CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — 29-year-old Charea Armstrong is a woman with nowhere to go, literally. She is stuck in bed and in need of physical rehabilitation.
It all started with a thyroid problem that essentially made her immobile, and her insurance company is giving her a lot of push back on what they won’t pay for.
We call it Rejected from Rehab. What you are about to see is reality, a Chesapeake family and health care in America.
She lays in a bed at Sentara Norfolk General, time ticking by. Charea stares at the ceiling, the TV. She’s trapped in her body. She’s in there. She’s thinking. She’s hopeful.
“I have a bright future, and I want to be positive about my situation, and hope for the best,” she says with slow deliberate delivery.
Charea had a good job. She was an auto claims adjuster for Progressive.
She was on vacation in New Orleans when tragedy struck March 20, 2018. “I had called an Uber to go the airport to take a flight home … I collapsed, and don’t remember anything after that.”
When Charea woke up she was in hospital on a ventilator, expected to die. It was disconnected, but Charea lived.
“I asked if I could walk and they said ‘no you can’t.’ I said what do you mean? I woke up and didn’t know what happened.”
Charea suffered an attack from an untreated overactive thyroid, then went into cardiac arrest with insufficient oxygen levels for about 40 minutes. That caused some brain damage, which caused mobility issues. Charea can’t walk and has limited arm movement, but she is not paralyzed. We asked her about her situation.
There is a long silence, tears drop down her cheek, “I’m sorry.” Silence again, and a hand enters the camera frame to wipe away the tears. It is her Aunt Tonnica Armstrong, who is indeed an angel on earth.
She paid $6,000 to Angel Med Flight to fly Charea back to Tonnica’s Chesapeake home. “I wasn’t going to leave here there abandoned. I had to do something,” Tonnica said.
Charea has more to say, “It’s shocking to go from a normal life, walking, working to just being in the hospital and not being mobile.
It is very hard to take in. I hope this gets better for me, and helps other people,” Tonnica adds, looking at Charea, who is staring up at the ceiling. “She had a great zest for life, and she is crying because it has been so difficult for her to get assistance and to have a place to stay.”
Charea has lived in Tonnica’s living room since August because she claims no skilled rehabilitation or nursing center will take her, even though they pay $800 a month for COBRA insurance, and she’s on Medicaid.
Tonnica shared their dilemma, “With the insurance companies, how is she supposed to get better if no one is willing to help her?”
Tonnica’s fighting a system that is fighting back against her. “This is a list of all the nursing homes and rehabs here in the Tidewater area that takes her insurance, and they have all told me no.”
Tonnica as Charea’s primary caregiver says she gets the run around, dead ends, transferred calls, frustration. “They say she doesn’t qualify for skilled rehabilitation because her original prognosis was she would not progress. She would be a vegetable is what we were told originally,” Tonnica said.
So Tonnica called 10 On Your Side, and we started working the phone. Tonnica told us, “I called you because no one seems to have any answers, so now we are starting to get answers thanks to 10 On Your Side.”
We called Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital, and we are told two case workers are now evaluating Charea for possible admittance.
Charea is now in Sentara Norfolk General due to intestinal blockage. While we were there on Monday, an EVMS doctor and student came in and started to look at her arms, hands, and legs.
Tonnica says we need to get Charea the health care she needs.
“I need her to get physical therapy, and get the therapy I know she needs. She needs the occupational therapy, and I need the help I need.” Tonnica is a business owner, and is stressed too.
“She is in my living room. She gets a sponge bath. My house is in no way handicapped accessible. The hallways are small and she can’t really get out of bed without moving furniture. What I want is for her to go into a facility that will help her have some quality of life. That’s what I pray for her … I think the longer she stays stagnant and the longer she goes without getting the proper physical therapy, the less her chances are of making a full recovery.”
We met with Tonnica and Charea on Monday May 20. On Thursday, we got a positive update.
“Since Monday she has been evaluated by the physical medicine and rehabilitation team at EVMS. We are hoping she will be accepted in their skilled rehabilitation facility.”
“I pray for strength for myself and my family and for my caregivers, and I pray for other people who have disabilities and health issues,” Charea said. “I am so appreciative to my aunt for all she has done.”
There’s hopeful news that Charea will get the rehabilitation she needs. After all she was supposed to die, but lives. She was told she would never talk, but she talks indeed, and hopefully one day she walks again, too.
