Save Eduardo’s Life
While heath care reform dominates the national debate, not everyone in this wealthy country will be helped. In Kansas City, KS, there is a 14 year-old boy named Eduardo Loredo who could die any day.
Eduardo is being denied a heart transplant because he does not have health insurance (or enough money) to pay for a heart transplant and follow up care. Eduardo was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy, and was hospitalized at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO beginning in July 2009. Eduardo was sent home from Children’s Mercy Hospital on October 14, 2009 and told that he had the potential to live a few years or a few days.
Missouri’s Medicaid program is generally available only to citizens and certain legal immigrants who meet a five year waiting period. These restrictive rules prevent Eduardo from qualifying for health insurance that would cover both the transplant procedure and the long-term follow up care required to ensure a successful transplant. Without this coverage, the total cost of the transplant would cost his family $500,000. Children’s Mercy Hospital told Eduardo that without an up-front payment of $100,000, he would not even be able to get on the waiting list for a heart transplant. While Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, MO originally offered to perform the transplant surgery for no cost, this offer was later retracted. His family is simply being told that his life is not a priority.
Here’s what you can do to help:
Sign the petition to save Eduardo Loredo’s life – http://www.petitiononline.com/Eduardo/petition.html
Help the Mobilization keep fighting for the right to health care. Since this campaign started, we’ve been able to support brave activists across the country stand up to the biggest corporations in the world, and say, “We demand the right to health care.” Now we are taking the message to Congress that Medicare for All is the only way to end the needless suffering and death in the wealthiest country in the world. We are planning actions on Human Rights Day, December 10th, across the country at Senators offices. Please join those efforts.
But we need your support to keep this campaign going, click here to donate now. Give what you can and we will make sure that every Member of Congress hears about Eduardo’s needless suffering and demand the right to health care for all people in this country.
Martin Luther King, Jr declared: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
Thank you for your support.
