A healthcare crisis redoubled Danny Fetonte and Bernie’s effort to use their temporary health setback to illustrate the need for Medicare for All. There is nothing better than showing Americans with real life, with lived examples, why it is a must.
Bernie Sanders recently had a mild heart attack. They unblocked his arteries with a couple of stents and sent him off to his merry way. Bernie had great insurance, unlike most Americans. He got the care he needed, deserved, and as a human right entitled to have. One of his first tweets from the hospital was statement enough.
I met Danny Fetonte at the 2016 DNC. He was a part of the Austin, Texas Bernie Sanders delegation. I was a part of the Houston, Texas Sanders delegation. We had a lot in common, an undeniable passion bordering on obsession to collaborate with others to bring fairness to our economic system. We hung out and listened to the lived realities of the Millenials, the seniors and everyone in between. He has always been a union man and worked his way into well-deserved leadership.
Tonight I received the following email blast from Danny. I was very concerned for my friend.
Fetonte’s for Bernie the last great president was in a wheel chair and had health issues as he made America better.
I am in the hospital with a rare cancer. Due to the cancer my left arm was amputated. The doctor asked me if I had worked in industry because I had remnants of working in industry in my lungs. I worked at Bethlehem Steel for 4 years and other industrial jobs for another 9 years. The doctor said the cancer from the tumor in my arm had metastasized to my lungs. The tumors in my lungs had attached themselves to the areas in my lungs that had been weakened due to the industrial waste.
I started complaining in March of this year about pain in my arm. My waiting time was six months and that was with Medicare and a good union insurance plan. Many Americans without a good insurance plan would have had to wait years and those with no insurance would have ended up in the emergency room half dead with cancer.
We have an insurance system not a healthcare system. It is wrong what we have. Bernie has a solution on healthcare that will help all Americans. Bernie’s program on transportation, on the environment, on mass shootings, on lead poisoning will make the government work for the people not the billionaires.
I have good healthcare. Everyone in America deserves good healthcare. I have been sending him $50 a month and I am raising that to $60 a month. The rest of you who are already sending $27 a month raise it to $37 a month. Everyone start sending money to Bernie, send whatever you can afford. Start talking to your friends about Bernie.
The doctor said that feeling good produces endorphins, works well with the chemicals they are pumping into me that will kill the tumors. That sounds funny but the doctors told me the good spirits helps the chemo kill the tumors. If you want me to beat cancerv then help Bernie win in the first four primaries and on Super Tuesday. Every time you send a dollar or talk to a friend about Bernie you are helping kill my cancerous tumors. SEND me when you raise your financial contributions or when you talk to folks Bernie it will make me better in the fight against cancer. I talked to a lot of folks in the hospital about Bernie 80% were for. Keep talking and sending money to Bernie.. Danny Fetonte and the Fetonte family.
The loss of an arm cannot stop Danny’s passion for Medicare for All and more.
I immediately called Danny after receiving the email. I expected to hear a tired and likely soft voice given his current ordeal. That was not to be.
“Egberto, I am just walking in from the hospital from some treatments,” Danny said with his booming voice. “You know Egberto, I spoke to the nurse and the aids and everyone at that hospital. When I asked them about who they liked, most looked around and then quietly said, BERNIE.”
Danny was on automatic pilot. He was in the hospital not only as patient-in-chief but Medicare for All explainer-in-chief. He said it was not at all difficult to convince even those not predisposed to like it. Why? Because it is logical and illustrates the degeneracy of the current healthcare system we have.
Danny said he is blessed to have Medicare as well as his union insurance. He is better off healthcare-wise than the vast majority of Americans. His case of liposarcoma would be fatal for most even with insurance today because of how it presents itself.
Danny will overcome this major setback if only because of his positivity, will, and intent on surviving. More importantly even as he is exhausted and in pain after his treatments, he is out there either physically or virtually serving.
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