The other HUGE inconsistency here is that when doctors find a tumor whether it's benign, malignant or dancing a jig...they want it out NOW. Neither his docs in Washington state or JH had a sense of urgency. Sloan-Kettering deals with destitute people from around the world, they have funding resources most of us have never heard about. They would NOT suddenly demand the entire amount because a down payment wasn't made and certainly NOT after discovering the error was theirs. With the thousands of people in and out their doors every year Andy is NOT the first person this has happened to. Believe me, someone would think to check the mail room. There are nonprofit organizations who are quite adept at RAPIDLY getting funding to a patient. JH's own patient manual tells people they can set up a payment plan. PC is DEADLY SERIOUS and they are NOT going to play games with a patients life the way they've supposedly played with Andy's. We've heard arms were twisted to "move him to the front of the line" and to get him into the vaccine trials. There was no "wait and see" if he qualifies...he was IN, that was sold as a reason for his needing the money now to go to JH.
My cousin's daughter is 12 years old and had a rare kind of brain cancer that only affects children...very hard to irradicate because it clusters and then spreads, like throwing grass seed into the wind. She's in remissions thanks to an experimental kind of chemo that's planted directly into her brain and works like a time-release capsule. She and another young man who recently reached his 18th birthday are the only two long term survivors in the US. Her fight was years long and even with insurance their medical bills are staggering. As much as my cousin would have liked to take her daughter to one of the top cancer hospitals in the country, they stayed in their community because that's what they could afford. In spite of how the bills mounted (many times they could only make token payments) not once was she turned away from needed treatment. Not once was she denied chemo or radiation or a hospital bed...never.
The things they keep posting as evidence are nonsense. JH would not leisurely send a letter (especially when the patient is supposedly in the area) about payment, whether or not he has insurance. They'd have plopped him down with whoever does the financial arrangements and worked something out, applied for grants, etc. HE HAD A DISEASE THAT WAS SUPPOSEDLY RAPIDLY KILLING HIM...THEY AREN'T GOING TO TREAT IT LIKE ELECTIVE SURGERY!!!! So here's what I would accept for proof at this time. A couple of months ago my husband had brochitis. He went to the doctor and was sent for chest x-rays. We have a receipt from the doctor with his diagnosis and a receipt from the x-ray technician stating what they did. We have a receipt from the pharmacy for antibiotics and cough medicine and an albuterol inhaler. I have another doctor's receipt from when he went back for a re-check. Everything is clearly identified on every single one of these. Clearly, if Andy's had numerous doctors' visits and every test possible, then he's got documentation that shows his diagnosis. If he's going to publicly ask for funds and do so because he's got a deadly disease, if he and his fundraisers aren't going to set up a separate account just for the monies to go into, which is the way this kind of fundraiser is handled (being the intellectual superstars they propose to be over there they can figure this out), then he damn well better be prepared to show proof that he has what he says he has: a medical diagnosis from a medical doctor.
Read some of the threads about this situation over there and the circumstances under which some of those people gave, it's heartbreaking how deep some of the them dug so they could send money to "save Andy's life". Quite a few could have used that money for their own medical treatment. I don't care what their politics are, no one deserves to be taken advantage of in that way. Cancer has or will affect just about everyone, either because of a loved one or themselves...it has touched my life many times. It's deadly and scary and not something to take lightly or be used as a stick to beat money out of people who don't have it to give. I don't care what his privacy concerns are...he made his plight public...proof should be public as well.
Cindie
beautiful post, cindie.
Thank you Cindie.
This has been my perspective all along. I lost my wife of 35 years 27 months ago to cancer. Nothing Andy has done to combat his 'pancreatic cancer' has made one bit of sense to me. That is why I believe that if he does have pancreatic cancer, it has only been diagnosed now, not when they started shilling for the money.
Read some of the threads about this situation over there and the circumstances under which some of those people gave, it's heartbreaking how deep some of the them dug so they could send money to "save Andy's life". Quite a few could have used that money for their own medical treatment. I don't care what their politics are, no one deserves to be taken advantage of in that way. Cancer has or will affect just about everyone, either because of a loved one or themselves...it has touched my life many times. It's deadly and scary and not something to take lightly or be used as a stick to beat money out of people who don't have it to give. I don't care what his privacy concerns are...he made his plight public...proof should be public as well.
This is what I have a problem with. You say it so well, just like everything you've said. I don't like any scam, especially a charity scam. Also the hypocrisy about socialized medicine sticks in my craw.
I thought this bore repeating since it's been my position all along about this mess. Too many inconsistencies such as belting out show tunes after major abdominal surgery, access to DU within 2 days of his surgery, and too many others too numerous too mention.
I know what major abdominal surgery makes you feel like and it isn't wanting to sing along with the bouncy ball or posting on the internet or talking on the phone. Jeez! You don't even want to breathe deeply even though they bug you too. You use a pillow in order to hold your guts in, at least that's what it feels like physically.
Pathologist report taking almost a week? I've never, ever seen that one before.
No interim treatment before surgery? There are all sorts of different medications that can be used before surgery to help prevent growth or spread.
It may be cancer but if it is, he may have signed his own death warrant by delaying surgery in order to go to Johns Hopkins.