Boston Bombing Hero Who Identified Suspect Resorts To Online Fundraising To Pay His Medical Bills
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/19/1896951/bauman-crowd-funding-medical/Boston Bombing Hero Who Identified Suspect Resorts To Online Fundraising To Pay His Medical Bills (UPDATED)
By Sy Mukherjee on Apr 19, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Jeff Bauman, center, promoting the Boston Marathon
In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, Jeff Bauman’s image was seared into the American consciousness. An extremely graphic photo of Bauman being escorted in a wheelchair with most of his legs blown off quickly went viral. Bauman’s stock rose even further after reports surfaced that he had looked into the eyes of one of the bombing suspects minutes before the explosion, and that the moment he awoke from emergency care, he gave law enforcement critical information that substantially narrowed their field of suspects. But while police continue to scour the streets for at-large suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 27-year-old Bauman is scouring the internet for donations to help pay for his outsized medical bills.
Bauman’s friends created the page “Bucks For Bauman!” on the gofundme.com crowdfunding service. The money raised through donations to the site are meant to help Jeff and his family pay the exorbitant costs of his surgeries, ongoing medical care, and physical therapy. Since Tuesday, when the site was launched, Americans from across the country have poured in $158,294 in donations — over half of the overall $300,000 goal.
Bauman has been fortunate enough to receive an impressive number of donations to help him pay his bills, and his uncle plans to buy him his first pair of prosthetic legs. But many other victims in the Boston bombings may not be as fortunate. The cost of treating the bombing survivors’ injuries is expected to exceed $9 million. The out-of-pocket costs associated with that treatment could bury many of the victims financially, even if they do have insurance — unless hospitals, insurers, and charitable foundations swoop in to help, as they did after the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado.
You can donate to Jeff Bauman’s recovery fund here.
http://www.gofundme.com/BucksforBauman
UPDATE: The original version of this story stated that Jeff Bauman does not have health insurance. This is incorrect. That claim was based on a quote from Bauman’s uncle, Dale Maybury of Westford, that was cited in The Boston Globe on Thursday. Not only does Bauman have employer-sponsored health coverage through Costco — the company “is also matching donations made by colleagues at the chain’s Nashua location,” according to a more recent Globe article from Friday. Bauman is being forced to raise funds despite this assistance due to the extraordinarily high costs associated with the amount of current and ongoing care that he requires.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Can give this poor man back his legs.
This is a shameful story at best.
Last edited Sat Apr 20, 2013, 04:27 PM - Edit history (1)
I woke up this morning actually wondering about how the people with no medical coverage or minimal coverage were going to get back on their feet literally and figuratively. I know hospitals would not give them a free ride. This OP helped. I'm glad americans can help by these fund sites.
I wish the injured a speedy recovery. I know. I was seriously injured one time in my life and even with medical coverage/insurance my end of it exceeded 9000 dollars and I was in the hospital only 11 days, Beth Israel by the way and this was in 1975. My god, today the cost must be astronomical for injuries like Bauman and the others received.
can see why the enormous medical bills incurred with this kind of terror would not cover all of it.
Poor thing.
