Too Rich To Be Poor And Too Poor To Be Rich To Help Disabled Daughter

by Michael Martin
(Inola, Oklahoma, USA)

I'm 47 years old, and have been married for 15 years. I have 3 children: an 18-year-old son, a 14-year-old daughter (who is disabled) and a 10-year-old son.

I've been in the floral wholesale business for the over 28 years and the last 12 years as owner of my own floral wholesale.

Recently I've been forced to file bankruptcy. The economy was devastating for a small business that was just getting by.

I'm a volunteer fireman in our local community. I am also the chairman of our local Rural Economic Development Board and chairman of the County Planning Commission.

I'm an active member of the Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce and Local Education Foundation Member. They're all volunteer organizations I help support in a large way.

I love to serve our community and believe in "paying it forward."

My request for help is not for me but for my angel of a daughter, Danielle Renee Martin.

She was born with a rare neurological condition described as child infantile spasms, a form of epilepsy.

Without medications she was having 300 plus seizures a day and with medication that is down to 20 or so.

These seizures leave her brain completely blank -- void of any type of thoughts or memories.

She has no abilities whatsoever. She is like a newborn in almost all ways except that she is 14 years old physically and weighs 70 lb.

We've applied for every assistance program known federally but even with me being currently unemployed our household makes too much money.

"Too Rich To Be Poor -- Too Poor To Be Rich"

Doctors at Mayo, John Hopkins, St Jude's, Texas Children's, Herman Hospital, St Francis (Tulsa) Tulsa Children's Hospital and St. Johns of Tulsa have looked at her disorder.

She has seen over 16 doctors and each and every one told us that there was nothing they could do to help Danielle and that the best we could do to help her would be to keep her healthy.

Her Life expectancy was to be 7-8 years old and she just turned 14 on July 29th 2010. I'd say we've done a great job!

When she turned 8 we started on a handicapped equipped home for her, no matter what the cost, all to give Danielle a better quality of life.

It's got lift systems throughout the home and all widened doors. There's a great therapy room along with a very large living area.

Throughout the years I've always been able to pay for Danielle's medical bills, medications, and equipment out of our own pocket.

But when I lost our company I lost our income that came with that. Now we have no insurance, no salary to keep mom home to watch Danielle.

And we have no income to help pay the ever-mounting medical expense associated with having a child with permanent disabilities.

There are some programs that we do get for Danielle but even those are limited.

During the past few months of being unemployed both my wife and I have applied for over 30 jobs and none even come close to help paying what we need for an average household income.

And never mind we need additional income to cover Danielle's ever-mounting cost of medical expenses.

We've even applied for Social Security Disability and got approved in principle, but then were denied any payments because my unemployment amount put us above the poverty line for household incomes.

Losing SSI Benefits also affected the simplest of programs. Diapers… If we received $1 from SSI then DHS would let us have diapers but because we were approved doesn't mean we get benefits.

Thus we live in a constant gray area of "Too Rich To Be Poor -- Too Poor To Be Rich."

I help volunteer throughout our local community because someone is always trying to help Danielle with the little things in life that make a big difference in the day-to-day routine.

I continue to look for work that will help me one day again be head of the household and not a burden on the overwhelmed system.

Due to the money situation we are currently under we are afraid of losing our home to foreclosure. We've exhausted all of our savings and have borrowed against every credit card we have to keep the house and family together.

Due to our current financial situation I'm looking for help in all aspects of my daughter's future.

We need a good home to live in and a good mode of transportation. Our current van is 13 years old. We have replaced the motor twice and we're almost losing the transmission.

I'm looking for grants that might help with the financial burden that a handicap home and vehicle put a struggling family under.

Danielle will always have to have 24/7 care.

One of our local agencies advised us that if we were to be separated or divorced that Danielle could get better benefits.

But I guess I'm my father's, grandfather's and great grandfather's son -- I still believe the expression "Till Death Do Us Part and For Better Or For Worse."

Danielle is a very special part of my life and for that I will always try to give her the moon and stars above at any cost to me.