TAMPA, Fla. — Playing outside in the yard with the little ones these days is a moment of reprieve for Ramonita Garvin.
"I just want to get my husband home and my family back together," Romanita said.
Her husband is Phillip Garvin.
Garvin is a retired Hillsborough County detention officer who has battled serious health issues these past four years.
A stroke paralyzed him a few years ago, but he was able to regain mobility.
As Covid-19 made its presence known around the country, Phillip fell victim. He was placed in ICU at Tampa General for 46 days.
"When he was at Tampa General they didn't give us like any hope for him because based on all their imaging and what they had at the time he wasn't expected to make it," Ramonita said.
Phillip miraculously recovered only to find out he had a brain tumor last month while visiting family in New York.
"At Franklin they uncovered this massive tumor that no one knew about," Ramonita said.
Phillip had an emergency craniotomy. Before he was set to go into surgery, he once again tested positive for Covid-19.
“Day three was the worst day because that is the day when the calls started coming that he was being discharged," Romanita said.
Hospital discharge papers showed Phillip was cleared to be released from the hospital, but because his Medicaid was out of state it would not pay for his physical therapy even though it's recommended in the paperwork.
As for his medications post surgery, Ramonita said those are costing close to $2,000 dollars and that's just for two.
A representative with Patient Rights Advocate, a non-profit organization that works in the health insurance realm said standard Medicare has its own set of rules and doesn't follow the typical insurance standards that are seen with typical agencies.
That is putting families like Ramonita's in a panic to find ways to pay for it all.
“Financially it is harder than what we thought," Ramonita said.
Phillip hasn't been cleared to fly and financial circumstances are making it difficult for Romanita and her family to bring him home to Florida.
Her 13-year-old daughter has started a GoFundMe page to help in hopes of bringing her dad home.
“All she knows is her dad. That’s her hero and it’s been very difficult without him," Romanita said. “My daughter went back to school today and it was bittersweet because dad wasn’t here to send her off and when I dropped her off we stood there crying you know like don’t worry, you’re going to have a good day. He’s going to see you. I’m going to send him a picture. He is going to be home soon.”
To help Romanita and her family visit their GoFundMe.
