Since selecting our first grant recipients in 2018, Keep Swimming Foundation‘s Board of Directors have chosen families on a quarterly basis. The process of selecting families in need required this lengthened time to thoroughly vet and analyze each application.
2020 has been a truly unprecedented year for the healthcare industry, patients, and the family members of the critically ill. Not only has the pandemic changed the way providers care for their patients, it has changed the way families can show their love and support for their critically ill children, parents, siblings and/or spouses. In May 2020, we began noticing a major shift in our applications. The number of applications had significantly declined, due to various hospitals placing strict no-visitor protocols for the family members of the patients. Atop of this, many hospital-driven aid programs (cafeteria voucher programs, recovery homes, etc.) had been eliminated for budgetary reasons. For those at a hospital that allowed a minimum of one immediate family member to visit, we noticed the circumstances these family members experienced were dire, due largely to their inability to spend full days and nights in the hospital room with the patient. As a result, this caused an increase in lodging expenses for most of our applicants. This lodging expense, combined with pandemic-related job loss, resulted in critical circumstances for a handful of applicants.
Upon noticing this change in applications, our Board of Directors chose to adjust our grant giving from quarterly to monthly, for we wanted to aid these families sooner than later with their exhaustive lodging expenses. Through all of this, our Board of Directors made sure to uphold the same stringent analysis of every application. As a result, there were months where zero families were selected. However, of the families we did select since May, we as a whole are very proud of our selections and are pleased to share them with you at this time.
Below are the stories of two families who received a combined $6,730 in financial aid between late spring and early summer 2020. The remainder of our selections will be shared with our donors throughout this holiday season.
As always, we thank you, our amazing donors, for allowing us to continue to help families in need, especially during this difficult time for us all.
Family #1 - Pearl City, IL - Recipients of a $3,480 Grant
On January 24, 2020, an Illinois husband and father of two went to a doctor for what he thought was a sinus infection. He later called his wife to say that he was headed via ambulance to Madison, Wisconsin, after being diagnosed with and admitted for Leukemia. He stayed at the hospital for nearly a month but returned in March for chemotherapy, in April for bone marrow transplant conditioning, a bone marrow transplant in May, and a fever in June. After his transplant, various complications and tests resulted from Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a condition that occurs when donor bone marrow or stem cells attack the recipient.
This family felt the full hardship of COVID-19 restrictions. His wife shared with us, “I’ll never forget how I drove (nearly 2 hours) and dropped him off…to go through the hardest thing in his life alone. I had to pull the car over (for a) good cry (before I drove home). Visitors were not allowed due to COVID-19.” She served as his daily caretaker and advocate once some visitor restrictions were lifted. Bedside meals were not allowed and masks were mandatory. Parking expenses inflated near the hospital, and lodging cost them nearly $3,500. She detailed their challenges, “Programs available prior to COVID-19 were no longer an option…closed to patients as they repurposed the rooms for healthcare workers who didn’t want to return to their families…a local bed and breakfast dedicated to transplant families also closed its door. Open homes through (rental) no longer could provide a safe place for transplant patients…The doctor requested (we) remain in isolation during COVID-19…I’m required to cook a “neutropenic” diet and ordering out is discouraged. I moved to a larger motel room with a kitchen available. I relied on food delivery for my groceries.”
Keep Swimming Foundation was pleased to provide this family with a $3,480 grant to alleviate the unexpected financial burden largely attributed to COVID-19 restrictions.
Family #2 - Nashville, TN - Recipients of a $3,250 Grant
A Tennessee baby was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) at twenty weeks in utero. This is a rare condition caused by a combination of four heart defects that are present at birth, requiring multiple surgeries. She had a full TOF repair and was admitted to the Cardiac Step-Down Unit for recovery.
Their Social Worker submitted a letter on behalf of the family. In part, it described the family’s non-medical expenses: “(The parents) have been utilizing and paying for local lodging throughout (their daughter’s) admission due to COVID-19 restrictions that only allow one parent to be present at the hospital daily. Her father has also been traveling back and forth…to work and visit with their other children…they have (also) had food, gas, and daily living expenses (to maintain) their bills at home.”
Keep Swimming Foundation’s Board of Directors are glad to provide a $3,250 grant to this family, as they stay strong for their baby and continue to keep hope. This amount reimburses all submitted expenses.
We are only able to provide these grants to families in need because of you, our amazing donors. Please consider clicking the button below to make a donation to Keep Swimming Foundation today so that we may continue our work as we head into 2021.