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Kathy Myers Shot Herself to Get Medical Care (VIDEO)
CBS News ^ | June 14, 2010 | Aina Hunter

Posted on 06/16/2010 7:44:21 PM PDT by Gondring

Uninsured, Unemployed, and Out of Luck, Mich. Woman, Saw Desperate Step as Only Way to Get Help for Shoulder Injury

(AP/CBS) Uninsured and too broke to pay for medical care to treat her painful shoulder injury, a Niles, Mich., woman shot herself in the same shoulder and went to the E.R. in hopes of obtaining free medical care.

By law, hospitals must treat emergency patients even if they don't have insurance.

Kathy Myers' troubles started when her 80-lb Golden Lab yanked on his leash during a skirmish with her Chihuahuas. The big dog yanked Myer's shoulder as well, injuring her rotator cuff.

After a month of agonizing pain, the unemployed 41-year-old used her in-laws' gun to take matters into her own hands. She placed icepacks and pillows around her head and neck, and then pulled the trigger, according to Wood TV 8 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Myers says she made a rational choice: she had hoped that the doctors who mended her flesh wound would also fix her rotator cuff.

But her plan didn't work out quite the way she had hoped. Last Thursday doctors treated the bullet wound, but instead of fixing her injured shoulder, they gave her some antiinflammatory drugs and sent her home.

Though shooting yourself to get medical care may seem a bit extreme, Myers told reporters at WSBT-TV in South Bend, Ind., that she has no "suicide wish" and that she "wants to live" despite her problems.

And her problems may only be increasing. Besides being in even greater pain, Myers might have to go before a judge to face a charge of firing a weapon within city limits.

Myers, who recently lost her job with an Indiana hazardous-waste removal company, is one of 1.2 million Michigan residents without health insurance.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: crazypain; desperate; hcr; healthcare
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To: Gondring
Healthcare is costly today BECAUSE of government.
Add more government and total costs will only go up.
61 posted on 06/16/2010 8:21:06 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric cartman voice* 'I love you guys')
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To: mylife

They leave homepages up sometimes.


62 posted on 06/16/2010 8:23:01 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: battousai

Oh yeah!


63 posted on 06/16/2010 8:23:36 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: Gondring
She shoots herself, and somehow it's our fault?
64 posted on 06/16/2010 8:24:01 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Build a man a fire; he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire; he'll be warm the rest of his life)
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To: DJ MacWoW

I have never seen that happen before.

Gondring has been around a long time.


65 posted on 06/16/2010 8:24:34 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1 Halfbaked: 50c)
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To: mylife

You make the call!

I’ve already had to choke back a couple gag reflexes.


66 posted on 06/16/2010 8:24:44 PM PDT by Randy Larsen ( BTW, If I offend you! Please let me know, I may want to offend you again!(FR #1690))
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To: Graybeard58
In my opinion, you made a wise decision. I have known several people who have had the surgery, including my wife and nothing good came out of it for any of them, sometimes it makes it worse, just ask my wife.

Rule # 1 - avoid surgery.

Rule # 2 - avoid meds

Rule # 3 - use exercise and diet, if they fail, then the other rules no longer apply.

67 posted on 06/16/2010 8:25:01 PM PDT by lightman (Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Health care is not a right.

Amen to that.

68 posted on 06/16/2010 8:25:47 PM PDT by LaineyDee (Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
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To: Grizzled Bear

That was some good cheese and butter, the USDA would bring the trucks on post and the line would be a mile long. Well worth the wait when you were lower enlisted.


69 posted on 06/16/2010 8:25:55 PM PDT by Arkansas Tider (Army EOD)
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To: Randy Larsen

If that thing is Hubby it only enhances this story.

I had the sound off when I watched. I was wondering what was up with the ballcaps.


70 posted on 06/16/2010 8:26:40 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1 Halfbaked: 50c)
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To: mylife
I have never seen that happen before.

They do sometimes when they are discussing things in email.

Yeah. He's been here awhile.

71 posted on 06/16/2010 8:27:08 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: healy61
And quit being stupid.

Too late... I think she's terminal...

72 posted on 06/16/2010 8:29:34 PM PDT by LaineyDee (Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
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To: Randy Larsen

Just listened to the audio.

Yup they are lesbos. They never look like in the movies!

At least she was smart enough to us a .25
If she had capped herself in the head by accident it would have bounced off her thick skull


73 posted on 06/16/2010 8:32:18 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1 Halfbaked: 50c)
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To: Gondring

We understand why people feel there is a need for health care reform. We also know that it was not achieved with ObamaCare. That was about control, not health.


74 posted on 06/16/2010 8:32:55 PM PDT by scott7278 ("...I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked." BHO)
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To: Gondring

Government meddling with healthcare, from the system for training and licensing doctors, to the requirement of prescriptions for thousands of medications which pose no *public* health hazard, is the chief contributor to healthcare prices that exceed what the average person can pay out of pocket. We didn’t need yet another round of increased government meddling in healthcare — we need government to get OUT of healthcare. Then this woman would be able to afford the care she needs, because it would cost a tiny fraction of what it currently costs.


75 posted on 06/16/2010 8:34:07 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: mylife

Jimrob may have suspended his account but not banned!

It’s happened to me...

I can’t find anything that would suggest that though.


76 posted on 06/16/2010 8:34:38 PM PDT by Randy Larsen ( BTW, If I offend you! Please let me know, I may want to offend you again!(FR #1690))
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To: GovernmentShrinker
We didn’t need yet another round of increased government meddling in healthcare — we need government to get OUT of healthcare. Then this woman would be able to afford the care she needs, because it would cost a tiny fraction of what it currently costs.

AMEN!

77 posted on 06/16/2010 8:35:58 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1 Halfbaked: 50c)
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To: Randy Larsen

I can understand why you’d be suspended ;)


78 posted on 06/16/2010 8:36:47 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1 Halfbaked: 50c)
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To: Randy Larsen

If the account was suspended I wouldn’t be able to post to him would I?


79 posted on 06/16/2010 8:38:30 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1 Halfbaked: 50c)
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To: Randy Larsen

Naw, he is still here.

I just sent FReepmail


80 posted on 06/16/2010 8:40:13 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions: $1 Halfbaked: 50c)
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