The Best Healthcare in the World
Jul 2nd, 2007 at 7:38 pm by Susie
I spent most of this afternoon by my friend’s deathbed. He didn’t even know I was there.
He has several chronic diseases, and because he’s been under- or unemployed, he’s been without health insurance for the better part of six years. He finally got some this spring, after working nine months at a temp job that finally turned permanent.
For him, it was too late.
Turns out what he thought was a prolonged case of the flu over the holidays was actually a systemic infection, and by the time he could finally see a doctor, it was pretty serious. He was in the hospital off and on for months. He was released not too long ago, but the day he was getting ready to go back to work, he fell and hit his head, causing a massive brain hemorrhage.
Turns out the drug they were using to treat the infection prevents his blood from clotting. They can’t operate on his brain, though, because they can’t stop the bleeding.
When I left the hospital, his family was waiting for another brother to arrive so they could take him off life support.
He was 44 years old. He was brilliant, and funny, and compassionate. He loved his dog, his books, and this city, and any minute now, he’ll be dead. And for that, I blame this horrible, heartless, profit-focused system of ours. What good is the best healthcare in the world if you can’t afford to use it?
Michael Moore is right. What does it say about us that we spend so much money for war, and so little to take care of the people who need our help the most?
I’m profoundly sorry for your loss. As I get older, and I will hit 60 next Nov., I am more and more saddened by the loss of friends, and I have intimate knowledge of the sorry state of our medical system although I experienced a life-threatening accident of a family member with good insurance. The crescendo for a national health care system must continue to build!
[...] succumbed after a long illness complicated, as Susie Madrak notes, by a lack of health care and an [...]
I am truly sorry for your loss. The pain of the loss will ease but the hole left in his place will never be refilled.
I wouldn’t even post, but politics was injected into the post and then linked to from outside as proof that the healthcare system was responsible for your dear friend’s death.
From what you say, it was the medication he was on that caused the inability of the doctors to operate. So, that he was getting healthcare created the problem. And it wasn’t that he didn’t get treatment for the hemorrhage, it’s just that there was not treatment to be had.
Politics aside, all the best in these difficult times.
Soop
we live within a culture that constant promotes greed, while at the same time promotes apathy and victimhood in terms of preventive health care. i have worked in the health food sector for over fifteen years before inevitably leaving the sector for other unexplored avenues of employment. however - i have carried with me the knowledge and wisdom of preventive health care, and the knowledge and wisdom of the human body itself that exists outside of the trends and ‘fads’ of this culture…. each day, many countless people die and are dying simply because their own biological awareness has been replaced by the insidious pox of cultural greed that says, ’spend and eat: eat and spend…’ relentlessly without any concern towards preventive health care.
we all must walk with due diligence and a deeper committment towards our own personal health. trusting the so-called ‘experts’ creates the ongoing situation of the national and ongoing health crisis that continues to devour countless lives of all ages.
I know exactly how you feel. I’m not going to bore you with my own story, but I just wanted to say my sympathies and prayers are with you. Something needs to change soon, and I don’t know who’s going to do it. Most of us are too weak to fight back.
D Lilithborne:
RE: “Most of us are too weak to fight back”.
I have to disagree. With all due respect, almost no individual is too weak to play at least a small role. No one is going to come along riding a white horse and saving us from the dysfunctions of Late Capitalism. We all need to pitch in with what energy we can, and sum of all of that is potent.
It’s a marathon not a sprint; it’s not one big boom of energy, it’s the little EVERY day from millions that makes real change.
Less helplessnes, more action. Pull up your pants, tighten your belt, roll up your sleeves and wade in w/whatever you can, no matter how small it may seem in isolation.
It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
as we get older, the expression “life is short” takes on meaning that was absent when we were younger.
your friend sounded like a special, special person. I am sorry-you do not get too many of those in this world.
your political thoughts are your own. I am not convinced that your friend’s death would not have happened in Canada or England, suffice to say.
Jim posted about Midge Decter’s “The Boys on the Beach”, a misguided article that provided much of the Right’s perspective towards homosexuality — which is wrong. When I went looking for his post on the net tonight, I discovered he had passed. He wrote much that I agree with and made his points well. I will miss reading what he had to say.
I have health insurance and do not see doctors anywhere as much as I can for my health. I think I’d be much wiser to use what I have and to be thankful for it.
Thank you Susie for having been a friend to Jim as he lay dying. That’s a tough thing to do. Doing the right thing is not easy. Your strength in attending to him honors you and yours. May you continue to go from strength to strength. May your actions inspire us all to behave as well.
I have just found out about James’s passing. Please accept my very belated condolences. Rittenhouse Review was one of my favorite blogs.