Names of the Dead

Skip was always a healthy looking guy. He was in the marine corps as a young man, and he had a black belt in karate. He was physically fit, and he seemed to avoid junk food; we even harassed him to quit smoking in his early 40's. His problem is that he drank too much. Throughout his 20's and 30's, and even his 40's he was outwardly a model of good physical health. He never made much money, and as a laboring man, he wasn't offered insurance through a job. - Annual checkups are a luxury when you live paycheck to paycheck, and It wasn't until he started looking unhealthy that he even thought about going to a doctor. He cut alcohol consumption to a couple cans of beer a day to wean himself off. Because he had no insurance, they had to register for the free clinic, and wait about a month to see the doctor. When the results from the tests came back, is suggested cirrhosis of the liver; the doctor at the clinic said he had to quit drinking, or he would die in 6 months. He quit immediately, and he began using medication from the doctor. - An annual checkup might have unveiled the liver problem much earlier, as it would for many disorders. - Fluid retention became severe, and he had to go to the emergency room for treatment. The only way to remove the excess fluids seemed to be: wait until it is an emergency and go to the emergency room. - On his final trip, May 11, 2009, Skip thought he would be home for dinner. He was joking with the hospital staff, and my mother. Suddenly his health took a turn for the worse. Skip got a rapidly worsening infection in the emergency room, and his heart stopped soon stopped. - Because he was only able to wait for an emergency to be able to receive treatment, he went to the septic emergency room, and got infected. - The visits ended up costing my mother $50,000. She will never be able to afford to pay. It would have cost so much less to be able to see a physician before it was too late. Much less measured in both dollars, and in life.