Annie told me that after the last heart attack the doctors had told Kenny he needed by bypass surgery but their hands were tied because he had no insurance . They suggested he try to get on social security . Which Annie said they had tried but were told the wait would be at least several months if not a year or more before they could hope to be approved.

Annie could tell that Kenny was getting worse, and even though Kenny didn't say anything she knew, he knew; he was worse too. Annie told me how her husband was a worker. Never sits still Annie said. Up at dawn doing something chopping wood, piddling in his garage. Annie said people ask Kenny how he stays so thin and she always answers for him. He is thin because he never sits still. But now Kenny was sitting still and seemed somedays to have trouble breathing. They had been to so many doctors and Kenny was on so much medicine their savings were all gone. So they had went to the bank to see about getting a loan against the house so Kenny could get the bypass surgery. The bank said that Kenny needed to be back to work for 3 months and then they would be glad to give them a loan.

So Kenny had went back to work , and in the small shop he worked at the guys had been great Annie said. They won't let him lift a thing. he welds a little and feels good being back to work. But he is so tired when he gets home , and he is loosing more weight. And then two weeks ago Kenny had had another attack. In the last two weeks Annie and Kenny had spent four nights in the ER . They hook him up to tubes, shoot him full of drugs and release him in the morning Annie said. Kenny can't work anymore Annie said and i am afraid to leave him, so I am on leave from my job. Kenny's family and my son in law have been taking turns buying Kenny's medicines. And the guys at Kennys machine shop have been great every time I turn around here comes one of them with a bag of groceries, or something their wife has cooked for us.

Annie looked at me and I saw her straighten her shoulders. I'm sorry she said I should not have bothered you with all this. By this time like ladies do thrown into bad situations together we had warmed up to each other and were chatting like two old friends.

I told her I was a newly wed , and we laughed together about the things men and women go through learning to live together. I told her about my kids. Annie beamed when she told me about her daughter and grandchild,and I could see just how pretty a woman she really was if her face wasn't all swollen from crying a river of tears.

At one point my own tears did come when I told her how scared I had been to find my husband pacing the floor in the kitchen clutching his chest. Annie moved across the room and put her arm around my shoulders. Annie said , honey I know just how you feel. We sat there awhile longer two women scared for the men they loved. Annie looked much better now and worrying about my husband I gave Annie my phone number and told her to please call. Turns out we only lived about three miles from each other.

I had just gotten back to my husband in the ER , when the shift changed at the hospital. In came new nurses, in a blur of activity . Not long after the critical care ambulance arrived and I left to follow them to the city to be with my husband. Turns out my husband did not have a heart attack. He was diagnosed in Cincinnati as having a Paragardium infection. A infection of the sack that surrounds the heart. They say they don't know why it happens , but its nothing to worry about( if you get medical care) and rarely happens twice. And sure enough it hasn't . My big old hill billy husband is as strong as a ox and hasn't been sick, except for a cold since. We celebrated our seventh year anniversary this last August.

I never saw Kenny again though. A couple of weeks after my husband was released from the hospital I saw Kennys funeral announcement in the paper. I had not even caught Annies last name. But there was no doubt this was Kenny Ozbourne the paper said. There he was in a younger picture I am sure , staring at me from the page of the paper. Annie was right when she told me he had always been so healthy. He looked fit and the twinkle in his eye told me he had been a character too , as Annie had said. I cried a little , and felt so bad for Annie. But my own life was still not normal. I was working but my husband had not yet went back. And you just don't get over a scare like that in two weeks. So I choked back the tears and tried to put Kenny and Annie out of my mind.

I had lived in my small community for 15 years. I knew everybody it seems in the business world because of my job, working part time at the local paper. If I hadn't met them at the paper I had met them at a football, basketball, or baseball game because my sons played all three sports in school . In small towns everybody goes to the football games. So I was somewhat a celebrity mom because of the athletic drive of my two sons, who are a year and seven days apart and played on the same team most of their school days.

A couple months went by and Annie and Kenny kept popping into my mind. What a shame I thought that Kenny had died for lack of a by pass operation. What a shame I could not have given him my insurance and a chance to live.

One of my sons best friends mothers was the Administrator of the local hospital, so one night when I ran into her I asked why Kenny hadn't been able to get the by pass surgery. She explained that the hospital does raise money every year to do procedures for people like Kenny with no insurance , but money is always tight. The board of directors looks at each free surgery request and evaluates the need. She did not remember Kenny but asked me when he died. When I gave her a approximate date she told me that she could not be sure, but that was at about the same time that a 23 years old pregnant woman had been in a car accident. She was not hurt badly but had almost miscarried and the Doctors wanted her in the hospital to be monitored for the last six weeks of the pregnancy. The board of directors had approved this pregnant girls free care, and her baby had been born healthy. But the cost of her care had depleted the last of the free care budget till the next fund raiser scheduled about a month off. So given the choice Kenny gets a bypass or a pregnant lady gets a healthy baby I wondered what Kenny would have chosen?

I knew the county Head of of the county Health and Human Services (welfare)board , her husband and I used to be on a softball team together. So I called Helen and asked if she would see me I had some questions about people getting health care when they had no insurance. I told Helen about kenny and how he had died , when the doctors had told Annie that he would have had a good chance at a long life if he could have gotten the bypass surgery. Helen told me that they had no programs to fit somebody like Kenny, that her agency helped families with children. Helen did tell me that various charities around town would help with the cost of medication for somebody who was in Kenny's position and sometimes even raise enough money in a fund raiser to pay for a needed operation. But Helen said if you have ever noticed at every grocery store and convenience store in town they keep a jar collecting money for a child who has a illness even Medicaid will not cover. People are always trying to raise money to get a bone marrow transplant for a child, or cancer treatments for a mother with small children. In Helens experience people give so much to children, and young mothers that fund raisers for grown men rarely raise enough money to do more than keep them in medicine for a month or two. I thanked her for her time. Helen suggested I visit the Local chairmen of the county children and Adult Helping Hands Charity.

I knew him too his was a local banker. I knew he'd be in so I just headed on over. Ernie, pretty much told me the same story Helen had. The annual fund raiser for the Children and Adults Helping Hands Charity does very well Ernie said. We raise about $400,000 every year sometime a little more. Not bad in a county of 33,000 people Ernie said. I told Ernie Kenny's story and how he died. To my surprise Ernie knew Kenny. Fine man Ernie said I am sorry to hear that. Then Ernie explained that he was sorry to say if Kenny or Annie had come to the charity for help we could not have paid for the surgery anyway. Our budget is often taken in part by children every year who are sick and the Charity has taken on the responsibility of helping every month. With things like transportation and hotel costs when the child needs to travel to doctors appointments in the city. We often donate a small monthly check to the family because with a really sick child usually one parent has to quit work to care for the child and the family budget is tight. Ernie explained that the charity buys lots of medicine for people each year, and provided wheelchairs and some dental care for really poor kids. But that 400K a year they raise will just not stretch far enough to handle the stuff they do each year and pay for a operation like Kenny needed. Ernie told me the charity certainly would have paid for his medicine though. I thanked Ernie for his time.

I left Ernies office upset to learn that nothing was out there to help someone like Kenny. But I had a life to live a business to run and a part time job at the newspaper. So I tried to put it out of my mind.

Then one day at church, it was announced that a young mother of three had cancer, her husband had just lost her job; and the church was going to take up donations to pay to keep their cobra plan going. We needed about a $1000 a month to keep the cobra paid. I often watched Sarah's children in the nursery they were a handful so full of energy. Sarah was so young. What would her husband and children do without her? The church raised the money each month and Sarah had her cobra insurance for another full year, till cobra said time was up . I'd been stopping by Sarah's home for the last year once in awhile to help with the kids and chat. We talked on the phone a lot. Even though Sarah was 26 and I was over 40 the generation gap had been bridged and we had become friends.

I knew Sarah's cancer treatments had not went well, that she was still very sick. The church raised more money for Sarah's care until one day she stood up in church and read a little prepared statement she had written. Sarah said that she wanted to thank everyone in the church for all the love and help they had given her family. But the time had come when she had to put herself in the hands of God. That the doctors said they could do more surgery and radiation , but the chances were good that it would only prolong her life a little. The entire church gasped when Sarah told us that further treatment would cost well over $18,000 a month. We gasped because that is not even close to the money we had been raising. Sarah said she loved us all and wanted to say thank you, but she was not going to take any more treatment. I talked with Sarah on the phone and she told me that she knew she was dying and did not have long . Sarah said she was just trying to help her mother and husband accept the fact she was dying and they would be left with three small children to care for without their mother.

Sarah died within the month. Sitting at her funeral Annie and Kenny popped back into my head. I had not thought of them in a long while , but sitting at the funeral I could not help but think of Kennys needless death again. We as a church had did all we could for Sarah a young mother , but Kenny had never even had a chance.

I had avoided Frish's for some time because I did not know if I wanted to bump into to Annie. it was easy to do Frish's was in the next small town about a 20 minute drive from where I lived.

I had to face facts , I was not going to be happy till I stopped in at Frish's to see how Annie was doing if she still worked there. She had told me she worked weekends because tips were better and the restaurant needed her then. So one Saturday afternoon I headed to Frish's . And sure enough there was Annie. She looked so different than the last time I had saw her. I had got a glimpse at the hospital through all the tears and her swollen eyes that Annie was a pretty woman and now I knew. Annie had bright red hair, a beautiful smile and eyes that sparkled when she smiled.

I waited in line a long while telling the hostess that I was a old friend of Annies and that she probably wouldn't recognize me , but that I wanted to be seated at her station to surprise her.

To my surprise when Annie came to take my order she did recognize me. I Know you from the hospital she said. The newly wed ! How you doing kiddo? We laughed a minute and I told her I was sorry to have seen in the paper that Kenny died. You could see a flash of pain cross her face while she thanked me. But the restaurant was busy and we didn't have the time to talk. I felt better though when I left I had at least paid my respects to Kenny.

Now I could go to Frish's again. Over several months I ran into Annie at Frish's . I liked her easy manner and the twinkle in her eye when she smiled. No doubt we were friends now. One day before Christmas when I was in eating lunch Annie told me she wanted to look for a certain toy for her grandchild for Christmas. I'm going to the city Sunday afternoon to do some Christmas shopping why don't you come with me says I?

Annie and I shopped found that toy, picked out clothes for my teenagers and had a grand time. We called each other now from time to time and Annie stopped by my office if she was in town. One day I finally asked her the question that had been bothering me all this time. I told her about my research after Kenny's death and how the hospital had told me they just did not have the money because of the pregnant woman in the car accident and her baby. I never really got the question out , before Annie interrupted me and said " Oh honey is that what is bothering you all this time? Don't you fret Kenny would have said save the baby." I wish my Kenny could have gotten his bypass, but I know my Kenny if somebody else needed the money to live he would have said give it to them anyway. Kenny loved kids he would have wanted that baby taken care of.

Annie and I are still friends. Recently I drove back to that small town from a state away to attend Annies mothers funeral. Annie has since told me that she is grateful for every minute of every day she had with Kenny. She would not trade her time with him for anything. I teased Annie once that she was such a pretty lady, why didn't she take some of the old guys who were so obviously smitten with her at Frish's up on their offers for a date? Annie looked at me and again I saw pain flash across her face briefly. Annie told me that the only time she does get mad because Kenny is gone is when she thinks of dating . Annie says that she feels like Kenny's life was not finished yet when he died. Annie said that she knew if Kenny could have gotten that operation she'd still have him to hold and cuddle with in her bed. Annie told me that she could not forgive life for cutting Kennys life so short. And Annie said that no body could ever take Kenny's place in her heart , so why bother to date. Annie did confess you got to flirt a little , you get better tips.

Annie is still a beautiful red head. I bet getting close to 60 . She still works at Frish's and gray haired men still love her. She lives alone , but her daughter built a house on Annie's and Kenny's land , so she has her daughter and grandchild nearby. Annie and I talk on the phone every couple of months . She doesn't email as she says she would not even know how to turn a computer on. Annie keeps promising to come visit me in West Virginia one day. I hope she does.

Life expectancy as a whole has inched up due to medicines keeping people alive . But that is not all people , that is those that can pay for the medicine. And the US lags behind 40 other nations in life expectancy.

Report: Number of U.S. deaths up in 2005

I wouldn't want to bore you coyote but the link above will take you to a short report about the fact US deaths are up due to lack of health care for the uninsured.

Oh and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you'll see that the US lags behind 40 other countries in life expectancy. Some of them so small I have never heard of them.

Regardless where we rank compared to other countries US life expectancy is at an all time high. The Average American is living 30 years longer than he or she was 100 years ago.

Life expectancy in U.S. rises to all-time high of 78 | Science & Health | Reuters

It’s not like those other countries that surpassed us are leaving forever most of the out live us by a matter of days. The Japanese, who top the list, outlive us by only four years.

Also be advised that our death rate is lower than many other industrialized countries. Crude Birth and Death Rates for Selected Countries — Infoplease.com

Rather than getting worked up by a few countries that out live is by a few days we should be more concerned about the countries whose populations die 10 years or more before us.



It’s ironic that some of the environmental alarmists on this forum were trying to convince me that a low death rate was actually a bad thing because it contributed to over population. I hope you’re as disgusted by such a suggestion as I am.

Questions for environmental alarmists

__________________
"If capitalism had never existed, any honest humanitarian should have been struggling to invent it. But when you see men struggling to evade its existence, to misrepresent its nature, and to destroy its last remnants - you may be sure that whatever their motives, love for man is not one of them." - Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

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New Law Trashes Genetic Science

I certainly hope we are living longer than a 100 years ago.

I do not see the logic in that response as a 100 years ago in 1907 antibiotics had not even been invented. Pennecilian was not in use till the 1940's

Since the invention of antibiotics we have certainly come a long way. We have drugs to control hypertension, which I suspect has always killed off mankind just nobody knew what it was till recently. We have drugs to control diabetes and heart disease.

Yep makes sense to me that we would be living longer than a 100 years ago We actually have drugs and medicines that allow people to live through operations and fight infection. If they can get the operation

Not to mention vaccines against things like small pox that is all but non existent now days but killed plenty as recently as 40 years ago.

Of coarse we live longer coyote. But please tell me what in the world does that have to do with the fact that the American Medical Association estimates 18,000 american's die a year needless deaths from lack of health care? And that is just the ones eventually reported by some medical examiner. Believe me there are many more that go unreported . Because hospitals and medical examiners in small communities will work together to keep that all hush hush so the hospital doesn't look bad.

Please tell me what longevity as a whole has to do with people like Kenny I wrote about above dying because they cannot get treatment?

And if we don't get a handle on this and get some kind of health care for everybody , believe me the longevity rates in the US will fall behind other countries even more as sheer numbers of unnecessary deaths will pull them down.

CNN.com - U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says - May 10, 2006

The real indctment of the failure of the US healtcare system is found in the infant mortalty rate, more so then in the life expectancy stats


The infant mortality rate correlates very strongly with and is among the best predictors of state failure. IMR is also a useful indicator of a country's level of health or development, and is a component of the physical quality of life index.

__________________
"You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that."
GW Bush

So let me get this straight....Global warming is junk science, but creationism is biology ?

The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
John Adams

" I have never in my life belonged to any political organizations except the Republican Party and the NRA"
Timothy McVeigh

Thanks for the Link Left

Very good, we were able to invent antibiotics and vaccines without universal health care. Life expectancy increased in the United States without universal healthcare. How was that possible?

People die because they can’t get treatment in every country. No system is perfect.

The US death rate is lower than other countries. Crude Birth and Death Rates for Selected Countries — Infoplease.com

__________________
"If capitalism had never existed, any honest humanitarian should have been struggling to invent it. But when you see men struggling to evade its existence, to misrepresent its nature, and to destroy its last remnants - you may be sure that whatever their motives, love for man is not one of them." - Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

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New Law Trashes Genetic Science