Sad story of the immorality of our health care non-system. Jevon Thomas apparently worked the Trade Center site for a year and subsequently developed a sarcoma. His disease and required treatment was costly and disabling. He died impoverished and destitute.
He didn’t hesitate to say yes when his boss asked him to set up toilets at ground zero for the emergency workers. He told CNN in an interview two years ago that he worked there without a mask for 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for about 14 months.
Around the time he stopped working at ground zero, he noticed a lump on his hand. It turned out to be a rare cancer called epithelioid sarcoma.
Thomas had several surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy and had to quit his $65,000-a-year job.
His physician, Dr. Iris Udasin at Rutgers University, found him as much charity care as possible, but his family suffered financially as Thomas’ wife is disabled and couldn’t work to support their two
Medicynical Note: It’s irrelevant whether or not his cancer came from his exposure at the Trade Center. What’s relevant is that in our country, the “wealthiest” in the world, we have problems providing health care.
To repeat the litany: 60% of bankruptcies in the U.S. are related one way or another to health care expenses; we lead the world in health care costs (1.5-2X as much spent per capita); we have 50 million uninsured; care is compromised because of lack of coverage and fear of the expense.
We are unique in the world and it’s shameful.
Medicynic 