Health Care

From Bad To Good

Lying on the asphalt of the parking lot of the Santa Clarita Soccer Center on a day with temperatures in triple digits Colby Singletary had one prevailing thought in her mind. Her situation was unclear to her as she saw with blurred vision a crowd of people swarming over her attempting to figure out what went wrong. When most people come back to reality with their blood everywhere the first thought is what happened but in Singletary’s case it was how much will this cost me?
In June of 2008, her Saturday started off as many others did during that point in her life. She slept in till the early afternoon waking up just in time to take a shower and head out the door to catch her boyfriend’s soccer game before heading off to work. As the game went on she felt a little off but shrugged it off thinking it had something to do with her late night out with the girls.
After the game she made her way back to her car to proceed to the bar at the Valencia Ice Station where she was scheduled to work for the next several hours. Singletary never made it to work that day because she passed out in the parking lot within a few feet of her car. Singletary said, “I just wanted to make it to my car because I knew that I needed to sit down before I fell down.”
Before she had a chance to say no, due to her being unconscious, a group of people called for an ambulance because after all they did just see a girl fall flat on her face in the middle of a
parking lot and make no effort to get up. Ryan Pursely, an EMT and friend of Singletary’s, was on the scene and did what he could to keep her awake. He said, “I thought she passed out due to dehydration and the heat.”
Within ten minutes the ambulance arrived and took her to the local hospital. Once there she was treated for dehydration with saline solution and given x-rays for her nose. After two IV’s of saline Singletary was released with a broken nose and large bill.
Singletary is among the estimated 6.5 million people in the state of California living without healthcare. Lack of healthcare is a huge problem on a national level with an estimated 47 million individuals whom are uninsured across the country.
On a local and national level the healthcare system must be reformed. Here in the United States we possess the best trained medical professionals, advanced medical technology, state of the art medical facilities and excellent medical research. In spite of all of this local and national governments allow such a large amount of people to live life uninsured.
California is among the few states that have attempted to reform their healthcare system. In 2007 Governor Schwarzeneegger attempted to reform the state’s policies by mandating that all California residents have a set minimum when it comes to health insurance.
We have seen that in other developed countries a universal healthcare system is accepted by the citizens of that country. Although universal healthcare is not without its price the benefits outweigh the negatives. On the plus side, universal healthcare provides for better preventative care and less crowded emergency rooms and county facilities. The downside to the program is the tax increase that is necessary to pay for such reforms.
The tax increase would definitely be noticed by the nation as a whole but the millions of
uninsured would be thankful. A 10 percent tax hike, or whatever it is, would come to save the masses in the end. For example, Singletary’s trip to the hospital over passing out in a parking lot ended up costing $4,200 out of her pocket. That one trip alone is enough to cover the next decade in tax hikes for medical insurance in her case.
Without medical insurance the preventative measures are not looked at nearly as much as they are for individuals with insurance. While in the hospital the blood tests showed that she is at a high risk for type two diabetes but without the proper insurance nothing can be done till something happens. It will be extremely hard for her to consult a specialist on this unless she winds up in a diabetic coma. This situation could be easily avoided but unfortunately nothing will be done.
While in the hospital the nurses were able to give her information about her condition and give recommendations about what to eat and how to take care of herself but that is where it ends. Instead of being given Insulin like most patients, she was told to avoid hot temperatures, red meat and large amounts of sugar. Since that day in June of 2008, Singletary’s life has changed quite a bit from being a carefree 22-year-old to having to watch everything she eats knowing that one wrong move could give her an extended stay at a local intensive care unit.
“Some of the changes were not too bad for me,” Singletary said. “I have been a vegetarian for a few years so the red meat didn’t faze me.” The hardest part for her is attempting to avoid the heat while living in Southern California where a 90 degree Thanks Giving is not that farfetched of an idea.
In the past couple of months Singletary has had a few experiences with what happens when she does not follow the rules. In October of 2008 she went out to a local bar where things
did not work out to well. The bartender had made the honest mistake of giving her coke rather
than diet coke with her Malibu Rum. “Before everything went bad, I could feel it coming,” she said.
“I went outside to cool off and asked for some water on my way out,” she said. The next thing she knew, she was in the shower at her boyfriend’s house attempting to cool down and avoid the possibility of a diabetic coma. That incident took her a few days to recover from. With the amount of sugar in the few cokes she had accompanied by the heat produced by the bar her pancreas stopped producing insulin.
Currently, Singletary lives a relatively normal life. The biggest difference is the constant concern about such a mistake happening again and the consequences that could follow. “Usually people don’t understand that I’m pre-diabetic and don’t think too much into what I say I can and can’t do,” she said.