Grief Coaching and Spiritual Living

Navigating Uncertainty with Courage and Knowledge

Dr. Donna

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Discover the heart-wrenching yet inspiring story of a mother navigating the turbulent waters of the healthcare system during her son's critical illness at Stanford. As she shares her personal journey, you'll gain insights into the tremendous impact of social workers and the immense relief provided by Medi-Cal, which covered overwhelming medical expenses that could have easily led to financial disaster. Her experience offers critical lessons on the importance of understanding and utilizing available resources, preparing you to handle unforeseen healthcare challenges with confidence.

Our guest's story is a heartfelt reminder of the profound compassion shown by healthcare providers who not only fight to save lives but also strive to lift the financial burdens from families in their darkest hours. She underscores the necessity of knowing your options, including the availability of financial assistance through hospital donors and programs. This episode is a powerful testament to the tireless dedication of medical professionals and a valuable guide on ensuring you have a plan in place to protect your loved ones when faced with medical crises. Listen in for an eye-opening conversation filled with gratitude, empowerment, and essential knowledge that could one day make all the difference for you and your family.

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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 it 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 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.