Today I was with a friend at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center (and btw, if you covet socialized medicine, go there to see it personally and get mugged by reality -it will be enlightening.)
My friend had an appointment with the vascular surgery unit. By fate, I was sitting in one corner with 3 middle aged-older black males. Two are on the kidney transplant waiting list. One received a transplant 15 years ago. The two remaining gentlemen were discussing being on the waiting list and related things like how often they go for dialysis. I can see that both suffered from various co-morbidities and bodies are ravaged by effects if the ailment. I also know that the chance of older, sickly men receiving transplants in the urban Chicago area is not great at all. But they live with hope. Or, perhaps, ignorance is bliss. But I saw firsthand the terrible human toll of our dysfunctional organ donation system It is immoral!!!
Dear Eli Dov,
ReplyDeleteDid you have an opportunity to speak with any of those gentlemen? I'm guessing not, but I'm curious to know what their thoughts are, the beginning perhaps of an archives from the underbelly of American government provided health care. 'cc' to President Barak Hussein Obama. :)
I did speak with them. That's how I found out there stories. They were waiting for ours in the vascular clinic at the V.A. Their appearances told part of the story. One had an eye removed (and just a cotton ball where the eye used to be. Another was confined to a wheelchair. They were discussing how frequently they go for dialysis.
ReplyDeleteBTW, seeing the people in the vascular clinic waiting room is emotionally devastating - many have single or multiple limbs amputated - and quite a few are awaiting kidneys.