TL;DR: I was the victim of a catastrophic collision and sustained a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar hospital bill for my brain hemorrhage/brain surgery. I have no health insurance. I can’t sue the hostile party because he has no assets nor auto-insurance. My Medi-Cal was denied and I would have to reapply as a handicap that would prohibit me from working. I’m handicap and I do not want to do that.

*And if it isn't obvious, I'm obligated to foot the bill that was thrown onto my lap and I feel that I don't deserve this high cost at the fault of another. My objective is to get my Medi-Cal processed or approved considering the circumstances*

 

This is a long explication but it surely merits national spotlight in regards to healthcare in this presidential election. (Sorry for the narrative, when I write long things, it gravitates into that practice) I haven't really been explicit about what I want out of this. I guess I'd really want people to read this long thing regardless of political affiliation. Perhaps somebody that would come to read it would give me a helping hand.

As any lonely and dejected person would do, I tried to find comfort and solace by means of reddit and surely that didn't go too well the first time for being downvoted into obscurity. Surely that didn't work out the way I wanted it to. I know that in all likelihood it would happen again by I just wanted to get a last word out about things I’ve been keeping to myself.

I just want to first off say that despite this accident happening a near year ago that I may look fine, I’m physically alright I'm ship-shape but I've been to several severe places in my head in this aftermath following my accident and I’ve been keeping all of this to myself for a while.

Back on the evening of October 21, 2011, I was spending the evening going star-gazing with my friend. We decided to head over to a park because it was the night of a meteor shower and we wanted to catch a good view. We were heading towards Brace Canyon Park through the residential areas of Burbank. (If you know Burbank) I was heading north on Kenneth towards Brace.

It was then when I awoke in the hospital and had visitors rehash the accident. I was shown a Youtube video of the collision scene to find out I got T-boned at 90 mph by a guy at the Palm/Kenneth intersection. He was heading eastbound on Palm. And if you know Palm then you would know that it continues uphill before getting to Kenneth. You would also know that nearly every block had a stop sign at the end of it. So of course he was comet-ing uphill non-stop to get to that speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6fL_pRg2w

I sustained the injuries of a fractured pelvis, a collapsed diaphragm, a punctured lung and well as severe brain hemorrhaging. My passenger is OK aside from getting a pelvic fracture but she came out of it alright.

I had tons of people come visit me and tell me what went wrong. I was in the hospital for a near two months and I greatly appreciate all of your visits and bringing foods and candies I like and enjoy. I can’t thank you all enough. I was going through dementia when I was coming to consciousness. But I can’t reiterate enough that I am eternally grateful to my mom for skipping out on work for that period to see to my recovery. She brought a laptop for me to keep communication during that prolonged period of getting pieced back together at LACUSC. I’ve been looking at all of your ‘get well soons’ and ‘I hope you’re OKs’ and I was very touched by everyone on all corners of the world through Facebook. I even had my old workplace Saatchi put together a video wishing for my recovery. I felt that I still mattered in that very trying time. But the pick-me-ups hit a speed bump when I cycled through my Gmail to read that I had received a copy job at RAPP. What could I do other than give into the excitement of the opportunity of thinking that I’d be good to go in a few days?

Having gone through ICU and substantial brain surgery, I’ve surely come to a “close one” and I’m really fortunate enough have my brain to be more or less intact. Mental recovery is surely slower than physical recovery.

I was even greeted by a lawyer in the hospital. Of course one would think that a catastrophic accident like this couldn’t go without any litigation with prospects of restitution. Surely a guy like this would contribute to a hefty medical bill, right? Hefty for a guy like me with no medical insurance? Hefty in the range of $350,000+?

For not ‘buying the farm’ I was charged with the cost of an actual farm.

I was really worried that I would come into discrepancies in this litigation procedure after being told by my passenger’s dad that the there was no money coming out of the hostile party because he had no assets. I’ve been forwarding this information to everyone and they told me not to worry – that my lawyer’s on it – they are hard at work on the case.

But in actuality, my lawyer jumped ship on me, which would explain as to why there was a complete lack of correspondence with him. So I was just left in legal-limbo until I got frustrated and made a call to hear him sign off on the fact that this 19-year-old kid has no assets. He was driving his aunt’s car. And that the car was under his aunt’s name and insurance. But get this, she gave him the car but specifically had his name excluded off her Geico policy. Where would this restitution come from? The most I can expect is that the guy’s aunt would charge him with grand-theft-auto. The likelihood? You be the judge. My portion of restitution coming from her hypothetical restitution? Very minuscule compared to that $350,000 medical bill I now have to foot.

I thought about going through the California Victim Compensation Program but I was denied the possibility of financial help because the other guy was not intoxicated, didn’t flee from the crime-scene or was he responsible for a hit-and-run or vehicular manslaughter (because I’m still alive). This technically does not qualify as a vehicle-related violent crime.

And so what’s the fallback option for a California resident? Medi-Cal? Prior to this collision, I wasn’t even insured under Medi-Cal which prompted my mother to get me emergency Medi-Cal, which by the way takes a LONG time to process. The time since the accident was just me biding my time to wait for it to get processed.

In this time, I spiraled into depression, something that I wouldn’t want to showcase to a potential employer. I would be glued to the bed 24 hours of the day for weeks… for months… And of course I would be trapped in my own thoughts mulling over possibilities that will not be addressed.

Around the height of this depression, I would have appointments a few times a week at the rehab clinic. I’d go through physical therapy because I couldn’t walk for a few months, I would go through speech therapy to get me back at doing what I do best: use words and I would go through occupational therapy to get me prepped for the working life.

Through my psychologist I’ve been tested in psychological tests and I’ve come to know that I’ve made great headway after taking on psychological tests. I’ve learned that I’ve superseded everyone on the same level of college aptitude traumatic brain injury patients. That feeling of happiness was shot down after being arranged to meet a guy, a career creative, who also suffered a traumatic brain injury. He told me to forget getting back into the working field I’ve been trying to get back into. He told me he certainly wasn’t.

I certainly can’t accept abandoning copywriting for how far I’ve come. It’s what I’ve learned to know it’s something I was good at.

This very low depressive state prompted me to take Zoloft after putting it off on several occasions. After hearing my good friend telling me that it curbs any creative thought and articulate reasoning, I surely didn’t want to take it. Of course I didn’t want to stunt creative thought for trying to get back into advertising.

Things steeped to an emotional trough and taking an antidepressant seemed essential for any forward movement in life. I began taking the low dose, certainly did nothing to make me feel different. I felt the same after upping the dose on several occasions. I didn’t know why it wouldn’t work and if it did, how would I be able to tell the difference from how I’ve been feeling on the regular. Until I got the dose I’m taking now.

I’ll tell you that it’s definitely making a difference. I feel a massive weight of motivation compounded on top of renewed productivity. I got up out of bed. Got back to doing articles for a mag I write for. I felt more inclined to speak with strangers. It kicked up this whole state of a word I’d use excessively, being “cavalier”.

I used reddit to reach out to people to help progress my life. I got into contact with a Creative Director. Hell, the CEO of my previous workplace Saatchi & Saatchi, culled together donations and contributions from the whole office to go towards my recovery.

I was even purchased a flight out to Europe by my estranged European brother for a visit, what one would call a “recovery retreat”. With the cavalier attitude, I used my saved monies to buy a train pass to dart around Europe, booking stays at various hostels and for food… when I needed it of course. I’ve planned out specific and smart spending to last me through an entire summer in Europe and I'll tell you now it was surely a fairy-tale experience. I’ve used that Eurail to jump to various targeted agencies I wished to be a part of.

I thought the cavalier attitude of getting my inaugural ad-job at Saatchi would work in Europe as well.

During the latter portion of my holiday I’ve received positive responses - one possible freelance opportunity in Frankfurt and another in Zurich.

The rest of the stay was absolutely phenomenal. I was able to do Q&As with two bands I really dig for the mag I write for. On the ride to Bern, I met a lovely girl on the train and we agreed to meet.

In this past year I’ve hit rock bottom, fell in love, grew some gall, had my first broken bone, got a broken heart, revitalized important friendships, strengthened family ties and excomunicated those who've proved to be a psychological burden.

And then I went home.

I coupled this with a visit to my current lawyer and I’ve come to learn that my Medi-Cal application was turned down. Turned down by the observations taken by the therapists at the rehabilitation center noting that I was going to be abroad for my recovery. I would have to reapply. Reapplying would mean that I would be prohibited from entering the workforce if I were handicapped. I do suffer a handicap on the mental-capacity of things but I really don’t want to kill the potential of getting back to work. I really want and need to work. Especially having to go back to gluing myself to the bed for a possible year - a year that would potentially be brought to refusal once again.

I’m on the edge of uprooting myself to go to a more promising job-market and I want it to be as soon as now while I still have motivational steam in my engine. So I can start living again and to kick off the Zoloft. Sure, I could kick it now but for such a high dose, one would have to downgrade the doses over time so you don’t risk spiraling into a deep depression. Deeper than the onset.

I’m down to 15 tablets and I’m worried what I will come down to. Without having provisional Medi-Cal, I wouldn’t qualify for more. I’ve coped with the fact that I can invest the rest of my years to pay off this huge hospital bill but I’m just worried what would come. It’s been a year since my collision but the pain and suffering is long from over. I’ve been keeping a lot of this to myself for very long and I was hoping to take the time to write this out to find who would take the time to read it.

After being treated by a State public hospital, I can't really defer to bankruptcy. Although I would really like to.

I'm not covered fully by auto-insurance, just liability. 

It seems like with the passing of a year people see that I’m fine but I’m coming down with unwarranted consequences at the fault of another party. It’s painful and in the avenues of doing the right thing on my side, everything collapses.