'I don't wish this on anyone'
SOUTH LOOP | Stuck in health insurance gap, attack victim now faces big medical bills
Jen Hall has suffered from one cold in the last two decades, so she wasn't worried that her new job didn't offer health insurance during a three-month probationary period.
But a random attack outside a South Loop grocery store in August left her dealing with several serious medical issues, including a brain injury, seizures and 20 knocked-out teeth.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
Hall and her fiance also are struggling with the nightmare of tremendous bills they cannot pay, showing just how vulnerable those without medical coverage can be.
Nearly 47 million Americans do not have health insurance, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. Twenty percent of the uninsured, like Hall, are employed.
"It's the most horrific and terrorizing thing that has ever happened to me," Hall said. "I don't wish this on anyone."
On Aug. 25, Hall and her boyfriend, Joe Hoffman, had just finished celebrating her 36th birthday at a South Loop bar near their home. She said they stopped at Jewel, on Roosevelt Road near Wabash Avenue, to buy food for their cats Stoinkie and Doobie.
The last thing she remembers is someone asking Hoffman for a cigarette as they walked home.
She woke up three days later, learning she underwent brain surgery and had been in a medically induced coma. Her long hair was gone, her head shaved bald. She lost all but six teeth.
Arrested in the attack and charged with aggravated battery and robbery were Joyce Burgess, 38, and Derrick King, 46. King is accused of throwing Hall to the ground and beating her on the head as Hoffman struggled to stop him.
Police said Burgess and King were homeless. Both are in Cook County Jail, held on $500,000 bonds, and expected to appear in court today.
Hall and Hoffman planned to marry three months after the attack. With the marriage, she would have had health insurance through Hoffman's job.
Hall had been scheduled to qualify for insurance with her new employer, a restaurant where she worked as a manager, five weeks after she was attacked. Now attending rehabilitation three times a week, she was told she wouldn't be able to work for at least six months.
Now, the mailman brings a steady stream of enormous bills, Hoffman said.
"They're not fun to open," he said. "We've received more than $100,000 worth of bills as of now, and there are still more to come."
Hall's prescription anti-seizure medicine costs $250 for a month's supply, he said. She's on other prescription medicine as well.
Despite the incident, Hall and Hoffman both said they haven't soured on the South Loop. They also said the incident made them realize how much they love each other.
"It kind of opens your eyes to what you really want out of life," Hall said. "Now figure out what you really want out of life and go do it because one day, God forbid, you could be walking to your grocery store and it's all over."
For more information on Hall or ways to help, visit www.thewalking miracle.com.