CAMERON, Texas (KWTX) – Charles Weaks, 73, now struggles to pay his medical bills after battling health issues for more than 40 years.
“I got to pay and pay and pay,” Weaks said, describing his daily reality of managing a serious bone infection that requires constant medical attention.
Weaks has a PICC line running through his heart and connects IV bags four times daily to fight the infection. Without this treatment, he faces a potentially fatal outcome.
“If they don’t keep this bone infection under control, I could get sepsis,” Weaks said. “A lot of people pass away from sepsis.”
Weaks’ health problems began in 1981 when he fell 35 feet off an oil rig in Caldwell, Texas. The accident left him with devastating injuries.
“I had a ruptured spleen, tore pancreas, liver. And I had six broken ribs and bruised continuously all through my insides,” he said.
Since the accident, Weaks has endured blood clots, leg ulcers and eventually required a triple bypass surgery. He hasn’t been able to work since the mid-1980s and relies on Social Security disability payments.
His medical expenses cost hundreds of dollars every month, creating a financial burden that exceeds his income.
“My expenses are larger than the income,” Weaks said. “Insurance covers some things, but they don’t cover everything.”
The financial pressure intensified last July when Weaks lost his wife. Her Social Security check provided $1,100 monthly that the couple depended on to cover expenses.
“When you lose $1,100 a month and nothing to replace it, that’s what’s hard,” he said.
Weaks now faces additional medical procedures, including an angiogram to check blood flow in his legs. His doctors say he may also need hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which would require six weeks of daily trips to Harker Heights for treatment.
“It’s 52 miles. So it’s 104 miles a day for six weeks if I start that,” Weaks said.
As expenses continued mounting, Weaks’ daughter and granddaughter started a GoFundMe campaign in his name. The response surprised him, particularly support from strangers.
“It’s the poor people and the ones that are getting by are the ones that donate, which I think that’s really something,” he said. “Some of them are friends and neighbors and some of them are people never heard of before.”
Despite the community support, Weaks faces a potential heartbreaking decision if bills continue piling up: selling his home of 45 years.
“If anything ever happened like that, and worst comes to worst, you do have your home, you could sell, but I don’t want to sell it at all,” he said. “Because that’s where we raised our kids for all these years and you just don’t want to sell it.”
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