Broken

This article in today’s Washington Post was incredibly sad and infuriating. The health care system in this country is BROKEN! This 12 year old boy died of an infection caused by a toothache because it was almost impossible for him to get the care he needed. He ended up needing emergency brain surgery that cost tens of thousand of dollars but could not get in to see a dentist for an $80 tooth extraction because of how Medicaid “works”. This from the article...

Deamonte refused to eat but otherwise appeared happy, his mother said. They played cards and watched a show on television, lying together in his hospital bed. But after she left him that evening, he called her.

"Make sure you pray before you go to sleep," he told her.

The next morning at about 6, she got another call, this time from the boy's grandmother. Deamonte was unresponsive. She rushed back to the hospital.

"When I got there, my baby was gone," recounted his mother.

I hope this story gets the immediate attention that last week’s Post article on the decrepit state of Walter Reed Medical Center housing did. Congress, the Pentagon…everyone was all over that, and renovations were already underway within hours of publication.

This poor boy and his devastated family. Do you realize for every tragic story like this there are countless other people in our country dealing with relentless pain because they can’t get medical care? How powerless. How inhumane. How unacceptable.