An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Health Care – It’s Personal
by Paul Miller
Emotions are running high in America as the country is entrenched in the debate over health care. Conventional wisdom dictates that rational thinking must always prevail over irrational judgment that almost always accompanies human emotion. However, as a victim of child-hood cancer, I can tell you as I live and breathe today, it is our humanity that must triumph in our national discussion that may ultimately decide who lives — and who dies.
Twenty-four years ago this month I found myself on an operating table in a suburban Chicago hospital undergoing what was supposed to be routine surgery. Doctors were removing a mass of calcified tissue that was present for a few years in my right arm, but finally, the growth had caused this 14-year old baseball fanatic to lose the zip on his fast-ball, or so it would seem.
When I awoke from surgery, I learned that I didn’t have a harmless calcium deposit – I had cancer.
The decisions and actions taken after the diagnosis would determine if I would live or die. My fate would ultimately be transcended by choices that were made by my parents and doctors.
The cancer discovered was described by doctors as “rare, mean and deadly.” It was almost unheard of to be found in a teenage boy. My pediatrician advised my family and me to seek treatment at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. I transferred there the next day. A team of oncologists reviewed my case and they recommended I see “one of only two doctors in the country that have ever treated this type of cancer.” This time my path to survival would take me to the University of Chicago.
In less than a week’s time after my cancer diagnosis, countless medical professionals, including some of the finest medical minds in Chicago, had reviewed my case and advised my family how to save my life. Every step of the way, my parents and I were always given options, ultimately allowing us to have control and make the final decisions.
Amputation or Radiation Treatments were the choices presented and explained to me by the doctor that countless of other medical professionals agreed was my best hope for survival. My doctor and his team took into consideration numerous intangibles such as age, type of cancer, location in my body, but possibly most important; my quality of life.
When my family and I made the decision to proceed with Radiation therapy I was fully aware that if my cancer returned (reoccurrence) an amputation would most likely be required to save my life.
Two years later my cancer returned and my right arm was removed.
Over twenty years later I’m alive, married with two beautiful boys and lying awake at night knowing that if my medical care in 1985 was left to politicians and bureaucrats, I most likely would be pushing up daisies and my children would have never been a twinkle in their mothers eye.
If America was under government-controlled health care when I was first diagnosed twenty-four years ago, would I have received the medical care necessary to save my life? No.
No honest-thinking person would ever claim that government is efficient or personable. Imagine the bureaucratic nightmare my parents would have had to endure if they had to go through a system that is derived from the same service mentality that created the Internal Revenue Service or Department of Motor Vehicles. Wasn’t my family suffering enough? Didn’t they have enough to worry about after learning their first-born son had cancer? Wouldn’t a humane society like ours embrace what is the fastest and most efficient manner to save a human beings life and not try to add to the suffering already taking place?
Read the rest here.
Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it? I sincerely do NOT understand the so-called intelligent people who think that this is a good idea. Do they not understand that ultimately, if Obamacare passes, that the government will have the power to decide who lives and who dies? Do you really want the government using some sort of ridiculous “formula” to determine whether it’s financially worthwhile for your loved one to receive the treatment he/she desperately needs to save his/her life?
Friends, this is beyond scary.
H/T Real Debate
Thank you for the repost.
Regards,
Paulie