Next Gen Journal

by John Robert Corker

Last year George lost both of his parents, within six months of each other, to cancer.  [Some details that follow have been modified in order to protect the identity of the patient]  He had no siblings or extended family with whom to grieve.  So he turned to food to help him cope with the pain and fill his unbearable void.  He ate until he ballooned to more than twice his normal weight, and he now tips the scales at more than four hundred pounds.  George drove away his girlfriend with his depression and binging, and he has since lost his job as a mail carrier.  His hulking body allows for only a few steps before he painfully collapses into a wheelchair.  Because of his decreased mobility and unrestricted eating, George has developed Type II Diabetes, hypertension, and poor circulation in his extremities.  He has terribly painful skin ulcers on his lower legs (which must remain bandaged in order to avoid serious infection).

A doctor cares for a patient (From the National Institute of Health)

I see George every other Wednesday, like clockwork, at the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center in South Bend, Indiana.  With all of his compounding ailments, George is in need of regular medical attention, but he cannot find a private company that will insure him.  Furthermore, George does not qualify for government-funded programs such as Medicare (for the elderly) or Medicaid (for the poor): he is still a relatively young man and his assets are augmented by savings and the home that his parents left him when they passed away.  So George comes to our health clinic, which serves only uninsured patients.  Needless to say, George’s life is not a well-spring of excitement, so I understand when he leaves his smile at the door as he rolls in every other week.

Despite all of this, George is my favorite patient because he reminds me of why I want to be a doctor.  When he arrives at the clinic, I wheel  him to his examination room, record his vital signs, and ask him questions in order to update the attending physician on his condition. We even talk about Notre Dame football while his ulcers are examined and his bandages changed.  He is never late, he never complains, and he is always noticeably – if quietly – appreciative of our efforts.  Although he sometimes forgets to take his blood pressure medication and is still prone to late-night rendezvous with the refrigerator, his body weight has stabilized and his blood sugar is under control.  But more importantly, George is experiencing both a sense of dignity and the peace of mind that comes from receiving quality medical care.  George may never again live a “normal” life at a normal body weight and with a normal blood pressure.  But each time he wheels out that door, I feel as if I have contributed, if only in a small way, to both his physical and emotional well-being.

George’s situation is as symbolic as it is unfortunate.  He represents one of our national community’s most desperate needs.  He is one of tens of millions of Americans who need and deserve the highest quality medical care and healing but are without the means to obtain it.  Indeed, he is the face of a suffering population that hungers for meaningful answers.  It is a population that cannot afford to spend any more time struggling through community clinics, clogging up emergency rooms, and desperately trying to make thirty-day prescriptions last six weeks or even three months.

As our nation marches into a new decade, our generation – the next generation – of future physicians, lawyers, politicians, teachers, municipal workers and other public servants needs to see change in our nation’s healthcare policy.  And we want to be a part of making this change a reality.  We are unwilling to allow our nation to spend one out of every five dollars we produce on medical care.  We are unwilling to allow the education of our children, the well-being of our senior citizens and other pieces of our tax-funded pie suffer because of the increasing size of the healthcare slice.  And we are unwilling to sit idly by as each day thousands more of our neighbors go without the care that they need.

It should be our government’s highest priority to pass healthcare legislation that will fundamentally change how we deliver medical treatment in this country.  As is clearly undisputed, this legislation should serve to reduce costs while increasing access and improving quality.  This is a tall order to be sure, but it is nonetheless a challenge that must be met now with open minds and uncompromising fortitude.  The well-being of our country depends on it.  Our generation depends on it.  George depends on it.

John Robert Corker is a NGJ Contributor and a 2007 Graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He is now attending medical school at Wright State University.