WFTV Helps Woman Get Life-Saving Treatment

A Brevard County woman had just a few weeks to get potentially life-saving cancer drugs but couldn't cut through the Medicaid red-tape. Time was quickly running out for the woman, so she called WFTV reporter Vanessa Welch who was able to help get her the help she needs.

Dawn Smith has breast cancer. Her doctor told her she has three weeks to get chemo or her chances of survival go way down. She doesn't have insurance and has been trying to get Medicaid for two months.

“You can’t get a human being on the phone,” Smith said.

She feels trapped in bureaucratic red-tape. The six rounds of chemo costs nearly $3,000 each.

“I’m going to miss my window and I want to live. I really want to live,” she said.

Smith ran a small business with her husband in Brevard County. They've since split up, leaving her unemployed.

“Dante couldn't not have painted a more perfect Hell for me,” she said.

Smith says she's been calling DCF daily to get Medicaid.

“To have to fight so hard to live at a time when you are most vulnerable,” Smith said. “It’s an incredible battle.”

DCF upgraded its phone system last week in Seminole and Brevard counties, but Smith is proof the system's still broken.

Nearly 5,000 people in Brevard County applied for food stamps or Medicaid last month. There's only one number for both services.

“Is the agency overwhelmed?” Welch asked Carrie Hoeppner with DCF.

“I think the situation itself is overwhelming,” she said.

After weeks of trying to get through the phone lines to get Medicaid, it all came down to two documents and one phone call from Channel 9. After Channel 9 got involved, DCF told Smith to fax copies of her passport and license and she'd be covered.

Tuesday, DCF said it's still working out the bugs with its newly-installed phone lines, but at least one case is resolved.

“I've felt the first bit of hope that I’ve felt for a while,” Smith said.

More than half-a-million people in Central Florida are on Medicaid. DCF set up a new number for people who live in Brevard or Seminole counties and need assistance: 1-866-874-1380.