Home

Hilda Sarkisyan

On the Bridge to Single Payer: Nurses Give Power to Patients

Posted by Donna Smith - S... on September 26, 2008 - 10:35pm

By Donna Smith, community organizer 

SAN FRANCISCO -- The nurses of the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee do much more for patients than bedside care and patient advocacy.  These amazing fighters give the patients bruised and battered by this broken healthcare system a voice in the darkness. 

And today, as many patients joined the nurses' march across the Golden Gate Bridge, the honesty and courage nurses often show to their patients in their most vulnerable moments transformed into a gift of dignity and shared purpose.  Together, nurses and patients called for guaranteed, single payer healthcare for all.

Above you see Hilda Sarkisyan, mom of the late Nataline Sarkisyan -- the beautiful 17-year-old girl who died after her insurance company first denied her liver transplant and then reversed its awful decision too late to save her life.

Permalink :: Discuss (12 comments)

Read More

Death Du Jour

Posted by Donna Smith - S... on September 2, 2008 - 9:03pm

By Donna Smith
Community organizer, California Nurses Association/NNOC

CHICAGO -- Last week when I was getting ready to drive to Denver for the DNC convention and related activities, I got a couple of messages that are still weighing on my heart and mind today.  And despite all the grand displays of our greater aspirations, I am at a loss for real answers for two of the bravest women I know.

Julie Pierce wrote to me and shared her frustration in feeling that her family's story has already been forgotten.

"It is a shame that the rest of us in 'SiCKO' don't get to share our stories during a time that is so crucial to our country's future," Julie said.

I suspect others among those featured in the film feel the same way.  Julie's husband Tracy died while still in his 30s from kidney cancer after being denied the bone marrow transplant that might have saved him. And because Julie will raise her son alone and will never be able to forget the death sentence the for-profit healthcare system imposed on her husband, she has a hard time understanding that the rest of the world moves on to the next tragedy, the next photo op, the next compelling video, the next dead patient...

Permalink :: Discuss (1 comment)

Read More

Syndicate content