EVERETT — Chronic medical needs can be a huge financial burden even in the best of circumstances.
For Angel and Desiree Gomez-Perez and their 5-year-old daughter, Maya, who has cerebral palsy, the struggle can seem insurmountable.
Earlier this year, they began the process of shopping for a wheelchair-accessible van, but everything they looked at was too expensive.
They had Maya while they were both in school in Southern California. Desiree had to drop out to take care of Maya — she requires feeding through a tube every two hours — while Angel graduated and went to work in aircraft maintenance, initially at Paine Field and now for Alaska Airlines at Sea-Tac Airport.
But they have student loans, a one-family income and thousands of dollars in medical expenses not covered by insurance on top of their regular expenses.
Maya, a cute little moppet with a big smile, was diagnosed at the age of 8 months after she was hospitalized for whooping cough. She also had a stroke at age 2 that requires her to use the feeding tube.
She recently underwent hip surgery and the family hopes she’ll eventually learn how to walk.
All the family had to get around in was a Toyota Tacoma pickup, and going anywhere meant putting Maya’s wheelchair into the bed and buckling their daughter into a child’s car seat.
Going for drives at night in the rain was one of Maya’s favorite activities, Angel said. It never failed to put her to sleep.
Then one time the car seat got caught on Maya’s feeding tube, pulling it out of her stomach.
“That day we were going to the aquarium, and wound up in the emergency room,” Desiree Gomez-Perez said.
They realized they had to get a wheelchair van.
On Tuesday, the family got a big hand up in the form of a gift. They’d finally bought a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan from Access Mobility Systems on Evergreen Way.
It cost $33,000, and they’d gotten the least expensive version, with a manually operated wheelchair ramp. By comparison, a new fully automated Honda Odyssey conversion retails for $64,000, said Dale Richardson, the owner of Access Mobility.
“These things are not cheap,” Richardson said.
The nonprofit Washington Access Fund, a Seattle organization that helps finance vehicle and other assistive technology purchases, helped them obtain a loan for the van.
But the real help was a surprise to the Gomez-Perezes. Vantage Mobility International, the Phoenix- based company that manufactures wheelchair conversion kits for auto makers, gave the family a check for nearly $17,100 Monday, covering the full $14,000 cost of the conversion plus an additional $3,000 to use for whatever the family wants or needs.
The gift was part of the company’s “Dare to Compare” sweepstakes. The Gomez-Perezes won because they clearly had an extreme need and a limited budget, VMI’s marketing director Penny Malone said.
The couple teared up when they saw the check.
Angel, who arrived at AMS following a 10-hour graveyard shift at Sea-Tac, said that it would be a tremendous help.
And they’ll all be able to rest a bit easier knowing getting Maya into and out of the van isn’t a hazard.
“It still works, going for a drive on a rainy night and rocking her to sleep,” Angel said. “She likes the rain.”
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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