Although commendable that so many of the direly injured have positive and determined attitudes in the early days after having been maimed for life, these people will be inundated with bills and lifestyle changes. They will endure phantom pain. They will suffer excruciating neurological pain, pain that medications barely assuage. Putting the terrible event behind them and their families will be impossible!
From this April 25, 2013 article in the Huffington Post:
One Fund Boston Raises More Than $20 Million, But Will It Be Enough For Injured Marathon Victims?Read the rest HERE.
Cost of amputating a leg? At least $20,000. Cost of an artificial leg? More than $50,000 for the most high-tech models. Cost of an amputee's rehab? Often tens of thousands of dollars more.
These are just a fraction of the medical expenses victims of the Boston Marathon bombing will face.
[...]
No one knows yet if those donations – plus health insurance, hospital charity funds and other sources – will be enough to cover the bills. Few will even hazard a guess as to what the total medical bill will be for a tragedy that killed three people and wounded more than 260. At least 15 people lost limbs, and other wounds include head injuries and tissue torn apart by shrapnel.
Health insurance, as practically anyone who has ever gotten hurt or sick knows, does not always cover all costs. In the case of artificial limbs, for example, some insurance companies pay for a basic model but not a computerized one with sophisticated, lifelike joints.
[...]
Adding to the tragedy's toll will be lost wages for those unable to work, including two Massachusetts brothers who each lost a leg, Miller said. They had been roofers but may have to find a new line of work.
Many survivors will also need help with expenses beyond immediate health care, including things like modifying cars for those who lost limbs or remodeling homes to accommodate wheelchairs....
As the years grind on, friends will drift away.
Family members will drift away, too.
Invitations will become sparser and sparser. After all, traveling with and hosting the disabled are often difficult endeavors. Not all dwellings have accessibility ramps. Few homes have bathroom doors or other doors wide enough to accommodate walkers or wheelchairs; many residential bathrooms lack effective grab bars and high-rise toilets. Many vehicles are not roomy enough to accommodate mobility devices.
Mr. AOW and I know all about people drifting away from the disabled — never mind the earlier promises of standing by us.
Employers become less and less understanding as time marches on, particularly with regard to tardiness, illness, and the necessity to take and make medically-related telephone calls during work hours. Just try to reach medical professionals during any hours other than nine to five!
The rest of America and the world will move on and put the jihad attack on the Boston Marathon behind them. The direly injured will never be able to do so.
We're quoting the Huffington Post now? That's reaching.
ReplyDelete"Mr. AOW and I know all about people drifting away from the disabled — never mind the earlier promises of standing by us."
Ah yes, Always On Watch, the People's Forum for complaining about life. Now the sympathetic words will gush in from the likes of people who threaten suicide over a missing cat. Who could ask for more?
We can all feel sorry for ourselves because we've all been through a ton of crap in life and the longer we live, the more crap adheres. OR we can be grateful for another day of life, whatever it may be like, as opposed to the alternative. I guess it all depends on how much we enjoy whining.
Boy, all those miserable, starving, tortured, diseased and mangled out there living in extreme poverty sure have nothing on us poor bastards, right?
To add insult to injury, those injured in this terrorists attack will face much higher costs, much longer waits, and lower quality care due to the passage of Obamacare.
ReplyDeleteAnd that doesn't even mention those who will be fired from their jobs due to Obamacare's punishments against employees for the crime of hiring people, or those full-time workers who will have their hours cut from 40 to 30 due to Obamacare's penalties against hiring workers full-time.
I thought that this video might interest you... if you'd care to decode the subliminals.
ReplyDeleteThe price of hate is always high.
ReplyDeleteNot to take anything away from those injured and those who lost family members in the Boston Marathon bombings, I know they will have long and expensive recoveries, and some may never recover physically or emotionally.
ReplyDeleteBut your post reminded me of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America.
I never understood why the family members of those lost should end up profiting from the attacks. Yes they should be compensated for their loss, but we all know about the 9/11 wives or whatever they were called, who ended up rich over the attacks. I find something creepy about that.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
And returning MilVets.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Debbie ... the widows and orphans of the 9-11 attacks made a fortunate from that disaster, which I think was hardly warranted. Has anyone ever heard of life insurance? Why, exactly, is the US taxpayer responsible for compensating relatives of terrorist victims? Was this a de facto acknowledgement that Clinton, Warrant, Albright, and Gorelick were a wikinunu?
ReplyDeleteNot everything is about money, but I think the question of who is going to foot the bill for the victims of Boston is relevant. Some will argue against the idea, but to those I pose this question: if we can feed illegal Mexicans, and in fact encourage more illegal immigration by signing these people up for food stamps in advance of their arrival, and if we can pay for their health care needs, send their children to public schools, then why can’t we pay for services offered to our own people?
So, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney goes out yesterday and says the Benghazi attack "happened a long time ago." Yet for the families of those still grieving or those who were injured (not to mention anyone with a memory) those eight months are not so long ago.
ReplyDeleteThe wounds from such acts are difficult to heal even with time and the same goes for the Boston Bombing.
I think of the photo of the orphans of the original 9/11 attacks:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/popup?id=2396057
Those kids have suffered a loss that not even time can erase.
But we have people in the White House that want to downplay, if not deny, the link between these horrific acts and Islam. They want us to forget all about it and would leave us more vulnerable to future attacks.
"Employers become less and less understanding as time marches on, particularly with regard to tardiness, illness, and the necessity to take and make medically-related telephone calls during work hours. Just try to reach medical professionals during any hours other than nine to five!"
ReplyDelete---
As we lose our sense of basic decency.
Simple things we can do in between running our mouths about "Obamacare" or even freakin' Benghazi and use it as an opportunity for their personal jihad. Sure to ease the victims' sorrow.
Best to you and Mr. AOW.
Off topic, AOW. I put up a photo today that absolutely had to be in color. Works the phone them as a bonus. I've been wondering if I should work on a book about the public use of phones.
Notice the one labeled "Tour". I was interested in the group of boys but still managed to get someone in the background on the phone.
Mustang: "...if we can feed illegal Mexicans, and in fact encourage more illegal immigration by signing these people up for food stamps in advance of their arrival..."
ReplyDeleteMyth #9 – Food stamps benefits go to illegal immigrants.
False: Illegal immigrants are not eligible to receive food stamps, and never have been; there are stringent processes to determine citizenship in the program. Legal immigrants are also not allowed to receive food stamps until they have been in the country for five years (with the exception of asylum cases and some other situations). Immigrants generally are far less likely than other groups to apply for food stamps, both because they fear jeopardizing their immigration status, and because the complex application process is doubly hard for those who do not speak English well.
Oh, I see Shaw. So the media was lying?
ReplyDeleteHey chica, want food stamps, but not legally eligible to receive them? Just have a baby!
ReplyDeleteGot any illegals in the house?
How do you spell "A.N.C.H.O.R. baby?"
ReplyDeleteSome welcome news for those who had limbs amputated (dated after I queued up this blog post):
ReplyDeleteA trade group representing makers of artificial limbs on Tuesday promised to provide prosthetics free of cost to the estimated 20 to 25 victims of the Boston Marathon bombings who underwent amputations.
The American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association offered initial services and prosthetics not covered by insurance for patients injured in the blasts, which tore the lower limbs off some spectators near the finish line of the race on April 15.
Costs for a below-knee device average $8,000 to $12,000 each and $40,000 to $60,000 for above-knee prosthetics, said Greig Martino, a prosthetist treating bombing victims.
[...]
The association's offer, announced on a conference call with reporters under the name Coalition to Walk and Run Again, will only cover a portion of the expected costs for amputees. Victims who lost both legs face estimated medical bills of $450,000 over the next five years, said Tom Fise, executive director of the association, citing a Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs study.
The association estimates that at least half the Boston Marathon amputees lack enough insurance to cover their prosthetic costs as some policies provide as little as $1,000 per device or only provide one artificial limb.Many prosthetics need replacing every five to seven years....
[Index of articles related to the medical bills facing the victims of the jihad attack]
BTW, AFO braces, for injuries not requiring amputation, typically cost at least $1600. I know because that was the cost in 2010 for Mr. AOW's AFO brace (for drop foot, a neurological injury).
ReplyDeleteThe much-lauded donation fund is a good thing. No doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteOften, however, Americans hear and donate once, then believe that everything is taken care of. If only!
@mustang --- Oh, I see Shaw. So the media was lying?
ReplyDelete---------
Well, mustang, if I read Spanish I would know.
As it stands it would be wise to avoid drawing broad conclusions from a single out of context line in an article in the notably slanted Telegraph.
That would be honest.
Debbie,
ReplyDeleteYes they should be compensated for their loss, but we all know about the 9/11 wives or whatever they were called, who ended up rich over the attacks. I find something creepy about that.
Interesting point.
If I recall correctly, those wives you mentioned are (or were, at the time) widows.
I can't imagine that those injured at the Boston Marathon will get rich. I could be wrong, but that is my line of thinking right now.
I didn't discuss one other trend in the body of the blog post....Often, when men are injured, their wives stick by them as caregivers. But the other way around? More often than not, the men will not allow themselves a lifetime as caregivers.
Duck,
ReplyDeleteLater today, I will check out those photos you mentioned.
As for employers, well, I've noticed that once they have to walk in the same shoes (as related to the topic of this blog post), they change their attitude. I guess that people have to go through hell themselves before they are capable of empathy.
An interesting thing happened in my own extended family last weekend....
ReplyDeleteAfter my cousins got a taste of caregiving when the patriarch of the family had a stroke, all of a sudden -- for the first time in nearly 4 years -- Mr. AOW and I got a dinner invitation!
The FIRST such invitation from them! I must emphasize that fact. As I mentioned above, for people to experience empathy, they have to go through a similar experience themselves.
Now the watchdog group Judicial Watch has obtained Spanish-language fliers through a Freedom of Information Act request.
ReplyDeleteIt announced Thursday that the "promotion of the food stamp program, now known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), includes a Spanish-language flier provided to the Mexican Embassy by the USDA."
The interesting thing about this flier is a statement advising Mexicans in the U.S. that they don't need to declare their immigration status in order to get aid.Emphasized in bold and underlined, it reads, "You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children."
Investors Business Daily 29 Apr 2013
I suppose we could wonder about why it took an FOIA request to get our government to release this information to Judicial Watch … and we could wonder about Ducky suddenly wanting honesty in his dialogue. Buy a vowel, Cosmo.
The people who were injured in the Boston bombing deserve compensation and I'm all for Americans opening their wallets to help them recover.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can't understand is why in hell were the terrorists receiving help from government?
The victims are going to receive compensation and I believe the !Fund will resolve a lot of their economic problems.
ReplyDeleteLord knows how you compensate someone for the loss of an 8 year old child.
Hopefully the great majority of the amputees will regain their mobility with the advances in prosthetics. Will they regain their social and emotional lives? Well, as AOW points out, that's a real question.
I also wonder why health insurance policies wouldn't cover the cost the bulk of the medical costs. Maybe private insurers are too focused on profit?
By the way, neither of the bombers received payments directly. Most of the welfare went to the elder brothers wife. Some went to the parents. Not that it really matters since there was nothing amiss with their citizenship or residency papers.
According to my youngest niece who knew his crowd the young one did like to drink. Not much of an observant Muslim.
Ihave nothing to say -- and will never have ANYTHING ELSE to say -- but this:
ReplyDeleteDIDADIN
Detain
Intern
Disempower
And
Deport
Islamaniacs
Now
D-I-D-A-D-I-N!
Those who would be kind to the cruel are sure to be cruel to the kind."
"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
~ Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
DIDADIN!
In effect, the flier, mentioned above by Mustang, encourages anchor babies.
ReplyDeleteI am fluent in Spanish. If anyone in this thread wants the entire brochure (as shown in the Daily Mail) translated, let me know. Easy-peasy.
The last paragraph of the flier indicates that an illegal immigrant can lie about immigration status so as to obtain food stamps and that such lying will not have any effect later if the immigrant applies for citizenship.
ReplyDeleteLie now, get the food stamps, and get citizenship later!
Duck,
ReplyDeleteWill they regain their social and emotional lives? Well, as AOW points out, that's a real question.
The answer: NO!
One point of this blog post is to raise people's awareness about what those with disabilities -- AND THEIR FAMILIES -- have a difficult time such that most people cannot imagine what such a situation is like.
My point is not to elicit pity or to whine about the situation.
There was a time in America when neighbors and families "stepped up." Now, people automatically assume that the government or insurance will tend to the problems, which entail much more than money.
Millions of Americans today are engaged in caregiving family members. Maybe in your neighborhood?
Food jihad? In San Jose:
ReplyDeleteA 50-year-old pharmacist was arrested Monday night after police say she removed two bottles of orange juice from a bag - which they say were filled with rubbing alcohol - and placed them on the shelf with other refrigerated items at a Starbucks in San Jose.
San Jose Police Sgt. Jason Dwyer took Ramineh Behbehanian of San Jose into custody on an attempted murder charge because the orange juice contained what police said were lethal quantities of isopropyl alcohol. She is scheduled to appear in court Thursday....
"As the years grind on, friends will drift away.
ReplyDeleteFamily members will drift away, too.
Invitations will become sparser and sparser. After all, traveling with and hosting the disabled are often difficult endeavors. Not all dwellings have accessibility ramps. Few homes have bathroom doors or other doors wide enough to accommodate walkers or wheelchairs; many residential bathrooms lack effective grab bars and high-rise toilets. Many vehicles are not roomy enough to accommodate mobility devices.
Mr. AOW and I know all about people drifting away from the disabled — never mind the earlier promises of standing by us.
Employers become less and less understanding as time marches on, particularly with regard to tardiness, illness..."
Oh, how much that resonates with me! I've been a cripple all my life and the drifting is a daily event. The denied dates, no phone calls, no friends just dropping by, no party invitations; employers demanding I start getting ready for work so early in the morning I've not even gone to bed yet, moving too slowly on the job, requiring my work station be near open doors that allow in freezing cold air, and so very much more culminating in 'suck it up.'
A month before he died, my Father spoke to me at our last visit. He wanted to apologize to me for the hard time he gave me when I was younger because he never knew and didn't believe I experienced the pains I had. In his old age he had learned I wasn't lying.
Many of the injured in the terror bombings will go through a lot of adjustment to their new emptier lives. Many won't because they have full active lives they're determined to get back to and, because of the war injured, there is a whole new community ready to help.
Black Sheep,
ReplyDeleteMy choice of what to post.
Indigo,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. Obviously, you understand the loneliness that I mentioned in the body of the blog post.
Too often, people just don't stop to think how their ostracizing of those with disabilities impacts the disabled and their families. Most of the time, the ostracism is unintentional, I think.
And, like your father, they can't really empathize until they have experience a similar problem -- or been the caregiver for a beloved.
My employer of some 18 years (She passed away in 2009) was fully understanding of faculty members with disabilities or with disabled children. Why? She had been a caregiver for some unfortunates in her own family -- back in the days before Medicare and Medicaid came along.
I've since worked for various employers, none of them with experience with the burdens of the disabled and their families. These employers showed no understanding; they kept thinking that the crisis would pass. The crisis, of course, can be permanent.
Both of my parents had done caregiving too -- again, long before the days of Medicare and Medicaid.
No matter what, the adjustments that the victims of the jihad attack on the Boston Marathon will have to deal with are not going to be easy.