I've spoken to Sara R several times through this process, as she has knocked on every possible door looking for help. Yesterday Sara received the final word: because she owns a home with her sister, her assets are too high to qualify for medical assistance despite her unemployment and low income.





Community Quilts for Granny Doc (left) and Zentrainer (right)



Link to Sara R's Paypal account.

This situation makes me angry, too angry for coherent words. Before I go off into a rant about the state of health care in our nation, where someone like Sara R is left curled up in pain and unable to get the most basic medical care, let me turn the floor over to Nurse Kelley:



Dear iriti,

Sara R has been ill for more than a year.

She has no health insurance.

She receives no state aid.

She is unemployed and unemployable because of her health, yet she doesn’t qualify for disability because her disability will likely disappear after she has surgery ... which she can’t get, because she has no health insurance.

Pause while Nurse Kelley bangs her head against the wall

Sara and I are "real life" friends. We talk on the phone almost daily. In the last several weeks I’ve seen her health get worse and worse, leaving her curled on her bed in pain for days at a time.

What is this terrible illness? It’s not so terrible, not if you can get it taken care of. Our Sara has gallbladder disease. She needs surgery, an operation called a cholecystectomy, and I mean for her to have it. I got Sara to look at her problem as two individual problems – health and money – and I persuaded her to attack the health problem first, because an inflamed gallbladder is an emergency.

Sara’s charges for the tests the surgeon wanted – an ultrasound of her gallbladder and a colonoscopy – may be covered by a local angel. She is scheduled to have surgery on February 18 and is expected to prepay both the surgeon and hospital at least 50% of the cost.

So, iriti, Sara did as I asked and is ready to have her surgery and resume her active, loving, giving life. Let’s see what we can do about the money problem, shall we?

Love,

Kelley