It is strange the things that a person thinks of during a crisis situation or at least to me it was.
Yesterday morning A heavy pain in my chest woke me up from my sleep at about 6:00 AM. Since I have a history of an over active stomach, I first though it was the simple indigestion and took a couple anti acid tablets.
As the minutes went by and I was getting no relief and the growing concern about the pain that was going down my left arm, I started to get a bit concerned. At this point I went into the living room where my wife was since she had been up for a while.
I told her that I was really having a lot of discomfort and I thought it was really indigestion except that I was starting to get a bit concerned because of the arm pain.
Now we live about an hours drive from the nearest trauma center and in fact the way the ambulance system is set up here, it would take at least two hours to get transported to a trauma center by calling 911. My wife asked it I thought we should go to the trauma emergency right now. The thing is that if I had said no she most likely would not insisted we go. Needless to say we loaded up right away and made the trip to our nearest trauma emergency room which happens to have a top notch heart center. We actually made the trip in about 45 minutes. We arrived at the center at 7:15 AM and I actually had been tested and my blockage taken care of and in a room on the third floor by 9:30 AM. The service was top notch. I am left to wonder how good a service or exactly what all of the treatment would have been done had I been one of the unfortunate uninsured. I realize that they have to accept you even without insurance, but I am also aware after working in a hospital environment for over a dozen years that accepting does not guarantee good or all needed treatment.
The real scary thing is when she asked me that it struck me that if I was not covered by Medicare and a supplemental insurance I would have insisted that I was not going to the hospital. I would have stayed at home instead of going and receiving the care that saved my life. My heart attack was in progress when they ran the test which they ran for such symptoms as they usually do. However I was fortunate in that catching it when they did and the emergency treatment kept it to a mild attack. They released me late this afternoon and we are at home again now.
If I had not had insurance the day may well have had a far different outcome. My wife may very well have been faced with planning my burial instead of having me here at home with her.
Also while I was in the emergency room which was quite full of people that were there for any number of reasons, I was wondering how many of them probably did not have any insurance. You have to understand that I live in MS which is the poorest state in the union.
My wife was found to have breast cancer in 2004 and even with her state health insurance the bills that they did not cover stripped us of all savings that we had and left us owing money. But by the grace of God she is so far checking up cancer free and we were so blessed that it was caught at an early stage.
I know that she and I were and are blessed in the fact our problem were both caught in time
Now one of the main points for this diary is that I firmly believe that John Edwards is our best hope for health care for all and while I do not have funds in my bank account until my check arrives the first week of OCT, I wanted to send some more money to John's campaign before the 30th of Sept so it would count on this quarter. I do have some funds in my Paypal account, but I have searched on the John Edwards site for a way to donate via Paypal and have not found one.
Is there a way to donate to John Edwards via Paypal?
I am cross posting this at the http://blog.johnedwards.com/