Maylin's Story
"Hello. My name is Maylin Gonzalez. When I was 15 years old, I had my first episode of an aneurysm, and two years later, another was not as severe. I married and moved to the United States. In 2006 another aneurysm episode kept me at the hospital for over five weeks. The stress caused by the covid pandemic affected some of my in-laws, and some died; I suffered another aneurysm on April 4 of 2021. My husband took me to ER in Northside Hospital in Lawrenceville. It was challenging because I do not speak English, and my husband could not be with me due to hospital regulations. I was airlifted to Emory University hospital because my health situation was critical. I spent six days in the hospital, and fortunately, I am doing my regular activities, but the hospital bills began to come by mail; we hoped our primary insurance would cover most of them, but our terrible surprise was the airlift service by helicopter bill, indicating that they are out-of-network. We have to pay the entire account, $43,288.00. A few days later, insurance paid $7,0911.00, leaving us a balance on the bill for $36,196.89. This large bill has put a lot of stress on our finances. My husband consulted a lawyer to see what options could be available for us, even bankruptcy, but this could cause us to lose our home because there is no way we can pay that large bill after all other medical expenses. We are negotiating with the airlift company but are not sure how they are willing to help us. If we get a grant that helps to ease the balance with them, we can probably be in a better position to negotiate with them and agree to pay a reduced part of the bill."
