Lynn Pace
Lynn Pace became ill in India and discovered care was much more accessible to her there.
LYNN PACE
Lynn Pace has been a social worker for many years, and three years ago, she decided to take some time off and travel.
Of course, when she left her job, she lost her insurance, but she has always been healthy.
Last year, while traveling in India, Lynn fainted.
“I believe I might have died,” she said. “I saw bright, sparkling lights. It was more than passing out.”
But she came to, and later passed out again.
“This time was more like fainting,” she said.
Far from home and worried about what might be wrong, Lynn went to the city of Puna to see a cardiologist.
He was fabulous,” she said. “He was just fabulous.”
The doctor ran a battery of tests, including a stress test.
“He was in the room monitoring the tests,” she said. “And I got the results before I left that day.”
Her cost for all of it was $75.
If that had happened in the United States, she would have had to go without the care or go deep into debt.
“I would have had to wait a week or 10 days for my results,” she said. “My experience there was so good that if I get sick again, I’m getting on a plane and heading to India.”
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Patient Pals & Family Friends volunteer training
Our Feb. 27 training had to be postponed, but we have rescheduled. Join us 10 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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