$2,760 – Three months insurance premiums
$50 – Wellness day for Mom
$32 – Target
$500 – Funeral

G.R.

G. is 19 month old baby boy diagnosed with sickle cell disease who came to Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital for a bone marrow transplant from Detroit, Ml. The course of transplant was complicated by infections. Three trans­plants were performed on this baby in the hope for a cure. When G. was first diagnosed, his mother left the Army for a less demanding job in order to tend to her child. She had to stop working altogether, staying at the hospital with her son for one procedure and complication after another. She was living at that time on the fumes of her savings, when her social worker requested assistance to pay for the cost of insurance premium for 2/09, 3/09 and 4/09. We learned about her circumstances, and when we asked the head of social work “what else can we do for this Mom?” she strongly suggested a wellness day and kindly set up a hair salon appointment for her. She also took Mom to Target to pick up a few toiletries and non-perishable food items to keep in her room. She faced each day and was at the bedside at the time of G.’s death. ASRL was there to provide the last sad assistance for this family by paying for the funeral expenses and to cover the mother cost of travel back to Detroit alone.

SHARRON M. AND KANAKA 0
Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, NYC

Two months Rent

R. A

R. is a six year old boy with an aggressive brain tumor. His father is a single dad who works as a cook in a restaurant and is R.’s sole caregiver. Due to the economic downturn, Dad has been assigned fewer shifts, despite multiple requests for more work. If this financial squeeze were not difficult enough, the family’s expenses are further cha I lenged by the cost of the 170 miles of travel from home to the hospital. Other cancer organizations have assisted, but their aid has not gone far enough to bridge the family’s crisis. R.’s mother is in Mexico and unable to contribute financially. ASRL is privileged to pay rent for R.’s family, while they wait to receive state support.

KATE P.
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford

$2,000 – Two months rent $2,760- Groceries $250 – Gas cards $500 – Meal vouchers $60 – Parking

L. G

L. is a twelve year old with a high risk form of leukemia. Sadly, she recently suffered a relapse and emergency hospitalization, and her prognosis is poor. Her single mother also has a seventeen year old with spinal bifida at home. Although she had supported her family as a housecleaner, Mom stopped all work to be with L. during her hospital stay. Mom has been living in L’s room and unable to go home because she does not have enough money for gasoline. ASRL caught the family up on its overdue bills, ensured that Mom had transportation between her two children, and gave the family the gift of time together.

CATHY R..
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Computer Tech time for installation; Computer was donated

N.

N. has recently had a heart transplant and is recovering well. But one of the consequences of his life-saving surgery is that N. cannot go into public places due to his immune-suppression medications. He naturally feels quite isolated and alone. The family’s financial resources are stretched thin as N.’s mother left her job in order to remain as his constant caregiver. Assistance was requested for the purchase of a computer so that N. can stay engaged and stay in touch with his friends.

ANN P..
Boston Children’s Hospital

$332 – Phone bill $344 – Car payment $250 – Gas cards $250 – Grocery cards

M. P

M. was 16 years old when he was rushed to his local emergency room with excruciating hip pain. After lengthy tests, he was finally diagnosed with a rare and highly aggressive tumor known as synovial cell carcinoma that had already spread to his lungs. He was immediately transferred from his home in Texas to the National Cancer Institute where he is receiving all of his treatment. Michael is no stranger to crisis: his mother died when he was 13 and his single dad, a carpenter, has juggled caring for M., working and travelling back and forth from home to NCI. Relatives have opened their own home to the family when they lost theirs, but now M. is back in the hospital for six weeks, and with Dad only wanting to be at his side, he is unable to work. ASRL stepped in to relieve the family’s financial burdens so that M. and his dad can be together during M.’s fragile medical crisis.

LORI W..
National Cancer Institute at NIH

Down payment on used car

R. L

R. is a 17-year old with a genetic syndrome that causes massive chest wall infection and gastrointestinal bleeding, as well as significant developmental delay. His family takes excellent care of him and this has been his first hospital admission since very early childhood. The family’s financial situation is somewhat precarious, but in general they manage adequately. Recently, however, his single mother’s car was in need of extensive repair work and the mechanic to whom she entrusted the vehicle botched the job and then left town. She has been advised that at this point it makes more sense to get another car, and family funds were depleted due to R.’s unexpected emergency hospitalization. ASRL responded to this request with funds for a down payment on a used car in order to provide transportation to and from the hospital and to prevent further financial distress for the family.

KIM T..
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford

$5,040 – Four months mortgage $670 – Telephone bill

C. D

The D. family’s situation was at once tragic and breathtaking in its dramatic unfolding. So many things went wrong at once. Mom and Dad’s company went under and then Dad lost his new job and health insurance. At the same time their twenty-two year old daughter, C, suffered another catastrophic cancer diagnosis (she’d undergone extensive chemotherapy at the age of four. The throat and mouth cancer that struck C was relentless and came at a time when the family was being threatened with foreclosure on their home. C has three siblings living at home. C’s mother was in despair that the family would lose their home – their only stability – during this chaotic time and reached out to ASRL for help. ASRL immediately began to work with the loan servicing company to stop the foreclosure proceedings and give the family some breathing room. After several months, the loan was re-modified to a manageable level as the family struggled to accept the news that there were no more treatment options for C. She is now home with her family in hospice care.

DENISE G..
Broward Hospital System, FL