Family holding fundraiser to pay medical bills
A Lima man by the name of Brad Hartman is having a fundraiser raised to pay for his medical bills after a hereditary condition was exacerbated after catching COVID.
Having contracted COVID sometime in February, Brad has been facing many different challenges to his health in the last few months. While he didn’t get too many symptoms from the disease itself, problems started much later after some peculiar things started happening, raising quite a few eyebrows.
“He didn’t have too many symptoms from COVID, probably had run of the mill symptoms,” Paul Hartman, his brother, said about the inciting incident. “He ended getting pneumonia twice from it though and was in the hospital and put on oxygen in April.”
The fact that Brad had gotten pneumonia twice alarmed doctors, especially as his breathing later started to become restricted. It was found out, after taking several visits to St. Rita’s Medical Center, that Brad apparently gained the hereditary disease known as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, otherwise known as IPF.
IPF is a rare illness that is characterized by the stiffening of lung tissue, resulting in declining lung function within those affected. Paul believes that Brad must’ve gotten it from their mother, who died of the disease in 2018. The doctor’s believe that catching COVID forced the disease to the forefront despite Brad not having shown too many outward symptoms.
“So he had that, and they said that he probably wouldn’t have had any issues with that for another ten years,” Paul stated. This resulted in many different hospital visits, along with moving to the Cleveland Clinic for extended treatment and getting a
double lung transplant. “Cleveland’s been amazing, and he was only on the lung transplant list for 24 hours.”
Brad has been lucky so far that they were not only able to catch the illness in the early stages, but to also receive the surgeries he’s gotten so far. Minor issues still pop up here and there and he still has to go back to Cleveland to keep up the good work. Paul wishes his brother had been given the opportunity to get the COVID shot.
Insurance has covered most of the costs so far, but considering the amount of treatments he’s had to receive, it has put a strain on his family’s finances. The fundraiser is a way to alleviate this, and key people in Brad’s life are doing their best to make it all possible. One notable name is Karen Myers, who is in charge of the benefit.
“So we are doing a fundraiser for him at the Local Union United Steel Workers through Continental and trying to raise some money for him,” Myers said. She actually worked closely with him and figured that she could do her own work to help him. “So he’s had to rent somewhere to live nearby and its very costly.”
The fundraiser is meant to be a big event with several raffles, chicken dinners and a live and silent auction for individuals. A bake sale is also being offered, with all proceeds being donated to Hartman and alleviate the bills placed on him and his family.
Currently, they expect about 300 people will show up, meaning that plenty of money will be raised.
Myers thanks Melinda Krauss, Lacey White and Bob McQune for their help on this project.
“I’m the leader of it, and these guys are the ones doing donations and selling tickets along with myself,” Myers said. “I don’t want people to think like I’ve done the whole thing.”
For those that want to go, the fundraiser is sechduled to occur on Oct. 16 at 227 E. South St. in St. Marys from 4 to 9 p.m.
Anyone that can’t make it but want to send in donations anyway can go to the family’s GoFundMe page at https://bit.ly/3oPvL1E.