Posted on 08/19/2009 8:05:53 PM PDT by PhatHead
I’ll say a prayer for you tonight, KC. You know how it really is, and how it ought to be.
Your story is very similar to mine. My son gave it his all to live, but it was not to be. For us though, there was St Jude, where he was treated free of charge for three years, and given all the latest treatments available at the time. St Jude treats children with catastrophic illnesses, and they do it by relying on donations and philanthropic foundation money. As far as I know they do not get government money.
St. Jude does wonderful work. We did not go to St. Jude’s, but our hospital, like the overwhelming majority of hospitals in America, it is not-for-profit. The first thing we were asked was “will you need help paying for this?” Not “show us your insurance or leave!”
I don’t know the life stories of all the people we saw in the waiting rooms over the years, but many of them did not speak English, and I suspect that they did not make a lot of money, and may not have had insurance. But there they were, with us, receiving the same state-of-the-art care.
God bless you, WVNan.
Thank you. We both belong to a most unfortunate club. The day doesn’t pass that some reminder is there. How brave they were, and how funny at times. I’ll always remember how my son was telling his friend about his ambulance ride to the hospital when he knew he was nearing the end. He was relating the ineptitude of the EMPs and had everyone laughing hysterically. He was 22 and the oldest patient that St Jude had ever treated because he had a cancer that usually strikes younger children and they wanted him there because they feared that the cancer was making a leap to older patients. He donated his body to the hospital for research. It was his decision. Freedom.
When we communicated with other parents of kids with recurrent brain tumors, we used to joke that we were "the parents nobody wants to be." A few months ago, at our son's grave, my wife and I mused that now we are "the parents that even the parents nobody wants to be don't want to be."
It is indeed an unfortunate club - would that membership could be closed...
You and your family have lived through a terrible nightmare. My heart breaks for you. Please know that researchers are working round the clock to find new and better treatments for all kinds of cancer. Your son won many battles over the years but lost the war. He was truly brave. Please know that there are people who are praying for you and yours right now. Peace be with you.
btt
Thanks for sharing your story and for being such a great dad to your dear son. I wish it would have worked out and I am glad you did everything that could be done. I would have done the same as you. I don’t want that love for life to change in our society.
God be with you. This world is sad but in the next you and your son will share in a love that is without measure.
That’s a compelling story you tell. Wow. Such difficult times.
Thank you. I’m sending out letters for them now. I do that every year to raise funds for them. Yes, it is a wonderful place. I will never forget how good they were to my son and to our family.
I am so very sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine that. Thank you for taking the time (and going through the emotional wringer) to share your story with us. This was very well-written — I hope you will submit it to a national paper (or papers) and get it out in the mainstream, so others can read it as well.
Aside from the moral issue, tehre is an important pragmatic issue that the Obama people don’t get — the more we invest in saving the cancer-striken like this man’s son, the closer we get to a cure in the future — whereas if we just pull the plug, our research and knowledge remains static. And that’s just stupid.
Excellent point. Socialism does have a way of either stopping progress or going backward.
thank you.
Oh, I see what you mean, but you’ve got it backwards. The insurance company paid for continuing treatments. Obamacare’s “comparative effectiveness research” (aka “death panels”) would cut off care much sooner.
I’m truly sorry for the pain you and your son have endured.
You are spot-on.
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