This is going to be short and sweet, because there is only so much to say about this horrible, tragic story. 9 year old Zumante Lucero-Mills died because the computer system said he was not eligible for Medicare, even though HE WAS.
Read the story here:
http://www.denverpost.com/...
Zuton Lucero-Mills said she called Denver County Human Services several times a week in the spring and summer of 2009 after she tried to get 9-year-old son Zumante's asthma medications at Walgreens and was told he wasn't eligible for Medicaid.
No one resolved the computer glitch. Most of Lucero-Mills' calls weren't returned.
Her son's asthma worsened after several months of being off the anti-inflammatory drug Advair, which kept the disease manageable.
The boy died in July 2009. He fainted at his home after telling his mother he couldn't breathe and then died a few days later at Children's Hospital when he was taken off a ventilator.
Two things really depressed me about this story, one of them that shouldn't have, but it did anyways.
1. The fact that they simply let this child die, despite the fact that his mother had the paperwork showing that he was eligible for the drugs he needed to SURVIVE. TO LIVE. Despite the mother's efforts, they ignored her, and did not give her the medicines her son needed. And while I cannot know if this had to do with race, even if it did, it doesn't matter, because there are people suffering in this country of all races and backgrounds, and we need to not just fight racism, but this brutal, uncaring oligarchy that chews up and spits up anyone in it's path.
2. Reading the comments on the website, and how so many of those people blamed the mother for what happened. These same tea party CLOWNS, who are so quick to blame TEH GUBMENT for THEIR problems, blame her for this.WHAT WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO DO? DO THEY HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXPENSIVE THIS MEDICINE IS?
Idiot comments like this:
Use to be you worked hard in school and then worked hard in life so you could have all the things you wanted. But now if you did all those things and became financially successful you are and evil person for not giving it all back so someone else can live like you. When the incentive to be successful in this country is gone and when the takers out number the givers this country as we know it is over. There will be no social safety net.
This FUCKING CLOWN ASS MORON doesn't know THE FIRST FUCKING THING about how hard it is to be poor in this country. I am literally shaking as I write this. I know I shouldn't stupid tea party trolls get to me like this, but for some reason this story and these comments was just too much for me. It just feels like so many Americans have lost a sense of humanity and brotherhood with our fellow man. Maybe it was never like that. Maybe this has always been a selfish, cold nation. I wouldn't know, I'm only 20. But I am incredibly jaded.
But I am also incredibly thankful for Daily Kos, despite my disagreements with some people on here, when someone is in need, the response of this community is always incredible, and warming. There is hope. But it seems to be fading day after day.
I guess my point here, is when we all (myself included) in pie fights, just remember what we need to be fighting for. We need to fight for people like Zumante Lucero-Mills, who died because of a computer glitch. Next time you are pie fighting over a congressional appointment, Geithner, the Super Congress, Obama, or whatever the issue may be, remember Zumante. Remember the little boy who died because of a simple computer glitch.