Medical Expenses Top $70,000 for O'Dowd Student Injured in Italy

Maya Payne-Schomaker's "back-up plan" is a career in Broadway musicals — her first choice is a gig on the Disney Channel.

Both dreams are on hold for the moment, as the musically talented Montclair teen recovers from multiple fractures suffered when she fell 20 feet onto a concrete patio at a northern Italian hotel.

Her family, meanwhile, is wrestling with how to repay more than $70,000 in medical expenses that aren't covered by their U.S. health insurance. Medical transport from Mantua, a town near Verona, to Children's Hospital in Oakland accounts for most of the uncovered expenses. The final bill from the Mantua hospital has still to arrive.

How It Happened

In late June, Maya was looking forward to starting her sophomore year at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland this fall. During the summer, she expected to tour Italy with her singing group, the Young Women's Chorus of San Francisco.

It was the first European tour for the chorus, started just a year ago by Susan McMane, the former artistic director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus. And it was the first night in Italy for the chorus members, who hadn't yet performed there.

Maya stepped out of her hotel window onto what she thought was a balcony. It was, instead, a glass skylight, which broke, plunging Maya to the ground. The accident left her with cuts and a pelvis broken in four places.

The 15-year-old was taken to a hospital in Mantua, a one-time Etruscan village that was a major art center by Renaissance times. (Romeo was banished to Mantua in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.) Today it is a small city of roughly 50,000 population.

That history didn't mean much to Maya as Mantua physicians controlled her internal bleeding and kept her flat on her back in bed while they considered surgery for her fractures. They ultimately estimated that Maya needed to five to six weeks confined to bed — essentially unmoving — before starting physical therapy.

Maya's mother, Linda Schomaker, flew to Italy immediately. She soon decided that Maya needed American medical treatment and began exploring options to get her daughter home.

Flying Home

Air transport back to California was "a nightmare," says Linda.

The ordeal included three ambulance rides and two flights aboard Lufthansa Airlines, which removed seats from two planes to accommodate Maya flying while lying down. Additional costs included Linda's air fare and a round-trip ticket for a required medical escort, an American EMT.

This week, just four days after the return from italy, Maya's half of a shared room at Children's Hospital in Oakland was crowded with famiiy, friends and hospital staff members as the injured teen sat propped up in bed. 

Maya had stood up for the first time — although she couldn't actually bear her own weight — and a physical therapist stopped by to discuss practicing some daily chores like showering and dressing. Another hospital staffer had brought in a keyboard for musical therapy.

Bishop O'Dowd's principal, Pam Shay, had dropped by earlier to say hello and assure Maya and her family that the private Oakland high school would do everything possible to smooth her return for the fall term.

A friend who is also a member of the Young Women's Chorus, Megan Pendleton, visited, and the two girls giggled amid a clutter of iPhones and stuffed animals on the hospital bed. 

Linda and Maya's second mom, Hazel Payne, fielded media questions and consulted with hospital staff about plans to bring Maya home very soon — possibly this week.

Maya, who remained cheerful throughout the bustle, said she's most looking forward to coming home and sleeping in her own bed. A little further in the future, she wants to continue auditioning for singing and acting roles in Los Angeles, where she has an agent.

How You Can Help

While Maya's parents are delighted with her progress, they are also worried. Linda was recently hired as a consultant with PG&E after 16 months of joblessness. Hazel, a human resources compensation specialist, was laid off from her job and is hunting for a new position. Neither has health insurance that covers medical expenses in a foreign country — or the high cost of medical air transport.

A first step was signing up with GiveForward.com, a website that specializes in helping people collect donations for medical, veterinary and funeral expenses. That chore was handled largely by friends.

Maya's section of the website gives updates on her condition and shows that donations to date have reached almost $21,000 of the $70,000 goal. Linda said that donations have ranged from a few dollars to two large anonymous gifts. Another donor, a stranger to the family, simply showed up at Children's Hospital and wrote out a check.

"We're so grateful to everyone who has contributed," Linda said.

Medical transportation costs of about $48,000 had to be paid immediately. Friends and acquaintances pitched in with loans — many financed quickly via credit cards — to enable Maya to fly back to California. A large chunk of any donations will go toward repaying those people.

Maya's parents still don't know the full cost of the medical care she received in Italy, but it's likely, of course, to be expensive.

You can donate toward Maya's transportation and care at the GiveForward.com site here.

Also coming up — a fundraiser concert featuring Bay Area musicians, probably in late August or early September. What's needed most at the moment is a suitable venue for the concert. Anyone who can help arrange a venue is asked to email information to hazel.payne@comcast.net.

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