From Viral Fame to Generosity: Nine-Year-Old Donates GoFundMe Funds to Another Child

Remington, a nine-year-old from Utah who launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a Hero Arm after receiving an insurance denial, has decided to use the donations to help another child cover costs of getting a Hero Arm.

Remington went viral this weekend after her insurance provider, Select Health, denied her claim for a prosthetic arm despite being born without a hand and having clinical evidence for her claim. 

Select Health said Remington’s claim was not ‘medically necessary’ despite Remington’s primary care provider, and her prosthetics team arguing that Remington needed and was entitled to this aid. 

Jami Remi’s Mom, said: “This device has a huge impact on her health and well-being and that is what the insurance was supposed to deliver.”

Jami decided to share her story and launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for her daughter’s Hero Arm, and within hours it had raised more than $25,000.

Remi’s story went viral and was trending across social media platforms when Jami received an offer from a company called CrowdHealth to pay for Remi’s medical bill in full. 

The company encouraged Remi to use the GoFundMe donations as she wished. 

The 9-year-old girl, who has now raised over $30,000 from well-wishers, has decided to use the donations to pay for a Hero Arm for an 8-year-old boy who also received an insurance denial.

Remi found Taj’s GoFundMe campaign link for a Hero Arm online and decided to help a stranger by paying her donations forward. 

Remi said: “I’m so excited to get my Hero Arm, I could jump to the moon. Being able to help Taj means a lot to me, as soon as I saw that I had raised enough money to  help someone else I wanted to. There’s another girl, called Faith, she’s 10, I want to help if we can keep fundraising. She is also trying to get a Hero Arm.” 

Kaitlin, Taj’s Mom, cried upon hearing the surprise news; “We are just so grateful to Remi and her family. This is a blessing”. 

Jami said: “Telling Taj’s family was just so amazing, every kid deserves a chance and we were so grateful to be able to help them and they were so surprised and grateful to receive the help.”

“The reason we shared Remi’s story in the first place was to raise awareness of the impact insurance denials have. Remi absolutely needs this device to aid her in two-handed tasks and activities. It is going to support her spinal and shoulder health as she grows too. We are thrilled that a company stepped forward to pay for Remi’s arm, enabling us to use the donations to help another limb-different family in need. We hope this helps them as much as it helped us.” 

Thanks to the goodwill of people online and Remington’s charitable decision to pay it forward, two children who were born without hands and denied insurance approval will now receive Hero Arms.

Elise Dreiling is Remi’s clinician at Open Bionics, she said: “We’re so glad that Remi will get her Hero Arm. After a careful evaluation, we determined that Remi could utilise this technology to great effect and it would improve her life and health. We hope insurance companies will begin to approve more devices for upper limb amputees that can significantly impact their health and quality of life.”

You can support Remi’s effort to provide more Hero Arms for children who have received insurance denials by donating here.

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