When I got home I reached out to my boss and I told him what happened . He said , “ I ’ m sorry Dave , I didn ’ t get the paperwork submitted .” SO I get $ 28,000 in medical bills rolling in . I ’ m 23 years old and living on my own with no way to pay bills like this . Dan Colby reached out to see what he could do to help . I was sponsored by Air America at the time and it was their air system . Dan felt really bad about what happened .
I never wanted to take money from anybody . That ’ s not who I was . But in talking with Dan he was able to leverage his insurance to get me a check . It was $ 10,000 but after all of the fees and lawyers it ended up being about $ 6,000 to pay a
$ 29,000 bill . But I can ’ t thank Dan enough for pushing and pushing for something to help . It took me several years to pay off that bill . Sometimes all I could do was do $ 5 per bill , and so I just kept going so they couldn ’ t send me to collections .
A lot of people ask me , you know , any issues with the hand today ? I get a lot of numbness , especially in that middle finger . I probably say that two fingers to each side of it or are pretty numb as well . I ’ ve smashed them a few times working and I really don ’ t even feel it . And then it ’ s even worse in winter time when it ’ s really cold .
But I still got full use of them , thank God . It was quite an experience .
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