Guthrie, Okla., fire chief says 56-year-old man dies in wildfire after choosing not to evacuate - @NBCNews
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This reminds me of someone, after hearing of my son’s death recently, who commented that men in their 50s were dying off in droves, and I found this year old article from C&L.

Suicide Rate Rising Sharply Among Boomers. Hmm. Wonder Why?

crooksandliars.com

My son, at 53, was also trying to get his disability and had been denied twice, even though he suffered chronic liver and heart disease. He tried to work (he was a tile mechanic by trade), though he wound up thoroughly exhausted by the physical labor, and he suffered from what many people of no means do—lack of adequate health care for severe medical problems, even though he did see doctors at a clinic for those on a sliding scale through a special program who prescribed the routine medicines he took (Crestor, lisinopril, etc). Those same doctors were not able, because of lack of funds, to treat him as he needed to be treated for his conditions, such as interferon for his liver (very expensive) but I don’t blame them. He even held a little hope he might get a liver transplant, and now I’m thinking from talking to the doctors at the hospital that it was liver failure that led to his cardiac arrest. They said he had already suffered liver failure and that his kidneys had started failing after he was hospitalized. He looked generally fit and the proper weight for his height, but I noticed that his abdomen was grossly bloated in the hospital and was told it was from those failures.

I do blame the vultures in the health care industry who make huge profits off the sufferings of others for the massive fail of providing proper health care in this country, but hopefully the new health care act will save many lives that might have otherwise gone untreated altogether. If we can’t provide at least minimal preventative maintenance health care for all our own citizens as well as educating and treating them before or when they become ill, then we fail as a humane society.