On Mother’s Day 2023, our mother flew to Portugal and suffered a subdural hematoma only 16 hours after landing.  This was supposed to be her once in a lifetime trip.  She had an emergency craniotomy, spent 17 days in ICU, 5 days in Neuro Critical and has been on the Neuro floor since.  She is still in a coma but has started showing more signs of consciousness and makes improvements every week.  
 

My brother and I have been here for 10 weeks and do not have any intention of leaving her alone.  We have given up our jobs, our lives, and our own families to be here with our mother and advocate for her care and encourage her every step of the way.  We spend several hours a day at her bedside playing music, singing, playing meditations, talking to her and keeping her body limber with stretches.  She needs us here as there is no facility able to give her this level of care.  
 

You might be asking “why don’t they just bring her home?!”  We cannot bring her home because her medical repatriation will cost $184,000 (No, most travel insurance companies do not offer medical repatriation as we have found out 🤯) plus the cost of her medical care in the USA will be very expensive.  Here the medical care is equivalent at a fraction of the cost.  So our intention is to rehabilitate her here and then move her home as soon as she is able to fly on a commercial flight again.  Our hope is that she can be rehabilitated enough to go to her home and have nursing assistance come to her in her own home.  Unfortunately, brain injuries take an unpredictable amount of time to heal.  It is quite possible this could take a year.  Which brings me to this platform….

Her medical insurance is refusing to pay the hospital directly despite having “world wide coverage”, the costs are mounting quickly, and now with the added cost of living for my brother and myself with no source of monthly income (our jobs will not support international remote work), we are unsure how to make this work but we are certain that leaving our mother in a foreign country is out of the question.  We are working on getting an apartment as Airbnb has drained our finances the last 10 weeks.   

Our mother would be the last one to ever ask for help and the very first one to offer it to someone else and she raised us to be the same way, but we honestly cannot make it through this situation without your generosity and help.  All money raised from this platform will be used to care for our mother here in Portugal:  her hospital bills, and to sustain life for my brother and I as her caregivers and cheerleaders (rent/food/bills).  Thank you so much for your consideration!❤️. We cannot thank you enough!🙏🏼