My sister-in-law Allison owes her life to the health care system in America. I’m not kidding. Allison was born with Truncus Arteriosus, an extremely rare congenital heart defect. Only one in a million children are born with this condition. Born October 16, 1986 to David and Karen, she appeared relatively healthy, other than a loud heart murmur. The doctors performed a simple sonogram and sent her home, assuming that it would heal on its own, which it usually does. Allison seemed to adapt to life at home with her two older siblings, but still Karen felt like something was wrong. As time went by, Karen noticed that Allison wasn’t gaining any weight and that she wasn’t crying as much as her other children had. More extensive tests were done in December, but they were inconclusive. In February 1987, Allison caught a slight cold and went to the pediatrician for some antibiotics. The doctor was concerned about her now louder heart murmur, so he suggested that Karen and David take Allison back to a cardiologist just to ensure that nothing additional was wrong with her heart. Two days later, Karen took Allison back to see the pediatric cardiologist. He took one look at her chest x-ray and saw that she was in congestive heart failure at just 4 months old. She was rushed to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, Texas for further tests. After days of testing, the doctors and her parents knew that a radical and risky surgery was the only thing that could save her life. On Monday, Allison was released from the hospital to spend the night at home. The next day, Allison and her parents left for the University of California San Francisco Moffitt Hospital for a life saving surgery to correct the Truncus Arteriosus. It was a hard decision to travel to San Francisco for the surgery - while it had been performed in Dallas, it had only been successfully performed in San Francisco. They arrived there and spent several anxious days waiting for Allison to stabilize for surgery.
The day after they got to Moffitt Hospital, David and Karen met Dan and Debbie. Dan and Debbie had brought their son Derek USCF for the same surgery that Allison was to undergo, with just a slightly different story. Derek was born in Calgary, Canada. He was born with the same condition as Allison, Truncus Arteriosis, and was properly diagnosed, but because of the nationalized healthcare in Canada, there was an extensive time delay in getting the life saving medical care he needed. His doctor was not up to date on current research for infant heart conditions. By the time the doctors took the time to take a hard look at Derek’s case, he was ten months old and very sick. When the doctors realized the severity of his heart defect, he was rushed to UCSF Moffitt’s Hospital.
Derek had his surgery in late February at ten months old. Allison’s followed on February 22, at 4 ½ months old, a mere 9 pounds. She was in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for four days and then in the hospital about another week, until she was able to go home, finally a healthy baby girl.
Derek also was in the PICU after his surgery, but he never left. 52 days later, on April 15, 1987, Derek died.
Allison lived. Derek died. Allison had access to excellent health care for the first four months of her life. Derek received a diagnosis but was told to wait. Allison and was able to have surgery within a week after it was determined she needed it. Derek had to wait ten months for the surgery.
I am not saying our current health care system is perfect. I know that people fall through the cracks every day. But it works. It works for those who choose to buy the healthcare that their companies offer. It works for those who, even when unemployed, buy health insurance options from the many health care providers across the nation. It works for small babies like Allison that need emergency medical care to save their lives. It works for parents who choose to take part in programs like SCHIP, which provides health care for children whose parents cannot currently afford it.
I acknowledge the fact that our system needs to change: it’s not perfect by any means.
But that is no reason to overhaul our system and create a something where you have to wait to receive healthcare that will save your babies life. Compromising our healthcare and jeopardizing the lives of our babies, parents and friends is not an option. It’s a human life. We have to find a way to protect them all.
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