PICU Mom Opens Up About the 'Huge Burden' of 6-Week-Old's $31K Medical Debt as the Bills 'Just Keep Coming' (Exclusive)
Mallory Rose posted asking TikTokers to watch her video to help pay off her newborn's medical debt and was touched by the response she received
Mallory Rose/Tiktok
Mallory Rose (right) with her husband, daughter, and 6-week-old HadleyA Texas woman is experiencing mounting debt after three Pediatric ICU stays with her infant daughter
Mallory Rose shared a video on TikTok following a popular trend, hoping that it would help with her daughter’s growing medical bills, which currently sit at at least $31,000
Now, she’s encouraging others to reach out for help when they’re faced with hardship
When Mallory Rose, a stay-at-home mom of two from Texas, was faced with mounting medical bills just six weeks after giving birth to her daughter, she took to TikTok for help.
Posting a TikTok on Nov. 18, Rose followed a popular trend on the app, which encourages users to watch a video long enough to be monetized. Rose's post showing her holding her infant daughter, Hadley, in the hospital, has since garnered more than 217,000 likes, and 17,000 comments.
“Overwhelming and exhausting are the first two words that come to mind,” Rose tells PEOPLE while describing the past several weeks of medical scares, doctor’s visits and Pediatric ICU stays with her daughter, Hadley.
“We were admitted [to the hospital] three different times after our newborn’s heart rate and oxygen dropped dangerously low in the emergency department,” she continues, adding, “It took so many tests, studies and scans to figure out what was going on.”
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Hadley was experiencing desaturation: a lack of oxygen causing her to turn blue and stop breathing, requiring stimulation to start breathing again. Rose explains that, after their first four-day stay, they were discharged with no answers as to why her daughter’s oxygen and heart rate were dropping. Rose felt a sense of unease upon returning home, and Hadley continued to have episodes.
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Days later, Hadley was readmitted to the hospital and eventually diagnosed with an impetigo infection and a rare complication called Staph Scalded Skin Syndrome (SSSS). Doctors believed that the desaturation episodes Hadley was experiencing were a result of her body fighting off the infection. After more than one week of observation, she was discharged from the hospital under this assumption.
Mallory Rose/Tiktok
Mallory Rose's oldest with her 6-week-old Hadley in the hospitalUnfortunately, Hadley had to be admitted to the hospital for a third time. After a sleep test, the then-6-week-old was also diagnosed with Central Sleep Apnea, a sleep disorder that, according to The Mayo Clinic, occurs when the “brain doesn’t send the proper signals to the muscles that control breathing."
“We were sent home with home health services, on oxygen and 24/7 monitoring at home,” Rose explains. “In addition to this, we are also being closely followed by an immunology specialist in Fort Worth due to a suspected immunodeficiency.” They are awaiting a diagnosis while completing lab work and genetic testing, though they are home now.
Despite the PICU experience feeling “draining,” and “the most helpless I’ve ever felt as a mom,” Rose gives kudos to “the nurses and staff who made it all so much easier.” She shares, “We had incredible nurses. They cared for us so well and showed so much compassion towards us.”
Rose tells PEOPLE that, while they haven’t received all of the bills from their hospital stays yet, their numbers are already totaling up to $31,000. “We are working with our insurance to ask all of the relevant coverage questions and review the itemized bills, but they just keep coming,” she shares.
Because Hadley’s condition and treatment prevent her from being able to go to daycare, Rose — who is also mom to an 8-year-old daughter — can’t yet return to work. “Now, more than ever, with the hospital bills piling up, our debt to income is a huge burden," she adds.
That’s why she turned to TikTok. “While in the hospital I was [racking] my brain on how in the world I could bring in some money and pay our incoming medical bills while staying home with a medically complex child. I remembered I had seen videos posted with the 'pay off my debt' trend and hashtag. I had liked, commented and reposted so many of those videos," she explains.
Mallory Rose/Tiktok
Mallory Rose's 6-week-old HadleyRose shares that she asked her husband what he thought about participating in the trend, and they both decided to try it. Though Rose says that “it is very misleading that one viral video will monetize,” she shares that “posting [the] video did more than [she] could have ever imagined.”
“Thousands of people sent well wishes, let us know they were praying for us and sympathized with us knowing the financial burden it can be to be hospitalized like this. Knowing that thousands of people were praying for us really pulled me out of the trenches I felt like we were in.”
Unfortunately, Rose was unable to monetize the viral video, though it’s set up a new avenue for her to earn an income to make progress on the bills piling up. Her account now has close to 6,000 followers, giving her the opportunity to monetize her content through TikTok shop.
"I’m going to try like heck to make that happen so that I can continue being a stay-at-home mom and start paying some of these medical bills," she says.
But even if the video’s virality doesn’t result in extra income, she says the warm responses she received from viewers are plenty.
“Just knowing that 150,000-plus people liked the video in hopes of helping and over 10,000 people commented to do the same? It leaves me speechless.”
Read the original article on People
