Year help: August 2006 - Help.com

August 2006

Everything was great. I was recently promoted. I was finishing up school (or so I thought). I had a job I liked and the money was okay. Then I received a phone call that would change my life. My younger sister who was 4 months pregnant was in a car accident. So I left work and rushed to find out what had happened after informing my employer of the situation. Well on my way to the hospital I passed the wreck. When I arrived at the hospital she was in surgery. The social worker said she was conscience when the paramedics brought her in. Come to find out she was run off the road by another driver. Her car rolled several time taking out a telephone pole and finally coming to rest in the bushes. She was ejected from the car since she wasn’t wearing her seat belt. The police office on site said that is she had she would have been paralyzed or dead. The driver responsible fled the scene. One of the 4 witnesses followed her and alerted police. She was arrested and charged with driving to endanger, leaving the scene of an accident and few other things. She made bail and waited for a trial date. My sister had 3 fractured ribs, punctured lung, had her spleen removed, baby became detached from the placenta and lots of scrapes and bruises. Thanks to my assistance I got my sister a lawyer that a friend recommended to take on the insurance companies. She did finally received a settlements four months later and then eight months later had to go to court for a trial of the person responsible. She was able to carry the baby to term after lots of doctor visits and follow ups.

Then the day after my birthday (September) I lost my job for something I didn’t do. I spent all of October and November looking for a job. I finally took a seasonal job making far less then I was. Not to mention I was 2 months behind in bills and the collection calls started constantly until my cell phone was shut off. I had to borrow money from my boyfriend’s dad to help cover the cost. The holidays came and went. I did secure a new position for January since my seasonal job was coming to an end. I worked there 3 months and then one day my boss who had been gone for a month came and told me that things weren’t working out and they were letting me go. I was still behind in all my credit card bills but had caught up on the basics. I spent the next 2 weeks looking for a job. I found a great position with great pay and benefits and would have been there a year in March, but my job was out sourced.

Now to the sad part of my story. April 20, 2007, my boyfriend of eight years got so sick that needed to have emergency surgery and since then he has been out of work He and needed to have emergency surgery to removed part of his intestine because he had a massive infection in his abdomen and if they didn’t operate immediately he would have died. The surgery resulted in a temporary colostomy. The illness (called Diverticulitis) he has usually affects some one much older and if you get it under the age of 40 you are at a higher risk. Well he spent almost a month in the hospital. He was sent home in May and had to see a visiting nurse twice/three a week and the doctor once a week because he has an open wound from the first surgery on his abdomen. Since he has been home his wound has gotten infected and needed surgery to be reopen, had a kidney stone and two bacterial infections. It is like we can’t catch a break. He was finally able to have his colostomy reversed just before Christmas and the doctor told him he might be able to go back to work in about six weeks. However, he is now having some new problems with his stomach and has a follow up appointment to see if there is still something seriously wrong. Because the odds of it reoccurring are 30% considering his age and weight. So he has been looking for work hoping that the doctor will say it is all clear and he can go back to work.

I am doing the best that I can to pay my half of our bills and if I can pay some of his bills. I am in the process of declaring bankruptcy because of my inability to pay all of my own bills partially from this situation. If it hadn’t been for his family these past months I don’t know how we would have survived financially and emotionally. They have been a huge help, but there is only so much they can do to help us out.

I have contacted the local social service agencies State agencies like DHHS, Unemployment, Social Security, local area churches, and every other social service agency out there and I have found no program that will help us out. Some programs are designed to only help you when you are close to being evicted from your home or close to being disconnected by the electric company and that isn’t right. There should be more proactive programs out there designed to help those before it is too late. I’ve even wrote a letter to the Governor, Local Representatives from my town, State Representatives, and they suggested the things I have already done. I have written to every single Presidential nominee, sent a letter to the President, Vice President and not one of them has gotten back to me. And some of the programs we don’t qualify for because there is such a gray area.

Sure there are programs to help you if you are injured on the job, lose your job, but why isn’t there a program funded by the government to help sick people get back to work. Social security only kicks in if your disability or illness last for a year or more or will result in your death. Or if you hire an attorney to fight on your behalf. That isn’t right sure there are supplemental insurance programs that you have to carry or your employer carries, but they are costly and many Americans can’t afford them. Instead they make you jump through hoops to qualify for certain programs, but someone who is recovering shouldn’t have to wait 4-5 months for assistance. It was 2-3 months before DHHS told us he qualified for something. This is a long time for someone who has been out of work now for close to a year. Which he now has Maine Care and Food Stamps and I had to fight them tooth and nail just to get him qualified for that. I did have some help from a social worker that the visiting nurses provided,but that was only while he was under their care.

We are considering selling my car to help pay our past due phone, medical bills, electric and his car payment. This means he would have to bring me to and from work and my classes. This is something that I don’t want to have to do, but you have to make sacrifices in order to survive. And right now we are barley surviving.Since he just started a new job with a totally different schedule then the one I have.
However, we still need $800 to get the phone back on keep the lights on and the car from being reposed. I have contacted every social service agency out there with no success. And now no one can get a hold of me unless it is through email because my phone is shut off until I can pay the past due balance. I am working full time and trying to finish up with school

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