Suburban Goddess

A childhood friend of mine has a serious problem. Her mother fell down the front steps of her trailer last Tuesday and broke her leg.

A week later, doctors still refuse to see her.

The problem is, this lady doesn’t have health insurance. If this doesn’t open your eyes to the value of health insurance, nothing will. The woman is not on Social Security, welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, disability, NOTHING. She has lived her life quietly and peacefully for years in her home nestled back from the road, hidden by a thick brush of trees. So she’s leaning over to feed her cat and falls on the steps, breaking both the bones in her shin (compound fracture). She immediately called her daughter who was visiting for the week from Dallas (did I mention this is in Louisiana?) who rushed her to the hospital. It was there that the ordeal began in earnest.

As soon as the hospital realized she didn’t have health insurance, all plans to set her leg stopped. They splinted the leg, but x-rays showed that both the bones were broken, and one doctor told my friend that her mother would have to have it set surgically. It is an expensive surgery with a long recovery time. But since Katrina, they weren’t equipped to handle charity cases. So they sent them to New Orleans. Same story. New Orleans sent them to Houma. Houma sent them to Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge sent them home until Tuesday. All the while, this poor woman is being shuttled around, pulled in and out of cars, led to and from various waiting rooms where she would wait for HOURS just to be turned away…. As of today, the woman still has a compound fracture tied to a board and a small bottle of pain meds. She cannot move her leg without unspeakable pain. If she tries, she could damage tissue around the bones, leading to even more serious problems.

What the HELL is going on here?

In an effort to be noble and proud, this woman lived in poverty without looking to the government for handouts; she knew her situation was her doing and she lived with the consequences. She could have easily rode the system as so many others have, but she didn’t. So now, in a time of DIRE need, she is turned away by the very system set up to protect our less fortunate.

What the HELL is going on here?

Have we become so paralyzed by lawsuits and greed that we cannot help those who truly need it? It is OBVIOUS that her LEG IS BROKEN. Is SOMEONE going to step up and do the RIGHT thing, or just let this woman suffer in agony for the sake of an insurance claim? Thank God this woman knew my parents, who have taken her into their home, given her their bed, and have done everything they can to help her daughter try to find the help she desparately needs.

How do you, in good conscience, look into the eyes of another human being who is in extreme pain, and walk away? Isn’t that why you become a doctor to begin with, to help people? Or does that just apply to people with money?

This entry was posted on April 10, 2007 at 9:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.