Kinney Family Medical

In February of 2011 Mike ended up in the hospital with kidney stone symptoms. He recognized the symptoms since he had experienced passing a kidney stone 5 years prior. He figured that, as before, he would receive pain meds and be sent home to pass the stone. An MRI showed that there was a large 8.5 millimeter stone fully blocking.

He was immediately scheduled for surgery to have a stent placed. This involved a 2 day stay in the hospital. The stint had to be kept in for at least 3 weeks before he could be scheduled for lithotripsy surgery (hitting the stone with shock waves to break it up). At the time of the MRI it was noted that there were multiple stones present in each kidney. He will have to face this issue off and on for years to come.

It was brought up at the time to see if having the all of the stones broken up at the time of the surgery was possible. This was not an option according to the urologist. He went through the surgery towards the end of March. The surgery failed to break up the stone. Due to the impact on the body it was not possible to do another surgery for another 3 weeks. Mike was required to keep the stint in for a total of 7 weeks.

The second surgery successfully destroyed the kidney stone. A few weeks later the Kinney family received the bill and truly understood the differences between their previous medical insurance and the new one. The total bill was well over $55,000. Thankfully the maximum out of pocket expense was only $9,000. A large sum still but much less than it could have been.

Unluckily this was the final straw in a serious of unfortunate events and the Kinney family had to allow their home to go into
foreclosure. They were hoping to try to get a semi-fresh start. Bankruptcy was out of the picture because, due to medical bills and various economic issues, they filed in 2009 in the attempt to save their home.

The Kinney family had just found out that they were expecting an addition to the family on Easter. They moved to a new place at the end of May to begin the semi-fresh start of their lives. They had come to terms with their situation and the move and felt things were going well. Then disaster struck on July 6^th.

Early in the morning of July 6^th Lacy felt as though her water had broke. Lacy has a history of high risk pregnancy and has required having a surgery done in the attempt to secure the baby in each of her 3 previous pregnancies. This information was discussed multiple times with her new doctor. They inquired multiple times about when the surgery would take place. Finally on the week 12 visit one of the doctors exclaimed that this is the first time anyone at the office heard about her condition. The Kinney’s were floored.

The doctor then stated that an appointment would need to be set with an outside office in order to set a date for the surgery. The urgency of the situation and Lacy’s history was not expressed yet again and the earliest date was 2 weeks later. It was set for early July 6^th. This is something that will forever haunt the Kinney’s. That and the horrific experience of losing a baby girl. There will always be the ‘what ifs’ and ‘only ifs’ for as long as they will live.

The other hit though came with the bill a few weeks later. This bill was closer to the $16,000 mark. The maximum out of pocket
expense for a family on their insurance was $12,000. Still much better than the near $70,000 that could have been but well out of range for this family.

It is bad enough with the amounts listed above without having anything else added on. However, in August of 2011 Mike began to experience sharp pains in his right side. These pains were intense stabbing sensations that seemed to be focused in the kidney region. Over the next 3 ½ months Mike continued to visit his doctor to try and figure out what was wrong. His fear was that another kidney stone was making its way through his system. It turns out he was right.

Finally on the 28^th of December the doctor conceded to ordering an MRI. The MRI showed a large stone nearly in the bladder on the right side. After the urologist reviewed the MRI it was determined the length of time the pain had been happening over was too long. They scheduled Mike to undergo Ureteroscopic kidney stone removal (using a laser to break the stone up). Unfortunately the doctors waited long enough that surgery was scheduled on January 4^th. This meant that the out of pocket maximum was reset.

The stone was much larger than expected and actually had impacted into the wall of the ureter. The results were that Mike went home in severe pain. Within 2 hours of reaching home Mike was vomiting from the pain and unable to pass any urine. He ended up in the hospital with a blood clot completely blocking his bladder. He had to have a catheter placed and was forced to remain home with it for a week.

Needless to say the bills came in and he yet again maxed out his out of pocket maximum. They made the tough decision to move back from the state of Ohio to Washington in order to be near family. This move exhausted their retirement savings.

The Kinney family realizes that there are so many others in need of life saving surgeries and treatments. Although they will appreciate any and all help they hope that other fundraisers be considered if you are in a position to help.

They thank each and every one of you for anything you can give.