What do you think are probably the worst results ever of an attempted Go-Fund-Me campaign, and why? ~

https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/08/stop-using-gofundme-things-are-dumb-please/

I really can't stand that whole concept...........online panhandling.  Gag.

The short version...

When my mom had her stroke, her husband was present and did not get her medical attention for two days. If he had gotten help, the stroke might not have been so debilitating. 

While she was in the hospital after her stroke, the courts made her husband her legal guardian anyway. 

Shortly after her care team said she'd never be able to return home, but would, instead, be in assisted living for the rest of her life, her husband and his family started up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise funds to help him make their home wheelchair accessible and to pay my mother's hospital bills. Her home should have been condemned before that- no joke... it was bad... and the state was covering the medical bills with the exception of a small portion, which her disability payments were supposed to go to. But, again, they started the campaign AFTER being told she'd never return home. It was a lie from the start.

Following that, the court discovered that my mother's husband had been receiving her disability checks and keeping them and spending the money on himself rather than paying her portion of her care. They removed him and made me her guardian. 

When my mother came to live with me, I approached the fundraisers about using some of the money to have a ramp built at my front door so my mother could enter/ exit easily. They gave me a hard time over it, but agreed. Somewhere in the mix, I also filed for divorce on my mother's behalf and it was granted. (I did this quite peacefully and with everyone's agreement because my mother could not qualify for state help in AZ while she was married, though her husband was game for it regardless.) Following that, my mother began requesting a service dog. I inquired as to whether the fundraiser would release funds for it. They refused and, instead, gave the remaining money to my mother's then ex-husband. 

When I balked, the fundraiser (a relative of the ex-husband) said that people donated knowing the money would go to the household. So, I published a notice to the donors explaining where their money went and filed fraud complaints with the bank and Go Fund Me.

At that point, the fundraiser contacted my mother and informed her that she had been taking care of my mother's horse and told her that she didn't have the money to do so. She told my mom that the horse would be put to sleep if my mother didn't agree to 'transfer" the funds to her for the horse. My mother tearfully complied and begged me to stop pursuing the matter. I did for her sake, but I will never forgive those people for taking advantage. Never. 

I was told by my mother's caseworker that I'd never win in court if I pursued the matter. I'd have to be able to prove that he willfully and intentionally ignored a medical need knowing the potential consequences. She further added that lots of people don't seek medical treatment in emergencies, particularly the uninsured, which my mother was. Basically, all he had to say was that she requested to not go to the doctor due to the expense and he would have been in the clear. 

The fundraiser was specific that she was certain people wanted to help her family member (the husband) every bit as much as they wanted to help my mother. She contended that he'd experienced hardships too... for example, he'd missed a couple days of work and no longer lived in a dual-income household. When I got the court financial report from him during the divorce, I not only learned that he was doing just fine earning a livable wage, but that while my mother was hospitalized, he'd begun making child support payments. He had no children prior to marrying my mother. Yeah... the guy was expecting a baby with someone else when he left my mother to die and stole her money. A real gem, that one. How anyone could defend him is beyond me.