Last year my good friend was in a car accident on his way to work. It was a giant thunderstorm, and a deer jumped out in front of him. He was driving a Ford Expedition, if you're familiar with how big those are, they're pretty large vehicles, and fairly high off of the ground.
The deer was mid-jump, and went up over the hood. Half of its body went through the windshield, and the other half went through the driver's side window. It was a 10 point. I.E. - a REALLY big frigging deer, and it landed pretty much in his lap, and face. The deer was torn in half, and as you can imagine my friend was pretty hurt pretty badly as a result from this accident.
He had full coverage insurance on his car, and has had back, neck, and shoulder problems ever since that accident. Problems he never had prior to the accident. He's been going to his primary care physician, and chiropractor ever since.
Fast forward two weeks ago:
He thought his back was out again, it had been bad for about two months, so bad he'd passed up a few jobs, and he never passes up work. He's a union insulator. When you work in the trades in the cold weather regions if you don't want to travel you work all you can spring, summer, and fall to save up for the slow winters.
But moving at all had been intolerable all of a sudden, and it was just different this time. He was losing all sensation below his waist, couldn't walk at all, raging headaches, and running a fever... But he has been dealing with the back problems for a year now, and he thought the headache, and fever was the flu, or something, so he went to his chiro as usual.
Nope. NOT the flu.
He's got an epidural abscess in his spine, they rush him by ambulance to Lansing, which is about 4 hours away from where we live. He's been there ever since.
Testing shows the abscess is slightly longer than a foot long, and is pressing along his spine. The team taking care of him believe it is most likely the result of an existing spinal injury. Since neither the ER the day of the accident, his primary care, nor chiropractor has ever ordered any scans of his back to determine the extent of his injuries they can only guess... don't even get me started on that, they should all lose their medical licenses!
Anyway, the infection has been there awhile, growing, he's been feeling off for awhile, but he's the type that doesn't go to the doctor until he "has" to, and can't take it anymore (men!). He's been being treated with massive doses of IV antibiotics.
So here's where the help comes in...
In his union you have to work X amount of hours in X amount of days to keep your insurance intact.
He was laid off all winter, which pretty much everyone is, and then since he hasn't been able to work the past two months... he lost his union health insurance policy.
He's going to have to be in the hospital receiving antibiotics through a PICC line for 3 to 5 months by their best estimate, and this afternoon he was informed that he was going to have to come up with the money to pay for the antibiotics, or they were going to have to stop treatment.
Now they've already told him that even if he manages to survive, he still may end up paralyzed, and that's with the 3 to 5 months of treatment.
Is this legal?
Can someone point me toward resources to help my friend?
I filed for medicaid for him last week, but we haven't heard anything back, and the case worker isn't returning calls.
Please help.
P.S.
His car insurance company closed his insurance claim, when neither he, nor his medical professionals signed off on it, not sure if that makes a difference? The girl that works at the office of the local insurance company branch thinks it might?
Mon Jul 13, 2015 at 7:37 PM PT: I cannot thank you all enough for your advice!
Catte Nappe suggested contacting local media, and as a stroke of luck one of my friend's very good childhood friends is the meteorologist for a local news station.
I sent him a message on Facebook, told him what was going on, and told him about Catte Nappe's suggestion. He had one of the reporters call the hospital, and I just got a call from my friend's Dad that there is already a social worker in his room!!!!
So apparently bad press is something they don't want.
I've been given some names of good lawyers for him, and hopefully they're not going to stop his treatment... All because of the suggestions from you all. Much love to you, from the bottom of my heart. <3