Archive for December, 2008

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Through the lens of grief

This is not the Christmas I expected, even a week ago. My stepbrother, Scott Phipps, died in a single-car accident Monday night, so I’m having to plan a trip to Pennsylvania for his funeral service and the family gathering that will follow.
I don’t know how Rose will make it through the day. I know she [...]

Trouble ahead

This is from a British news service, which dares to say more than our own US media. I think we’re in for an even bumpier ride, and this means we will have to work even harder to get access to health care for everyone.
U.S. Recession Will Hurt Health Care
Oxford Analytica, 12.23.08, 06:00 AM EST
Even [...]

More evidence of our broken system

There’s a new study out showing African-Americans are far more likely to die of colon cancer than whites. Why? Because whites are more likely to have health insurance. They’re more likely to have jobs that offer coverage that includes colonoscopies.
If Mike had had access to a colonoscopy, he’d still be alive. Instesad he is one [...]

An unregulated system

Not only do we deny access to millions of Americans to our health care system, the ones who are fortunate enough to have an in might be relegated to failing hospitals, where errors occur at alarming rates.
Check out this story from the NY Times about hospital oversight:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08hospital.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
While other industrial nations have government agencies charged with [...]

Death from neglect

From the Associated Press:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A homeless woman who died after writhing in pain on a hospital floor for nearly an hour could have survived if she had received proper treatment, a county report concedes.
The report, obtained by the Los Angeles Times when it was briefly and inadvertently made public in a court [...]

Help Life o' Mike

We need your help now more than ever. Your tax-deductible donation will help us get Patient Pals and Family Friends off the ground. Please consider a gift in honor or in memory of a loved one.

Patient Pals & Family Friends volunteer training

Our Feb. 27 training had to be postponed, but we have rescheduled. Join us 9 days, as we train our next group of volunteers for Patient Pals & Family Friends. The four-hour training will run 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and will include lunch. Patient Pals are people who have experience with an illness or disability. After training, they will be paired with someone who is newly diagnosed or disabled. Family Friends will be volunteers who are paired with family members of people who are ill or disabled, and will have been through the expeience of having a loved one with illness or disability.

In Loving Memory

Life o' Mike has participated two memorial services to remember those who have died from our broken health care system, one in Asheville and one in Raleigh. If you would like to organize more of these services, please contact lifeomike@gmail.com and we will help put it together. The services include stories, prayers and information on how people of faith can make a difference. About 45,000 people die each year because they don’t have health insurance, according to a recent study by Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That breaks down to one American every 12 minutes. Those people can be honored in the service by a bell chime and a moment of silence every 12 minutes in the service. For more information, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712.

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