OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A metro man who KFOR first introduced Tuesday night says his luck is starting to turn.
Sixty-two-year-old Douglas McDonald is just out of the hospital after going into a diabetic coma because he couldn’t afford insulin. McDonald lost his job due to COVID-19 and has been waiting on unemployment benefits for months.
The Oklahoma Standard came out in full force Wednesday for McDonald.
“Totally unexpected…I’ve got family that I didn’t even know,” said McDonald.
Not even five minutes after KFOR’s story aired Tuesday night at 10 p.m., phone calls came flooding in.
For every phone call, at least two more emails filled KFOR’s inbox with messages from viewers who wanted to help.
“With the Oklahoma standard, this shouldn’t happen in Oklahoma,” said Jim Morris, a viewer who offered $500 to McDonald.
Morris says he couldn’t get McDonald’s story off of his mind and that he just needed to help in some way, so he gave him $500 cash. We delivered the money directly to McDonald and the two met through FaceTime.
“Sir, I really want to thank you. You don’t know how much it means,” said McDonald to Morris.
“You’’ll get through this my friend. There’s better days in front for you,” said Morris.
But the generosity didn’t stop there. KFOR received $900 from viewers to deliver to McDonald.
“Thank you all. I mean Oklahoma strong is Oklahoma strong, and this is life saving,” said McDonald after receiving the money.
Groceries were also dropped at his door, as well as enough insulin to get him through for months, and even more cash.
“I can go to sleep at night now knowing that when I wake up tomorrow I’m gonna have food…It makes me realize that I am a human being and I am worth something,” said McDonald.
McDonald also tells KFOR that since our story aired, he’s finally received a call back from four different supervisors at the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. They tell him he should see his unemployment benefits by the end of the week.
Click here to visit the GoFundMe account created to help McDonald.
