Don`t be alarmed. Being Poor and Dying comes from Texas.
My Baby Mom called me this morning. So many time have I referred to my half sister in San Antonio as my "baby mom" in more than one diary I have written on this website. Perhaps you know who I am referring to here today.
And perhaps you might also know I have made Milwaukee my home for so many years now that I have lost the exact count. But Texas has never left my heart. San Antonio nurtured me but despite all of this, the years that have kept me disconnected to that city have blurred my recollection of the number of children my Baby Mom has..All I can tell you with a pretty good degree of certainty is that she has many children.
All my nephews and nieces are married and have moved away from the house where I grew up and where my baby mom was born in 1941. She still lives there.
With further degree of certainty I can say that you guys are the only source of trust I have. Thus, I come in peace. I need some advice I can pass on to my sister.
Her call this morning concerned one of her sons - Tony.
She always looks up to me for advice when she find herself in need of someone who cares. I immediately sensed her situation to be dire and her voice over the phone sounded desperate. She wanted to tell me something tearing at her heart and asking question at the same time that I could not fully grasp everything she wanted to say.
She wanted to get away as soon as possible to return to the hospital where her son is almost (knock on wood) certain to die. If he doesn`t die, I am certain he will wish he did. Here is what I know.
I need your advice - please.
Tony was sitting across the street from my sister`s house with a friend. Tony visited this front yard neighbor frequently to just shoot the breeze in the afternoons. Tony does not work, nor does he drinks alcohol as my sister asserts.
Starting to leave for home across the alley, Tony got to his feet and extended his hand to shake his friends hand. Apparently, as I understood my sister, as Tony started to descend some steps in front of the porch of his friend`s house he missed a step and fell face forward onto the ground -- cement, as I understand.
Tony is a big man. His head hit the bricks so hard that the blow appears to have shattered his brain. At the hospital, my sister found Tony had been operated through his skull and the doctors left the space operated on -- open! The doctors gave a grim prognostic of a recovery, if any for Tony.
If Tony does not die, he will never walk again. That is the cold reality my sister got from the doctors and as she related it to me. Here is another cold reality to being poor. My sister was told that Tony would only be allowed to be in the hospital for 7 days. After that my sister had to take him home, or somewhere else.
Tony is married. He does not have insurance of any kind, never have. His wife washed her hands off of Tony, drew up a "power of attorney" paper and gave it to my sister.
Now I asked my sister why she would do such a thing, and accept that paper?
I guess only a mother could answer my question. She told me that that is exactly what she would want, and that tells me once again what a mother`s natural instincts are, to protect.
I simply could not advise her on how to go about in such a painful journey. I know Texas is the shortest route to hell and being poor and uninsured has me gasping for air.
My baby sister is a strong willed woman. She herself is on Medicaid under disabilities and at once started to process to get Tony enrolled in that program. In the coming days Tony will be kicked out of the hospital, open brain surgery and all.
I don`t know what to tell my sister. She left for the hospital as soon as she hung up the phone to be with her son. No one is allowed to spend the night by his side and she must go home at some point in the evening, only to return next morning.
I guess the question I have is if there is anyone from Texas who can give me some resource that I can point my sister to. Some resource that can tell my sister what to do when Tony is kicked out of the hospital. Some source who knows of anyone who can help. I am sure that what will follow after Tony is dumped on the sidewalk is a hospital bill. There is no way my sister, "power of attorney and all" can pay.
I wish this tragedy on no one. I ache for my sister though, and Tony of course even though I never met him.
My sister will call me after she get home from the hospital this evening. If anyone can be as generous as I know some here are and advise according with the short piece of information I have at this time I will appreciate it many times over.
I will surely have more information tomorrow. I will really ask my sister questions that I just
found so illusive when we talked this morning.
Things do not look good for Tony, I`m afraid. I am simply amazed at how thick skin my baby mom is. She too has gone through the ringer many times over.
Thank you for anything you can give.-
8:20 PM Thank you for the rec. You guys have spoiled me.