Cal’s Return From Heart Surgery

Update posted by Svenja Baviere On Feb 26, 2021

Cal had one good night's sleep in his own bed and is now busy, within his physical ability. He first had to go out to restore water to his apartment. Propane gas restoration is still pending, making cooking at home a bit challenging for the moment. Fortunately the electricity never went out.

Yesterday, Thursday in Japan, Scott provided not only the ride home by car door-to-door, but excellent support through a long and Kafkaesque, rather nebulous hospital checkout process that took some four hours. Scott observed the staff using the automatic voice translator that Cal mentioned in his video, and was stunned at the inadequacy, especially with regard to context. Staff spoke into the machine at length, and only very simple English came out, on the order of "This is a note" for an envelope that contained highly important warranty and other information from company that provided the heart valve. Moreover, cash payment at checkout is the norm, and Cal showed the funding page status with its funding denominated in Japanese yen, nevertheless, the consensus at the hospital accounting department was that no one has ever heard of an online funding campaign, much less a waiting period for funds. Scott's fluency in Japanese and excellent communication skills were instrumental in getting Cal out of the hospital without the immediate payment of Cal's share of the bill. Seventy percent is being paid by Japanese National Health Insurance.

Due to the 7-day waiting period following donation for the withdrawal of contributions, today provided the first opportunity for withdrawal of the first 106,914 yen in donations. I initiated the disbursement to Cal's bank account in Japan this morning, with ETA of funds by mid-next week. We hope to have transferred enough funds into his account to enable payment of the hospital bill by the end of next week.

Thank you all very much for your support!