Hey everyone, this is my first post here- so hopefully I'm going about this right. Condensing the story as much as possible, 14 days ago my fiance had surgery to repair his fractured c7 vertebrae after an accident on the beach. A week and three different hospitals later he was home with pain meds and orders to see his family physician for follow up.

He is almost 22 years old and has not had a regular family physician since becoming an adult and losing health coverage. He has no insurance. So we went to a clinic to figure out where to go next since he only has pain prescriptions for two weeks post release from hospital.

The clinic doctor immediately turned us away and said to go to a local ED and take advantage of their charity care. Having just returned from the ED, with instructions to schedule a meeting with the Neurosurgery department at the same hospital we are now concerned that the pain medications will run out before we find another doctor willing and able to take on his continued care.

What are our options from here? the accident happened out of state and returning to the original hospital for follow up in not a viable option. How do we get him the care he needs from the proper physicians without racking up medical bills we will never be able to pay off?

Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated. I just want him to have the pain management that he needs, the finances of it all being a very secondary concern on my part.

Jess from NJ