Names of the Dead

My dear friend Michael Gerrard Lyons died a few weeks ago in early October of stage 4 Pancreatic cancer. Mike was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis and diabetes type I was over 30 years ago when he in his early 20's. His last 2 years of life he was in and out of doctors offices with abdominal pain that was undiagnosed and untreated. This pain was an ominous sign for someone with his history. Any physician examining a patient with his medical history would suspect pancreatic cancer. Mike was a patient at a very large health care provider here in the state of Florida. He had been a patient in the Family Practice Clinic locally and paid out of pocket for his health care visits because he had no insurance. Mike worked full time driving for awhile delivering medical documentation and lab samples often for that same instution but still had no insurance. He lost his job when he ran into a telephone pole because his blood sugar was so unstable. He went to a doctor to request an insulin pump which would have helped to regulate his insulin. Without insurance it was not possible. The doctors would not treat his pain and often questioned his requests for pain medication. He had x-rays, and ct scans done but this Florida instution that is the dominant health care provider in the central florida area could not make a definative diagnoses and offered no treatment for his pain. Mike was out of a job, without health insurance, and in pain because a system had deeply failed him. He eventually went to the Mayo Clinic and paid $600 cash out of his pocket to get a 2nd opinion. The Mayo Clinic... sent him back to this central Florida provider and told them to do a liver biopsy. A quick simple biopsy to see if there were signs of cancer, as well as CT and MRI and ERCP to determine if he had pancreatic cancer. These tests were done. They were positive for stage 4 pancreatic cancer with multiple liver metastasis. while in the hospital, they implanted a port for chemotherapy. Mike received 3 months of chemo. He died 4 months after his diagnoses. For 2+ years Mike did all he could to get the health care he deserved. In the end he was covered by Medicaid, only after the terminal diagnoses was made. He suffered in pain needlessly, and struggled in vain believing he was getting reasonable health care despite his lack of insurance. In the end, I feel he was treated with discrimination as a subject of a health care system that segregates patients according to their ability to pay. Quite simply, he did not have insurance, and THEY did not treat him. This should be against the law. Mike died in hospice care with family and friends. Thank heavens Medicaid was there in the end to help give comfort.