Health

Downwardly: 19 year woman loses medical insurance, faces gangrene

by Actual News Geezer | October 13, 2008 at 06:42 pm

399 views | 11 Recommendations | 4 comments

It's everywhere you look on the web: stories of ordinary Americans in a steep downwardly descent. A doctor tells the Washington Post of the disgusting hardships people who have lost their medical insurance are facing.

When I walked into the hospital room of a 19-year-old woman, a foul smell all but overwhelmed me. I called a nurse to assist me and saw her, too, catch her breath.

When we examined the young woman we found a chronic infection of her pelvis so painful that she resisted our slightest touch.

How long had she been living like this, I wanted to know. Through tears, my patient hesitantly began an explanation that told me as much about our diseased medical system as about her illness: She'd had diabetes since she was a child, she said. On her 18th birthday, she lost her insurance and had been able to afford insulin only occasionally. She worked two jobs, she said, but neither offered insurance. Uncontrolled, her diabetes had let the infection develop and fester.

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Rhonda J Mangus

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:50 on October 13th, 2008

Actual News Geezer, I like this story. It's good stuff.

duo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 02:23 on October 14th, 2008

Actual News Geezer, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Yep. Folks don't learn much from history. You recall the late night television show where they went out and asked regular Americans on the street simple history questions which few of them could answer?

The upper middle class did not learn from the Great Depression what a short step it can be from comfort to dire poverty. People were so poor that some actually sent their children away to live with relatives who could feed them or to orphanages.

More of the middle class conservatives need to think about how really short the step can be from comfort to poverty. They should do as Hillary Clinton advised voters to do in this election - think of what is best for themselves. We need CHANGE!

This is a pitiful story about a sad little girl. She's only 19. I hope someone will help her. I hope someone who reads about this child will be so impressed with her suffering that they are moved to compassion. Please help her if you can, some one. Be a hero today!

Mary