Violations to the Right to Health Care

Joe

Rochester, NY

Joe is a 58 year old African American male.  Joe has struggled with his mental and physical health, as well as substance abuse for over twenty years.  Joe went without health insurance from 1975 to 2005, until he received both Medicaid and Medicare.   Joe has been hospitalized several times since 1975 for both mental and physical health issues.  During this time, Joe was stabilized in the hospital and discharged to his apartment.  Joe acquired over $27,000 in medical bill debt.   He was never linked with the proper health insurance.  In 2005, Joe was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma.  He has since undergone surgery to remove his middle finger on his left hand, the original spot the cancer was detected.  Joe has undergone pill chemotherapy, 3 rounds of IV chemotherapy and 15 treatments of radiation to his chest and five to his left arm.  His tumors still continue to grow.  His tumors have begun to break down from the radiation treatment, they began to burst open at the skin causing them to bleed.  Joe has had to be hospitalized twice for the tumors bleeding.  Joe also developed a bad case of the flu and was hospitalized for five days in a restrictive unit of the hospital. 

Beside cancer, Joe is also HIV positive.  He is not sure when he contracted the disease.  Throughout the years Joe’s list of medical problems continued to grow.  The following is a listing of the medical problems that were diagnosed in the hospital, yet due to Joe having no medical insurance ever got the proper follow up care: chronic obstructive asthma, unspecified essential hypertension, candidiasis of the mouth, COPD, hypertension, history of renal failure, hepatitis C, oral thrush, klebsiella pneumonia, and possible dementia.

Joe will not die from his HIV.  Instead he will die from his stage IV Malignant Melanoma.  Joe’s cancer is resistant to all forms of treatment that his oncologist tried.  Surgeons have even refused to operate on him due to fear of the tumors breaking and the cancer spreading to other points in his body.  Joe stated that although he had been brought to the hospital for being non compliant with his psychiatric medications, he knew that medically something was wrong with him.  Joe stated that he feels that if he were a businessman with health insurance that more attention would have been paid to his concerns, instead of it being chalked up as a psychiatric issue.  Joe also states that every time he went to the hospital that he knew that he was not going to be able to pay the bill when it came and he felt that for that reason he was given different care than most people.  Through Joe’s entire fight with this horrible disease, he has not once complained or made anyone feel sorry for him.  Joe has come to terms with his diagnosis and is making the most of the limited time that he has left.