Healthcare delivery in the good old USA is grossly unfair and this poem gets to the heart of the matter. It isn't pretty and it often places medical persons into an ethical quagmire. This rejuvenated memory still causes me distress.

Did The World Default

What kind of message
Was derived from work today,
Did the world improve or default
It's just too hard to say.

Here's one guy
A treatable epileptic,
The other fellow there
Is dying, because he's septic,
And at last, there is the prisoner
The man is really nasty,
He'll enjoy his life long sentence
After obtaining angioplasty

How can we justify
The incredible cost,
When homeless mothers and babies
And children are lost,
On the street every day
While this murderer is treated,
Oh, the money is funneled
Where the high-tech god is seated.

Thirty thousand dollars
Is the minimum at least,
That we spent for just a couple days
To treat this awful beast,
Just imagine all the blankets
And winter coats that you could buy,
But instead we're saving murderers
While homeless people die.

To maintain a healthy outlook
And to keep from going crazy,
I must forget about reality
And let the facts get hazy,
Then look upon each man
As he lays there in the bed,
As just another brother
Who could very soon be dead.

Fibril_late; 12/93