This unnecessary heart attack death story will bring tears to your eyed. It is coming to pass faster than expected, deaths for profits.
He did not have to die of a heart attack.
Yesterday in our monthly “Ask Egberto Anything” monthly call, one of our PDR Posse members recounted a story that almost led me to tears. His neighbor had a heart attack. This death is a story that is waiting to happen to you. Tom C said the story scared him because it hit so close to home. Tom C recently described his community in a poem he wrote that we published titled “Vanilla Island.” If this can happen in Vanilla Island, it can happen anywhere.
The hospital in their small community did not have the staff or equipment to care for Tom C’s neighbor, who was suffering a heart attack. They sent him to a hospital 40 miles away to a major hospital in a major city. He waited over 9 hours in the emergency room. During that time, he was in excruciating pain.
They did not have a cardiologist at the E.R. “it’s a Saturday,” they told his wife. One room became available, but some needed to clean it. The wife volunteered to do it, but they said no. They got him eventually into a room many hours after his worsening condition in the E.R. They told him a cardiologist would not be available till morning.
Tom C’s neighbor was unable to wait for the cardiologist. His wife got a call. Her husband died from another heart attack. During the long delay, lack of rooms, and lack of medical professionals and doctors, a nurse told his wife, “Welcome to the American healthcare system.”
Indeed, that is the healthcare system that I rail about constantly. Please listen to the entire snippet above. It may lead some to grow empathy and join the fight to protect us all. We need Medicare For All.