John Edwards and The Best Christmas Gift Ever

Each holiday season, my family gives to a few different charities.  It's a tradition that makes us happy.  

Sometimes we give to organizations, but more often it's to people directly-- employees, acquaintances, or even strangers.  Anyone who seems deserving and is down on their luck.

Towards the middle of December last year a man was brought by ambulance to my Emergency Department in diabetic ketoacidosis from not taking his prescribed insulin medications.

Without insulin, none of the glucose could enter his cells, so his body started producing ketones for fuel which turned his blood dangerously acidic.  He became dehydrated with a high serum potassium which could stop his heart beating at any moment.  He was panting loudly-- an automatic reflex that tries to blow off extra carbon dioxide (acid) and rebalance his pH, but it was failing-- he just couldn't keep up.

He was dying.

I started IV fluids to rehydrate him, IV calcium to stabilize his heart, then IV insulin to drive the extra glucose and potassium back into his cells.  

Once the treatments were under way and he could catch his breath, I asked him more about his situation.

He was struggling to support two teenage boys by himself.  He'd just left a job because his employer failed to pay him several months salary he'd been counting on.  He had just signed up for a new job as a mechanic, but was a week away from the first paycheck and didn't have two pennies to rub together.  It was either the medicine or the food, he said, and he wasn't going to let his kids starve.

I then found out his 17 year old was down the street selling firewood out of the back of their pickup truck, to make enough gas money so they could get back over the pass to their rented mobile home once he was released from the hospital.

In the middle of stabilizing the man, he suddenly tried to sit up and leave.  His 14 year old was in a Christmas play in a few hours and he just couldn't miss it, even at the probable risk of becoming ill again without medicine.

He started crying as he realized the hopelessness of his situation.

I looked him in the eye, and told him to stay an extra hour while I finished fixing him up.  I couldn't guarantee he'd make the play on time, but told him his son would be okay.  What's more important is that he live to continue taking care of them.

I called my wife and we talked it over.  She drove to the hospital and dropped off our checkbook.  Then I quietly gave the man a check-- more than I've ever given at one time before.  I told him to buy a few months of medication.  Pay a few bills.  Buy some food.  And make sure his kids had gifts waiting under the Christmas tree.

But he was proud.  Wouldn't accept the money as charity.

I argued that he should take it for the sake of his children, and he finally agreed to accept the check as a loan with no interest or repayment date.

After awhile his son showed up and brought him home.

Maybe I'll see that man again someday, maybe not. Either way, it was an amazing feeling for me.

But that wasn't the best Christmas gift ever.

This year we have a chance to give the greatest gift of all-- health care coverage to every American who can't afford it or doesn't qualify for it.  Every man, woman, and child.

Primary care, preventative care, with mental coverage too.

And it won't cost us much either.

That's because every small donation to John Edwards is DOUBLED by the public financing system, and will boost his ability to DELIVER universal coverage within 6 months, or force a showdown with Congress that will.

We've never had a plan so achievable, and we're never had a candidate so motivated and ready for the fight.

With John Edwards leading us forward, we can END the health care crisis in our country.

Now.

For real.

But this gift will only happen if we all contribute together.  

Won't you please consider supporting the Edwards campaign too?  

Whether its $10, $20, or just your primary vote... may the simple act of giving bring joy and happiness to your family-- and hope for a better tomorrow.

https://johnedwards.com/...

Let's make this a Christmas to remember.