Ok, so most of us here know that Scott Walker (Dictator - WI) is an ignoramus who takes his marching orders from the Koch Brothers (or anyone pretending to be either one on the telephone). We are united in our utter disgust at proposing that the LGBT community have even fewer rights than the odious WI Constitutional Amendment which deprives them of equal rights regarding marriage.
I have two inconsequential stories about how non-family members make a difference in health care -- and survival. I'm not even including the fact that many hospitals/long-term "nursing homes" have seen the benefit of dogs and cats to their patients (oy! bestiality).
I've relayed this story here before (and even today in a comment). My Dad (dearly departed) had two ICU experiences -- he died in the last one. The first was about 11 years ago. I got the call that he was in the hospital with an about to burst aortic aneurysm. Then I got the call that he was in surgery (no anesthesia when they cut him open from sternum to pubis because the thing burst and the doctor had his finger in the rupture).
My beloved (and also dearly departed) Uncle Pat said he'd meet me at BWI and we'd fly out together to California -- for the funeral, we assumed. During the layover in Chicago, I asked Pat to make the call because I didn't want to hear on the phone that my Dad was dead. He came back and said: "Vodka is on me for the rest of the flight." Well, that could mean my Dad was dead (we're Irish) or he survived. He survived.
When we got to the hospital, no one asked our relationship to my Dad -- the guy in ICU with a tube coming out of every possible access. There was already an old guy in there (not family). He was one of my Dad's WWII shipmates and he knew Pat. He said: "Hey, big guy, come here and check this out -- hold Frank's hand." My Dad was asking questions in Morse Code -- the Doctors thought he was comatose. Both the non-relative and Pat communicated with my Dad with dots and dashes in the palm until he woke up.
My Dad recovered because a non-relative realized he wasn't a goner.
The second and last time my Dad was in ICU, one of his friends from the Knights of Columbus came to visit. He is Black -- we are the whitest Irish stock you've ever seen. The nurse said: "You look just like your brother!" and let him in. Two gay members of his parish visited as well -- no one asked for a DNA sample.
The second story I heard on NPR months ago. It involved a hetero couple who were engaged. The woman was in a serious car accident and deemed vegetative. Her fiance didn't believe it. He spent weeks with her and realized she might not be responding to auditory commands because she didn't have her effing hearing aid in. He put it in and she finally heard a loved one outside of her inner brain function. She's recovering beautifully.
Anyone who deprives anyone else of human contact which might improve health is comparable to a depraved criminal or murderer as far as I'm concerned. All the medical miracles and excellent skills of doctors and nurses can only be aided by love, compassion and personal connection.
Scott Walker is depraved -- yep, I said it. Sure, I assumed he was a homophobe, but his fundamentally evil desire to deny the ill of comfort from those who love them is the mark of a sociopath (yep, I said that too).
I will save every single dollar I have for campaigns in 2012 to send them to the recall efforts of this very disgusting human being.
That is all.