ESL teacher in need of help

[alibuch]

This is VERY off topic for this site but since everyone here is so generous and caring I thought I would post it anyway.

William Kapoun was an ESL teacher here and despite the requirement for everyone to have health insurance, he didn't. A few days ago his apartment caught on fire and he was severely burned (2nd-3rd degree burns over 70% of his body). There is a KB bank account set up to accept donations. There is more about the story in the links I'll post below. They're anticipating $100,000 in bills before they can even fly him back to the US to finish surgeries.

http://www.billkapoun.com

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/03/113_20066.html

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8730028742

There is a facebook group to keep up with updates about his surgeries and stuff. The KB bank account info is listed in the facebook group but for those who aren't on facebook here's the account info:

KB Bank
794002 04 03 1635
Warren Franklin-William Fund

[pukka]

If he needs imidiate help his Embassy should help him and worry about
the bills later.I hope he thought about getting help there,this is a
circumstance that needs direct help.
I hope they will collect enough to help him out.

[alibuch]

Well, I think he's in a chemically induced coma so there isn't a whole lot HE can do. The US Embassy has already been contacted and they're helping his family get a lawyer to take care of this mess. Regardless... they need a lot of help with bills.

[Ryan]

You would think they can sue the school he was working at for refusing to get health insurance. Hmmmm....I hope he is ok, and he will be in my thoughts.

[alibuch]

Well, I think the thing was that he was working for an after-school program at a public school which isn't full-time hours... because of that, they didn't have to give him insurance. He could've gotten private insurance on his own... one of my friends has done that as well.

His sister made an update and said they raised $18,000 plus 11,000euros since Sunday so it's definitely a good start. There's about 2700 people alone on the facebook group and someone pointed out if all those people donated $60 then it would be $130,000... enough to cover his medical expenses here.

I know some people are trying to get their companies to match donations and such. Unfortunately, I work at a hagwon and besides spreading the word about what happened, there's nothing much else I can do for donations (aside from what I donate). My hagwon is cheap and in the ghetto. haha

[luvadog]

Thank you for keeping this posted. How is he doing? Anyone know? This is why we need insurance and I'm selling my motorcycle because my director has refused to get mine in 5 months, even though it's in the contract. And they wonder why I wanted a release letter! I hope I can donate even in a small way.

[alibuch]

You can get private insurance here. One of my friends has it. She said it's not too expensive either.

Bill is responding well to treatments but it's still a critical time. A hospital in the States has offered to pay for all of Bill's treatments so his parents are trying to get him on a medical flight home Monday.They took out a HUGE loan from the US Embassy. They've raised $41,000 in the States, 11,000euros from friends in Germany and they haven't calculated everything in Korea.

It's great to see people rallying together for such a great cause.
His mother has expressed concern over him getting proper counseling when he comes out of the coma because he was SUCH an attractive guy it's going to be hard for him to deal with what he looks like now...

[alibuch]

Update:

Bill passed away last night/early this morning.

[luvadog]

I only read about this the other day but I broke down when I got your post about his passing. He absolutely stole my heart and I wanted to help so bad. Now his family must be in tremendous grief. They are in my thoughts and prayers. I'm in shock.

[alibuch]

Well I think his family still needs donations to help pay for the medical expenses so you could always help in that way. I know there's still some fundraisers being organized at bars and such.
Yeah... it's so strange to so emotionally attached to someone I've never met but I cried when I heard of his passing. He would have had such a long, horribly hard road to any semblance of recovery though so maybe this is for the best. *shrug* It's hard to say that but I'm sure the suffering that comes with burns this bad is immense.

[luvadog]

Yes, I know personally the pain. Half my face had 2nd and 3rd degree burns from my radiator in 1986. I was living with three sisters at the time and two were nurses. Connie was home and Rita was at the hospital When the radiator exploded in my face, I ran into the basement bathroom screaming for Connie, splashing cold water on it. When I looked in the mirror, there were bubbles and I touched my nose and the flesh fell off. Connie said don't touch it and got some ice and rushed me to Rita's hospital where they said to take me to the burn center. On the way, I kept saying "Hurt-hurt-hurry" and held the ice pack on my face. Ice is the only thing to help the pain. When they got me there, they first rushed me to the eye doctor. The pain had subsided and they had another emergency with someone with glass in the eyes and I said ok and waited on the table and watched as he was checked. Then he looked into my eye and just said "Thank God! You blinked." Evidently, if it had touched my eyeball, I would have lost my cornea. They sent me home and said to put Neosporin on it 2 times a day. They said not to sleep with my face on the pillow because it would stick to my face. But I did more. I set my alarm for each hour and dobbed off the liquid oozing out of the pores on half my face. The liquid is supposed to dry and make a scab but I didn't let it. After washing each time, I put on more Neosporin...every hour. After 4 days of doing that day and night, it was all pink after the skin came off. But a week later, there was only pink that I could cover with make-up. A year later you couldn't even tell I had been burned. It was really a miracle.

[alibuch]

Wow. That's amazing that you have no scars or anything.