An author...

...and a friend/fellow collegue of mine at Changeling Press is in need of medical equipment.

See below--

Natural disasters like floods, fires, and disability often hit without warning, leaving chaos in their wake. When a crisis hits our friends, we all want to help. The Save The Quiet Kitty Fund is here to help authors in crisis.
From time to time, many of us have organized a short term pool to help an author in crisis — short term crises that called for short term solutions. The Save The Quiet Kitty Fund is a designed to be a longer term solution.
The online writing community is made up of so many people who come together to share in a universe that exists only in cyberspace. We come to know people like they’re members of our family, even if we’ve never met them in person. Beyond cyberspace, however, reality sometimes intrudes. Most authors are self employed, and only have health insurance if they maintain their day job, or if their spouses’ employer provides family coverage. Even when Medical insurance is affordable, sometimes a preexisting condition may keep an author from being eligible.
Our friend Camille Anthony was diagnosed in 1989 with Pulmonary Sarcoidosis, caused by exposure to asbestos while an employee of the State of California. (There is a pending class action lawsuit against the State of California which has been in Pre-Trial hearings for almost a decade.) Camille is now a full time author with no health insurance. She’s in stage four of Pulmonary Sarcoidosis and can’t get health insurance because of this pre-existing condition.
Camille has been hospitalized several times in the last 9 months, and her illness has progressed to the point that she requires oxygen around the clock. The lung disease has caused peripheral heart problems, mainly myocardial regurgitation in the right chamber, similar to congestive heart failure. In CHF, the left side stops. In this case, only the left side is pumping. The fibroid lesions caused by the sarcoid are encroaching in on her heart, attacking lean muscle tissue. This also makes movement difficult at times as the muscles throughout her body are slowly being infected as well. This is a disease that mirrors autoimmune diseases, while not actually being one.
Oxygen and hospital bills, as well as other medical expenses, are long term needs. The irony is, Camille makes just enough residual income from her writing to keep her from being eligible for Medicaid. Since Medicaid turned her down, the medical equipment company now wants their equipment back.
We hope to raise enough money, with your support, to not only cover Camille’s current medical expenses, but to help other authors in crisis.
http://www.savethequietkitty.com

Dakota