Imagine for a moment if your dad, an otherwise normally healthy individual, suddenly became desperately ill.

The only thing you’d want is for the miracle working doctors and nurses to do their thing and make him better. You certainly don’t want to be thinking about finances. Yet inevitably, you will have to face the enormous financial implications of a major illness. The sad fact of the matter is that illness and medical bills are the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the United States…and most of the people bankrupted by illness have insurance! That’s clearly insane – but a topic for another day.

The father of our good friend and fellow blogger, Miranda (Keeper of the Cheerios), was recently hospitalized with ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) which in his case was caused by severe pneumonia brought on by a common cold. He has miraculously made it through and is on the slow road to recovery. But he and his family need our help financially.

The Financial Implications of Hospitalization are Almost Scarier than Being Sick

Miranda posted about the financial toll recently.

It’s been emotionally exhausting for my mother as well as she tries to keep things together and manage a household while worrying about my dad… she also worries about their financial future as the enormous medical bills are already beginning to roll in and the soon-to-be major cut-backs in their paychecks while taking in short term disability. Soon after their troubles really set in they’ll be considered long-term disability at which point the checks will become even less and they’ll lose their medical insurance unless they pay the enormous costs up front and my dad will officially be out of a job which he’s worked at for a really long time. Considering how much medical care my dad will still need for the months and years ahead of him this is extremely damaging financially for them. This all combined with the constant travel expenses for my mom to go be with my dad has been extremely overwhelming for her but my dad needs her too and doesn’t like to be alone.

Tomorrow, I’m asking all of our readers to forgo their usual lattes or other small indulgences and instead put that $5 towards a raffle ticket that will help Miranda’s dad and mom get back on their feet financially.

It’s such a tiny little thing that can make a huge difference in the lives of another family.

To help with the cost of his medical care and living expenses during his recovery, the gold mine that he works for has generously donated a laptop for their family to raffle off. Here are the details on the laptop –

* Dell Inspiron 17 Laptop
* 17.3″ Widescreen Display
* Intel Core Processor I3
* 4 GB Memory
* 500 gb Hard Drive
* dvd +/- RW Drive

The raffle tickets are 6 for $5. If you would like a chance to win the laptop just use that Chip In widget below and in exchange for your donation you will receive entries into the raffle. The laptop winner will be selected on May 2nd – so don’t delay!

Let’s see if we can raise a total of $1,000 in $5 or $10 increments!

Click on the link below to donate. If you’re a blogger yourself, consider posting this story on your own blog and encouraging your own readers to pay it forward too.