CONTACT: SCOTT
COSTELLO
(662) 377-2404
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HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION PROVIDES SUPPORT
FOR TWO MISSISSIPPI FAMILIES IN NEED
Helping
those in need is the purpose of the Patient Assistance Funds distributed by the
Health Care Foundation of North Mississippi. For two Mississippi families,
assistance from the fund helped them through some very difficult times.
John
Boyd of French Camp was working at a sawmill on July 21 when he was taken to
NMMC-Eupora with heat-related symptoms. Boyd was transferred to NMMC-Tupelo,
where an MRI scan and other tests revealed a brain tumor. The 57-year-old Boyd
underwent surgery three days later and then started six weeks of radiation
therapy, which made it impossible for him to continue working. The treatments
and doctors appointments required a lot of time on the road for the Boyds, who
live 90 miles from Tupelo.
“A social worker at the hospital talked to us
about the fund,” said his wife, Annie Pearl Boyd said. “Through the Cancer
Center Patient Assistance Fund, they were able to help us out with gas money.
They’ve also paid for medication and helped us with a light bill. They were so
good to us. It was a blessing from the Lord.”
Joyce Clayton of Blue Springs received help from the Linda Russell
and Bridget White Home Health Patient Assistance Fund. Her son, 16-year-old
Brandon, was badly burned in August 2002 while trying to light a stove.
Clayton, a single mother who has been employed for 11 years at Professional
Foam, missed a month of work while her son was hospitalized in Greenville.
Gina Smith,
social work coordinator for the NMMC Home Health Agency, said the Patient
Assistance Fund took care of the Clayton’s utility bills twice and also paid
for some supplies that were critical during Brandon’s recovery. This included
two pressure garments that aid
the healing process and protect against injury.
“We’d
have probably been without lights for at least one month if they hadn’t helped
me,” Clayton said. “I’m so appreciative of everything they did.”
“Anytime he ran out of supplies, I
could call Home Health that morning and they’d have supplies out that
afternoon,” Clayton added. “Gina took care of everything that we needed that
Medicaid and insurance couldn’t. They were a great help. I don’t know what I
would have done without their help.”
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