This is a heartfelt shout out to the emergency services and medical care folks in Bucks County and an urgent plea for including robust access for all to this high quality care regardless of their financial situation or where they live.
Two weeks ago my wife essentially died for 9 seconds, when her heart stopped beating half way up the stairs in our Lower Makefield home, resulting in a fall, suffering lacerations to her head, multiple broken bones, including two spinal fractures, and massive bruising to her face. The fact that she is alive today, and on the long road to recovery is due to resources that are available, and that we were able to afford.
Our long term life care policy provided an emergency contact service which, at the push of a button on a device on my wrist, made the call to 911. Within 5 minutes a Lower Makefield Township police woman arrived at our door, followed in a few minutes by a fully equipped EMT ambulance and expert team. They quickly assessed that due to her advanced age and the height of her fall that she needed to be transferred to a level 2 trauma unit. Her neck was braced, she was stabilized with IV and heart monitored en route and the ambulance transported her to the emergency room at St. Mary Hospital in Langhorne, the only level 2 trauma unit in Bucks County, and only 15 minutes away from our home.
St. Mary Hospital ER doctors and nurses thoroughly diagnosed her injuries and she was transferred to their Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where she stayed for four days. The doctors treating every aspect of her injuries, and the nurses who cared for her every need were exceptional. Her care was personal and caring, and their understanding and patience was extraordinary. They allowed me to stay with my wife through each night to help comfort her after such a traumatic experience. All of her vital functions were continually and closely monitored.
The diagnosis of the 9 second stoppage of her heart was made possible by another piece of high technology called a loop recorder, which had been implanted near her heart earlier this year by her team of cardiologists after she had experienced several episodes of syncope (fainting) with no apparent cause. The device keeps track of heart function over time, and when this record was downloaded and read by the cardiologists at St. Mary and Capital Health it showed that her heart had stopped at the precise instant of the fall. Accordingly, with that explanation of her syncope, she was fitted with another piece of modern technology, a pacemaker, which will jump start her heart if this ever happens again.
When her condition improved she was transferred to the St Mary Critical Care Unit (CCU) and her treatment continued with the same personal and empathetic attention that she had gotten in their ICU. Then, as she continued to rally, it was determined she was strong enough to be transferred to St Mary Rehabilitation, for two weeks of rehab, and the location where I am writing this message. Again, the level of attention and understanding is exceptional, and is directed towards encouraging her resumption of self care in preparation for returning home.
Our long term care plan will then start in home care for assisted living as long as she needs it, and Medicare and AARP Supplemental will be facilitated by St Mary staff to cover in home care until my wife can return to her previous level of independence.
So, with the help of great police, EMT, ER, ICU, CCU, and Rehab, my wife stands a very good chance of getting back her previous health and to continue to enjoy life to the fullest.
READ: Thanks to Republican Medicaid and ACA Cuts, Pennsylvanians Find Themselves in a Health Care Crisis
As I reflect of all of this, however, I am struck by the fact that my wife and I are privileged
by where we live, by the resources we have, to be able to pay for insurance, employ medical services providers, and communicate with doctors and hospitals with our home computers and broad band WiFi service. It is deeply troubling, and outrageous, that too many people living in our rich Country, and in this wealthy Bucks County, with its superabundant state-of-the-art resources, cannot reach or afford the level of care and competence that my wife and I enjoy. We are not special, but we have special outcomes when the worst happens.
The fact is our current President, unlike any before him, places more importance on waging wars, building ballrooms and self-serving monuments, and demands frivolous expressions of vanity to bolster his own fragile ego. He and his compliant GOP pays for this by cutting the benefits that should be helping people with low resources to live healthy and decent lives, and to be helped in times of need instead of being drowned in medical debt. To say that President Trump, and his complicit enablers in Congress like Brian Fitzpatrick lack a sense of empathy and respect for human dignity is almost too kind. They are willfully blind to the needs of people unlike themselves, or if not blind, they choose to look away and walk on the other side of the road, leaving it up to the Good Samaritan to take responsibility.
Medical Care is not only a human right, it is the responsibility of the community at large to make sure that those who are the most vulnerable are not left behind on the side of the road.
