Man Tries To Rob Bank To Pay For Daughter's Chemo

[IIOY]

link

SOUTH LYON, Mich. (WXYZ) - The family of 23-year-old Brian Randolph says the only reason the Oakland County man robbed a bank was to pay for his young daughter's chemo treatments.



Now, he's being held on $500,000 bond.



"He just asked me, when am I gonna get out of here. I said you may not get out of here," says Karri Mitchell, Randolph's attorney.



Randolph was arrested August 14th, two days after police say he robbed a Vibe Credit Union in South Lyon.



His one year old daughter's insurance was abruptly canceled, and with no money, his family says the desperate father tried robbing a bank.



His girlfriend tells 7 Action News, "I'm not sure what he was thinking at that point, but at the end of the day the only thing I can think about is him trying to take care of his child."



Brailynn Randolph goes to chemo every four weeks, as she battles retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer.



Police say surveillance photos show Randolph giving the teller a note, also indicating he had a gun on August 12th, but never showed one.



His aunt tells us, "The only thing he kept telling me is I want to be the man I'm supposed to be. I want to provide for my child."



Brailynn's mother told 7 Action News this afternoon that the insurance company finally called her back. She was told the insurance was canceled because she didn't renew the policy once Brailynn turned one.



She claims she wasn't aware that was necessary. She says she's still working on getting back coverage for Brailynn.



Randolph is expected back in court Wednesday morning for a preliminary hearing.



Brailynn's mother started a GoFundMe page last year after the diagnosis.

[sfy]

Dear God .

[Aquatica]

I feel for this family.

Brailynn's mother told 7 Action News this afternoon that the insurance company finally called her back. She was told the insurance was canceled because she didn't renew the policy once Brailynn turned one.

I wonder if the insurance company sent out notification of renewal? Seems a bit fishy to me. The way it's written makes it sound like the mother tried calling the insurance company and they never returned her call until now (news story).

[Kristinmo]

[ttt]

This country is fucked up.

[pixy0stix]

He shouldn't have tried to rob a bank. That being said, I wish he would have pulled it off.

[sangria]

How awful.

The little girl will still get chemo though right? I mean they will get billed for it and probably have to declare bankruptcy but it's not like they can deny her treatment.

If the answer is yes they can, just don't respond.

[penguingrrl]

I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in those circumstances. Fuck this country and our private insurance and bootstraps mentality. I hope this little girl gets the medical care she needs and a compassionate jury realizes that his only crime was the inability to pay for lifesaving medical care, which is not a crime at all.

[Miss Phryne Fisher]

Is Medicaid not an option here? I feel for the guy, I have a stack of chemo bills and it is not even over. I think I have cost my insurance well over $200,000 and I am not even done. Poor kid, what kind of desperation her dad must be in. (Anyone else thinking Jean ValJean here?) 

[orangeblossom]

A damn shame he felt he had to resort to that.

[EloiseWeenie]

While terrifying for the credit union employees, this story is so heartbreaking. People do really stupid things out of utter desperation.

[meshaliuknits]

It's a helluva place to be when robbing a bank seems like the most reasonable option you have.

[vlagrl]

I feel for the guy. Our insurance was cancelled with out anyone notifying us and we kept going to the doctor assuming we were covered. We went 2 months without insurance before we finally got on a new policy. Luckily we were all healthy but I told DH I would have hired an attorney if we were really sick or if I was pregnant. Still going thru the appeal process to backdate coverage so $2k of medical bills will be paid.

[twotrue]

How helpless one must feel to resort to that. :-(

[KateAggie]

Does Cali not have CHIP? Here in TX, every child can get insurance.

[oscarnerdjulief]

I know how I'm SUPPOSED to feel about this, but my husband's a bank teller, so... yeah. That's scary as hell.

[oscarnerdjulief]

Aug 27, 2015 12:16:40 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in those circumstances. Fuck this country and our private insurance and bootstraps mentality. I hope this little girl gets the medical care she needs and a compassionate jury realizes that his only crime was the inability to pay for lifesaving medical care, which is not a crime at all.

I guess I don't know where this little girl's medical care trumps my husband's right not to be terrorized at work.

This is pissing me off big-time, so I'm seeing myself out before I really go off.

[awick14]

Aug 27, 2015 15:00:59 GMT -5 oscarnerdjulief said:

Aug 27, 2015 12:16:40 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in those circumstances. Fuck this country and our private insurance and bootstraps mentality. I hope this little girl gets the medical care she needs and a compassionate jury realizes that his only crime was the inability to pay for lifesaving medical care, which is not a crime at all.

I guess I don't know where this little girl's medical care trumps my husband's right not to be terrorized at work.

This is pissing me off big-time, so I'm seeing myself out before I really go off.

I agree that your husbands life is important, and the girls life is important, one does not trump the other.

I can defiantly understand that the guy was very desperate and did what he thought he had to do, but at the same time I wish the states could figure out a different way for the medical system to be run so things like this don't happen any more.

[meshaliuknits]

Aug 27, 2015 13:50:38 GMT -5 KateAggie said:

Does Cali not have CHIP? Here in TX, every child can get insurance.

Oakland County, not city. This was in Michigan.


But, yes, we have CHIP.

[penguingrrl]

Aug 27, 2015 15:00:59 GMT -5 oscarnerdjulief said:

Aug 27, 2015 12:16:40 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in those circumstances. Fuck this country and our private insurance and bootstraps mentality. I hope this little girl gets the medical care she needs and a compassionate jury realizes that his only crime was the inability to pay for lifesaving medical care, which is not a crime at all.

I guess I don't know where this little girl's medical care trumps my husband's right not to be terrorized at work.

This is pissing me off big-time, so I'm seeing myself out before I really go off.

I was a bank teller for a bit, so I do understand the fear there. We spent a full day of training learning what to do and what not to do in the event we were robbed and the stats surrounding armed robbery were terrifying (I was at Citibank and anyone I met who had been with the bank over a year had experienced at least o e robbery)

I can still understand the desperation this father felt to do that. And am angry at living in a system where that seems like the only viable option. it's more proof that we need a universal system to ensure that even if there's a job loss or other major life event someone won't have to take drastic measures to get life-saving care.

[iammalcolmx]

He must have been so desperate. Yes, we are fucked up indeed.

[kirra]

Aug 27, 2015 12:14:16 GMT -5 sangria said:

How awful.

The little girl will still get chemo though right? I mean they will get billed for it and probably have to declare bankruptcy but it's not like they can deny her treatment.

If the answer is yes they can, just don't respond.

There are more government options for children.

For adults, you can get emergency treatment through the ER with no insurance, but it can be very difficult to get other treatment. The more expensive it is, the harder it is to get it covered. Ex: to self pay an mri I have to pay before they'll do the mri. It may be different for chemo. I've only done things like mris and bone density scans self pay.

[aurora]

Aug 27, 2015 15:00:59 GMT -5 oscarnerdjulief said:

Aug 27, 2015 12:16:40 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in those circumstances. Fuck this country and our private insurance and bootstraps mentality. I hope this little girl gets the medical care she needs and a compassionate jury realizes that his only crime was the inability to pay for lifesaving medical care, which is not a crime at all.

I guess I don't know where this little girl's medical care trumps my husband's right not to be terrorized at work.

This is pissing me off big-time, so I'm seeing myself out before I really go off.

I don't think most of us were saying he was right, exactly, but that we're furious about having a system where he felt that was his best option for getting life-saving medical care for his daughter.

[underwaterrhymes]

I don't know if anyone has clicked through to the GoFundMe, but this story has people taking notice and donating.

Some of the comments made me tear up.

www.gofundme.com/f41itg

[niemand88f]

Sad I hope this child does have access to state insurance for kids, but even if she does - the question for me is if the parents had any idea it existed or how to sign up, anyone walking them through their options for payment & insurance issues (...probably not since their insurance lapsed). This couple is young and I'm going to assume they & their family don't have a lot of resources. On GBCN, so many well-educated people with good family support systems have posted about how difficult it is handling medical bills and coordinating care & insurance- probably even worse if you don't know what to ask or where to go for help 

[fancynewbeesly]

It is a completely heartbreaking story; and I hate the system that we have in place now that made the father feel desperate enough to commit a robbery.

It hits close to home to me.

My daughter has leukemia. I took 12 weeks off unpaid. Or 6 weeks FMLA (which was barely anything) and 6 weeks unpaid. I HAD to go back to work at 12 weeks because I would lose insurance coverage if I didn't. My daughter and my husband are under my insurance. I also know with her diagnosis, mentally with everything else thrown on top of you, insurance problems and coverages were a whole different game as well. We had so many forms to fill out, from social workers, medical research studies, admission forms, etc, and in those weeks of a diagnosis like that you mentally shut down. You can't handle one more business phone call, text, alert, etc. So I can see how insurance coverage in itself is a nightmare, and if it did need to be renewed, how it could have easily been slipped through or forgotten---trust me, I was there. I think in those first 12 weeks, all of our bills were late and we had to call up every company and explain why. Mentally you just aren't there.

Ideally, I would have loved to home with her longer. Per our teaching contract, I couldn't take sick days (even though I had them to use) because I wasn't sick---she was---and sick days are for you only. So it was unpaid, and with the insurance issue I had to work. We were lucky that we had Grandparents close by and an in home baby sitter, who had three kids (and the doctors approved her going there because if we had 4 kids at home, it would have been the same thing).

There just has to be a better system, way for insurance. A better way instead of all the red tape, etc. Streamlined; so that when people are in the midst of devastating news, it is one less thing they have to worry about instead of 10 extra things on top of everything else.

[penguingrrl]

Aug 27, 2015 20:31:03 GMT -5 fancynewbeesly said:

It is a completely heartbreaking story; and I hate the system that we have in place now that made the father feel desperate enough to commit a robbery.

It hits close to home to me.

My daughter has leukemia. I took 12 weeks off unpaid. Or 6 weeks FMLA (which was barely anything) and 6 weeks unpaid. I HAD to go back to work at 12 weeks because I would lose insurance coverage if I didn't. My daughter and my husband are under my insurance. I also know with her diagnosis, mentally with everything else thrown on top of you, insurance problems and coverages were a whole different game as well. We had so many forms to fill out, from social workers, medical research studies, admission forms, etc, and in those weeks of a diagnosis like that you mentally shut down. You can't handle one more business phone call, text, alert, etc. So I can see how insurance coverage in itself is a nightmare, and if it did need to be renewed, how it could have easily been slipped through or forgotten---trust me, I was there. I think in those first 12 weeks, all of our bills were late and we had to call up every company and explain why. Mentally you just aren't there.

Ideally, I would have loved to home with her longer. Per our teaching contract, I couldn't take sick days (even though I had them to use) because I wasn't sick---she was---and sick days are for you only. So it was unpaid, and with the insurance issue I had to work. We were lucky that we had Grandparents close by and an in home baby sitter, who had three kids (and the doctors approved her going there because if we had 4 kids at home, it would have been the same thing).

There just has to be a better system, way for insurance. A better way instead of all the red tape, etc. Streamlined; so that when people are in the midst of devastating news, it is one less thing they have to worry about instead of 10 extra things on top of everything else.

Sending you and R tons of hugs (as you know I always am). This right here shows the need for health insurance that isn't privatized and isn't tied to employment. The last thing you needed to deal with after that devastating news was the insurance nightmare surrounding it.

[cap]

Aug 27, 2015 20:31:03 GMT -5 fancynewbeesly said:

It is a completely heartbreaking story; and I hate the system that we have in place now that made the father feel desperate enough to commit a robbery.

It hits close to home to me.

My daughter has leukemia. I took 12 weeks off unpaid. Or 6 weeks FMLA (which was barely anything) and 6 weeks unpaid. I HAD to go back to work at 12 weeks because I would lose insurance coverage if I didn't. My daughter and my husband are under my insurance. I also know with her diagnosis, mentally with everything else thrown on top of you, insurance problems and coverages were a whole different game as well. We had so many forms to fill out, from social workers, medical research studies, admission forms, etc, and in those weeks of a diagnosis like that you mentally shut down. You can't handle one more business phone call, text, alert, etc. So I can see how insurance coverage in itself is a nightmare, and if it did need to be renewed, how it could have easily been slipped through or forgotten---trust me, I was there. I think in those first 12 weeks, all of our bills were late and we had to call up every company and explain why. Mentally you just aren't there.

Ideally, I would have loved to home with her longer. Per our teaching contract, I couldn't take sick days (even though I had them to use) because I wasn't sick---she was---and sick days are for you only. So it was unpaid, and with the insurance issue I had to work. We were lucky that we had Grandparents close by and an in home baby sitter, who had three kids (and the doctors approved her going there because if we had 4 kids at home, it would have been the same thing).

There just has to be a better system, way for insurance. A better way instead of all the red tape, etc. Streamlined; so that when people are in the midst of devastating news, it is one less thing they have to worry about instead of 10 extra things on top of everything else.

((hugs)) to you and your family. And lots of good thoughts. 

[oscarnerdjulief]

That's a bummer that you can't take sick days for relatives. That is not how our contract works. I have been taking sick days for my husband's medical appointments (2 days a year) for the past 10 years or so.  Maybe the powers-that-be in our school don't care because I have spectacular attendance if I do say so myself. 

It is such a waste to have a large accumulation of sick days and not be able to use them for a relative. I have 215.75 days, and part of the reason I am so miserly with taking days off is that I am hoarding in case something happens down the line.

[fancynewbeesly]

Aug 27, 2015 21:42:00 GMT -5 oscarnerdjulief said:

That's a bummer that you can't take sick days for relatives. That is not how our contract works. I have been taking sick days for my husband's medical appointments (2 days a year) for the past 10 years or so.  Maybe the powers-that-be in our school don't care because I have spectacular attendance if I do say so myself. 

It is such a waste to have a large accumulation of sick days and not be able to use them for a relative. I have 215.75 days, and part of the reason I am so miserly with taking days off is that I am hoarding in case something happens down the line.

I will say years ago it wasn't like that. However we got a new superintendent and new assistant ones and they pretty much followed the contract exactly. Now, maybe the old contract said the same thing but the others were completely turning a blind eye or didn't care in terms of "emergency" (husband having a stroke, childhood cancer, etc). They require a doctors note after 3 absent days. 

Personnel and my school and teachers etc were turning a blind eye. So as long as I never took took three days in a row, they didn't ask for a doctors note. Luckily, Reese was diagnosed in mid-January, my twelve weeks were up at the end of April. She amazingly stayed out of the hospital except for an overnight in May; and then in June I had to take two days for inpatient chemo and we were off for the summer---where we had a few rounds of inpatient chemo. This past October she was hospitalized for 3 weeks due to a low immune system (which were also unpaid).