Our friend and member of ArtFairInsiders.com, painter Ron Roland, has fallen on some hard times. He went to the ER on December 28th in Silver City NM with a BP of 244/124 and pulse rate of 120. He was then transported by ambulance 2 and a half hrs away to El Paso TX. After 8 days in the CVICU and one preliminary surgery to attempt a stent for his valve, he underwent Bentall procedure, an open heart 6 hour surgery to replace his valve which was 80 percent nonfunctional. His only insurance is Medicare.
Learn more and help if you can: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ron-roland039s-cvicu
He has no savings or retirement other than social security. Ron is a fulltime artist who recently retired from selling at art shows. Any help is appreciated.
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Update from Ron:
We are almost halfway to the goal and the medical bills have started to come in this week so have decided to keep the fundraiser up for the long haul. My portion of the second surgeon's fee pretty much takes care of what we've raised so far and we have received also the anesthesiologist and ER bills. With 26 days in the hospital on 2 wards I imagine there will be maybe 6 more separate bills. Any and all help is appreciated and please keep sharing. Love to all.
This is a good example of why you should have medical insurance. I recently spent one year ( September 18th,2018 to September 15th, 2019) in and out of hospitals and rehab with two knee replacement surgery's due to infection in my back which went to my knee. My medical bills were in excess of $500,000 which I was lucky enough to have medical insurance and Medicare pay most of the cost. I paid $3,000 for ambulance.
We always made sure that we medical insurance. It was always a priority in our monthly budget.
Lu and I wish Ron a speedy recovery and just know that you have many artist friends wish you nothing but the best.