Apart from being an outstanding husband and father, Jared is a EMT for Action Care Ambulance. Jared's been in the business of saving lives for over 9 years because, as he puts it, "I fell in love with it as a teenager, and have been addicted to it ever since. I don't think I'll ever get it out of my system" 
On June 8th, Jared started to feel really sick. He spent the next week getting progresivly worse each day. Knowing that his family had no health insurance, he felt he couldn't go to the doctor. On June 15th he went to work, but didn't feel good and had one of the paramedics check his vitals. His resting heart rate was 122 beats/minute. They figured he was dehydrated, so they gave him some fluids and sent him home. Within a few hours Jared became extremely jaundiced. Crystal, his wife, took one look at him and knew he needed urgent medical attention. So, in spite of the fact that they don't have insurance, and in spite of the bills that they would surely incur, she insisted that he go to the hospital.
After checking his white blood cell count, liver levels and bilirubin count, he was immediately admitted. Test after test after test was inconclusive. The CT scan showed that his spleen was six times its original size, his liver was obviously not functioning, and there was no explanation for all of this. Meanwhile, the hours at the hospital were passing, and the medical bills, lab bills, radiology bills were all quickly adding up.
Finally, four days after being admitted, the doctors concluded that Jared has a rare form of mononucleosis paired with the Epstein-Barr virus, which were what was taking such a serious toll on his liver. He was released with some simple instructions to drink lots of fluids and prepare for a long, slow and hard recovery.
Jared is home now and has been since June 18th. As the doctors predicted, the recovery has been very slow. Jared's sick leave expired the 3rd day he was in the hospital. His paid time-off expired on days 4 and 5. He has now gone 7 days without pay--amounting to about $600 in lost income, which is almost enough to have paid the mortgage on their little town-home. But their mortgage payment seems like nothing compared to the $30,000 in medical/hospital bills they've already received in the mail!
On June 8th, Jared started to feel really sick. He spent the next week getting progresivly worse each day. Knowing that his family had no health insurance, he felt he couldn't go to the doctor. On June 15th he went to work, but didn't feel good and had one of the paramedics check his vitals. His resting heart rate was 122 beats/minute. They figured he was dehydrated, so they gave him some fluids and sent him home. Within a few hours Jared became extremely jaundiced. Crystal, his wife, took one look at him and knew he needed urgent medical attention. So, in spite of the fact that they don't have insurance, and in spite of the bills that they would surely incur, she insisted that he go to the hospital.After checking his white blood cell count, liver levels and bilirubin count, he was immediately admitted. Test after test after test was inconclusive. The CT scan showed that his spleen was six times its original size, his liver was obviously not functioning, and there was no explanation for all of this. Meanwhile, the hours at the hospital were passing, and the medical bills, lab bills, radiology bills were all quickly adding up.
Finally, four days after being admitted, the doctors concluded that Jared has a rare form of mononucleosis paired with the Epstein-Barr virus, which were what was taking such a serious toll on his liver. He was released with some simple instructions to drink lots of fluids and prepare for a long, slow and hard recovery.
Jared is home now and has been since June 18th. As the doctors predicted, the recovery has been very slow. Jared's sick leave expired the 3rd day he was in the hospital. His paid time-off expired on days 4 and 5. He has now gone 7 days without pay--amounting to about $600 in lost income, which is almost enough to have paid the mortgage on their little town-home. But their mortgage payment seems like nothing compared to the $30,000 in medical/hospital bills they've already received in the mail!
So, what can you do to help Jared and Crystal???
Join us for the Orton Family 5k Run/Walk!
(All the info is on the sidebar of this page).
When I asked Jared what the best part about his job was, he said, "I love having a job where whatever happens, at the end of the day, I know I've done something good."
This is our chance to do something good for him.
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