Healthcare - A Personal Story

Note: I originally posted this months ago at Ol' Broad's place, but given the health care situation facing us, I think it's relevant...

This post got me thinking about another scenario.



This baby was born at 28 weeks gestation. For those of you who don't like math, that means he was born three months premature. His parents didn't get to hold him at birth, as he was whisked away by doctors and nurses. When the doctors came to talk to the parents, the news was frightening. They were told that if this little boy survived, there was a very real possibility that there would be mental and/or physical abnormalities. Over the next few days, a machine helped that child breathe. He was fed through a tube. He was hooked up to all manner of machinery.



Over the next few weeks many tests were done. The parents were told that in a baby that premature, particularly a boy (don't know why, but prematurity affects boys more severely than girls), there was a high likelihood that there would be bleeding on the brain which could lead to brain damage. The child also had a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity which will have one of three outcomes 1) it would correct itself...2) he would need glasses as a toddler or 3) he would go blind. The baby's birth weight was 3 lbs, 3 oz but dropped dangerously to 2 lb 5 oz.



Months later, that baby went home, but his parents had more than a year of follow-up with various doctors, physical therapists, what have you.

If we had government run health care, would the decisions that were made by the parents and the doctors have been the same? Or would the bureaucrats in Washington have decided that the financial risk on this child was too high?


Meet that baby, my son, 12 years later.

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He is a happy, healthy, normal 12 year old boy. Well, as normal as one can be with me as a mom!! It makes me physically ill to think what may have happened had we not had the freedom to decide what is best for our son. It literally brings tears to my eyes as I write this to think that had it been up to the government, my beautiful son may have been "too high a risk" for the healthcare system to save.

Think about it friends. It can happen to you.