial ruin that could have easily followed such a catastrophic event.

Our conversation delves into the unsung heroes within the healthcare system—social workers and generous donors—who provide invaluable support to families in crisis. Our guest reflects on the comfort and peace of mind offered by comprehensive healthcare and financial coverage, which safeguarded her and her son's girlfriend from bankruptcy. This episode is a powerful testament to the importance of understanding and utilizing available healthcare resources. It underscores the transformative impact of empathy and support during the most challenging times, offering listeners an inspiring narrative of resilience and gratitude.

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Speaker 1:

I remember happening to meet up with my son's father to get my son's test certificate and that was like wow, that you know more proof that this is real. And you know, at the same time I got a letter in the mail that all of his care was covered, that he had at Stanford. And you know I also needed that death certificate to give to Medi-Cal because what happened was, while my son was in the hospital, stanford had a social worker that was working with him. Sometimes I didn't always know what was going on because, you know, sometimes we couldn't be around him, but he had a social worker who got him medical, since his insurance wasn't going to cover anything and medical actually paid. Medical actually paid for all of his care, which was was $386,000 in total at the time.

Speaker 1:

Now, if he was under 18, I would have been bankrupt. If he would have married his girlfriend, she would have been bankrupt. So I really am grateful that you know we ended up at Stanford. They tried their best to keep my son alive. They did all that they can do and they made sure that the financial part was taken care of. They also have a lot of donors, so they would have had donors that would have helped to cover if Medi-Cal didn't. And so you know, wherever you live, you want to have, you want to know your good hospitals that will take care of you, that have donors and funding in case something isn't covered. You know, through your insurance, or you know they have a social worker that will help you if you needed to get government assistance and thank god my son did, because I didn't have $386,000 to cover.

Speaker 1:

Some people mortgage their homes. You know I owned a condo, but still that condo wasn't worth enough and you know I didn't have enough equity in it to sell to cover. So I just wanted to make a note that is very important that you know all of your resources, just hopefully you don't need to use them, but you know, just in case for you, for your loved ones. You have everything lined up and we were so blessed that everything was covered because if it wouldn't have been, even though he passed away, that could have still been a lingering bill. I don't know if they would have went after me or went after his dad, I don't know. But you know who knows how collection companies work. But Stanford is was amazing and they took good care of my son the best they could, and they took care of the financial part, and so everything just worked out.