I
received the following email today from Brenda Malone a friend of long
standing and publish it here with her permission.
I
was just incensed after looking at the Cancer
data rates as graphed by the Plain Dealer
today. I am equally amazed at all of the ignorant, uninformed
comments that are being made by the readers who are marveling that the more
affluent suburbs of Chagrin Falls and Moreland Hills have such “high” cancer
rates in comparison to the rest of Cuyahoga County.
What
they don’t understand is that the data is actually confirming
Environmental/Class/Race bias bestowed on the “rest of” the County.
What
they don't understand is that the rates of Cancer in the inner city is actually
equally high, if not, logically, much much higher than the rates of suburban
people, but the since the inner city, poorer people DO NOT RECEIVE EQUAL LEVELS
OF MEDICAL CARE AND CONCERN, their cancer levels are GROSSLY understated.
There
should be an immediate investigation to discover WHY the inner city rates are
lower than national trends. They celebrate when they should be crying out for
equality and justice in the health system in Cuyahoga County, which
incidentally, boasts the best hospitals in the country.
The
affluent can afford doctor's visits and tests. The
struggling inner city resident chooses between food and medicine.
The
physicians who care for the affluent leave no test undone to diagnose and
prevent any malaise in their patients.
The
physicians who are charged with caring for the rest of us, do the barest,
passable amount of testing and diagnosing because the insurers have assumed the
role of physician to them and are concerned only with the bottom line, not the
bottom feeders.
And
the Plain Dealer will never tell its
majority, uneducated, sheep/readers what the data TRULY reveals.
Will
there EVER be equity for us?
This
scenario hits especially close to home for me. For two years before my mother's
painful death from multiple cancers of unknown origins, we took her to doctors
at University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, and several private physicians with
symptoms of massive headaches, dizziness and wasting away. They literally
gave her no hope, NO MRI TESTS, NOTHING, except to tell her that she was
probably suffering from, and I swear to God I am quoting: ". . . .old
person's symptoms."
It
was not until 9 months before she died that an Indian doctor in the Cleveland
Clinic ER demanded that an MRI be performed because my mother could not hold
her head up without vomiting. MRI results showed massive brain tumors, bone
cancer and colon cancer. A far cry from "old person's disease."
So,
when I see that data, I become incensed. I know the truth behind the data.
Can
you write about this data in The Real Deal? I would write a
letter to the pathetic editorial board of the Plain Dealer, but come on, you know that would be as useful as a
tit on a bull.
Jesus
help us,
Brenda
• • •
Editor’s Notes:
1.
Brenda’s mother was
63 years old when diagnosed with "old people's dizziness". She died seven months after her 64th birthday.
2.
The Cuyahoga County
Board of Health Comprehensive Cancer Report of 2011 can be found here.
