My Nonprofit Reviews

Our son is 21 months old, has Retinoblastoma, and 13q chromosome deletion, and we have used Miracle Flights organization twice for which we were grateful. I want to tell you about my experience with Rebecca Boyce because it seems like she was making things unnecessarily difficult for us to get help and I can't understand why. At first I thought that maybe she was having a bad day, but when I continued to have difficulties with her I decided to write a letter to the Board of Directors. I will give you some examples of the behavior I have experienced with her.

Originally, we were somewhat outside range of your financial maximums, but we were told by another associate that if we could show $4,700 in paid medical expenses we could still get covered. I forwarded multiple emails from hospitals and physicians to the email address on your website, but they were lost because that email address wasn't working. I was told to send them to Rebecca, which I did. As I reviewed one of these documents with Rebecca she said to me this was not added up and I can't believe I have to add all this up. I felt that this was very inconsiderate of her. She's did not consider how I felt that our son was in the doctor or hospital every week for a year but only about how inconvenient it was for her to add up the all the individual $20 and $40 charges. I said I'm sorry and that I can look at it, but when I pulled it up I saw that it was actually added up in different sections; what I paid and what insurance paid. She just didn't understand it. We were accepted and out flight was booked. We were grateful.

The next month, we requested another flight to NYC for my son, my husband and myself. I had a letter from my sons pediatrician in Denver, and one doctor in NYC that my son would see. My son sees 2 doctors in NYC. Rebecca said the letters must have the exact dates to book our flights and include all doctors. I begged Rebecca to book the reservation because of the extra expense our family would incur if we weren't able to book the flight two weeks in advance, but she said we had to wait for a letter from the third doctor. This was the week of hurricane Sandy, and NYC was in a state of emergency, so it was a lot to ask of the medical staff who had not even been able to return to work at that point. She said that this was policy no exceptions. Rebecca finally received the letter from the third doctor made out to Footprints instead Miracle Flights, so she called and threatened to cancel me. I tried to explain to her that I had requested help from Footprints in the past so it was just a simple mistake by the doctors office, and I would get it fixed. We needed to book the flight for my daughter during Thanksgiving week as well because she is 4 years old and would need to be with us on the flight. So I ended up booking a flight for my daughter in hopes that one of us could get on the flight with her. The extra expense we had to pay was around $150.

Rebecca did not follow the letter from the doctors this time because she booked our flights for Friday at my request. Unless I am misunderstanding something, this proves that she did not really need exact dates and therefore unnecessarily caused me extra grief and expense.

On the day of travel Thanksgiving week, she calls my husband John because she received an email from Frontier airlines that had a different confirmation code and she tried to look it up but couldn't. My husband was driving and passed me the phone and I told her we were in route to the airport and I would have to call her back. We arrived at Ronald McDonald house Monday night. Tuesday my son had an exam under anesthesia and he was very sick afterwards. Wednesday he had his Intra-Arterial Chemo surgery. She knew all of this because it was in the letter that I was required to submit.

Knowing all of this, she called again Wednesday. I told her that we were having IAC and she had been rude and inconsiderate, I was tired of it, and I wanted her supervisor's name. The doctor arrived and I said I had to go, but she continued on, saying that she was not harassing me but that I said I would call her back and I didn't. She did not give me her supervisor's name. I finally hung up.

I'm not sure if you know what its like with a disabled child and one with cancer in addition. The level of exhaustion, pain and suffering you see and feel in your family is tremendous, and the financial strain of cancer for us is huge. We stay at the Ronald McDonald house and we have to pay for it. I am separated from my daughter and spouse every month. It looks as if we'll be doing this for at least the next year, because they do not do this type of surgery in Colorado.

Rebecca's negative behavior has been ongoing. I've bit my lip because my son needs the help, but is this it? Rebecca, who is in this position to help suffering families, behaves in this manner and frequently. Do I need to continue being subjected to this when requesting help?
I've received help in the past from Angel Flight Central receiving vouchers on Southwest airlines. There was not this type of drama and they had empathy and respect. In addition, the airlines knew why we were traveling and gave us priority boarding and free baggage. We have flown twice with Corporate Angels and they have been very kind and accommodating.

These other corporations operate differently and corporate angels is infrequent. I need help and I need to get it from wherever I can and it seems that you can help us.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We'd also appreciate your prayers.

Andrea
Mother of Madeleine and Alexander

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