However, the health care industry in the USA might make a different decision.
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He Deserves To Live
Veronica Vargas
This is what I know today—my Uncle Jose is finally being treated right.
As a human.
He’s not from here. He came from Zacatecas when he was young.
He has no insurance.
His failing kidneys didn’t seem to matter.
Took five diabetic attacks before a doctor even glanced at him.
It didn’t matter that he’s a dad or a father figure to me, his niece.
No money—they overlook you
No insurance—you might as well be invisible.
I remember the day before my uncle’s operation.
They were going to move the tubes for his dialysis treatment into his arm.
The left arm just like his mom had it.
I could see the fear masked behind his eyes.
He tried to keep it together but I could tell he was falling apart.
His eyes are now swallowed by dark around them.
His once tanned skin is now pale and colorless.
And although he laughs, I can hear the breaths of pain hidden between those
moments of joy.
He woke.
Weeks had passed.
Now he has a longer chance of raising his kids, of seeing them grow up.
My Uncle Jose deserves to live.
Dialysis.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
He’ll be okay.
I hope.
As long as they see him still.
As long as they view him as human.
Actually as long as they can turn a profit.
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Please check out the other POPS Updates:
California Students Transform Through Art With POPS
Teaching Kids to Open the Tap on Creativity
If You Wrote Someone Who is Incarcerated
There aren’t Fathers Where I am From
“They Stereotype the Students”
Listening and the Difference Caring Makes
His Blood Runs Through Me Remember This
I’m Still Being Punished for His Crime
I was Homeless at the Age of Eight
Photo: dno1967b/Flickr
My prayers are with Jose. But he’s not alone “Hospital delays are killing America’s war veterans” “Veterans waiting years for benefits Vets face delays in mental health care Soldier drug ‘guinea pigs’ sue the V.A. Strangers gather for funeral of WWII vet Medical investigators reviewed the cases of 280 gastrointestinal cancer patients at Dorn and found that 52 were “associated with a delay in diagnosis and treatment.”