Help Jeff and Rose Roby With Medical Co-pays
Donation protected
Many of you know us as a couple of fierce, no holds barred community organizers. Jeff and I have always been fearless in standing up for economic, social and racial justice.
What some of you don’t know is that we live with great fear and insecurity in our personal lives because of our poverty. Jeff has beat incredible odds in staying alive. He’s suffered 2 heart attacks. Four years ago he was hooked up to life support after triple bypass surgery. The odds of his survival were slim but he knew he still had work to do and he never gave up! And I wouldn’t give up on him!
Since then he’s been rushed to the hospital twice when his defibrillator pumped his heart full of electricity to save him from sudden death.
Caring for Jeff is a full time job. I juggle a great deal of activist work from home, but I try to be near him as much as possible because his health is so fragile. The truth is I have health problems of my own. I’m diabetic. I also have issues with high cholesterol and triglycerides that put me at high risk for a heart attack. I suffer from crippling migraines that leave me blind in my right eye when they strike. I also have severe neuropathy in my left leg that makes standing in one place for more than 5 minutes nearly impossible.
We all know that there’s a high price to being sick. The co-pays for our tests and medications are becoming unmanageable as we try to survive as 2 people on Jeff’s meager Social Security income. Yesterday I reached my emotional limit when we showed up to a radiologist center for an important scan of Jeff’s liver. The woman at the front desk demanded $150 on the spot. When we said we couldn’t possibly pay that much at once, she didn’t merely turn us away, she furiously glared at us and said “THEN YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!” One gets the feeling they turn away a lot of people from necessary testing and they deal with that by stripping us of our humanity and treating us as criminals.
I’m swallowing my pride and asking for help. Because Jeff’s life is at stake and my ability to be his caretaker is also at stake as I deal with my own health issues.
We’re grateful for anything you could give to help us pay for our medical care so that we can stick around to keep stickin’ it to the rich and powerful who have put us, and millions of others, in this frightening position.
What some of you don’t know is that we live with great fear and insecurity in our personal lives because of our poverty. Jeff has beat incredible odds in staying alive. He’s suffered 2 heart attacks. Four years ago he was hooked up to life support after triple bypass surgery. The odds of his survival were slim but he knew he still had work to do and he never gave up! And I wouldn’t give up on him!
Since then he’s been rushed to the hospital twice when his defibrillator pumped his heart full of electricity to save him from sudden death.
Caring for Jeff is a full time job. I juggle a great deal of activist work from home, but I try to be near him as much as possible because his health is so fragile. The truth is I have health problems of my own. I’m diabetic. I also have issues with high cholesterol and triglycerides that put me at high risk for a heart attack. I suffer from crippling migraines that leave me blind in my right eye when they strike. I also have severe neuropathy in my left leg that makes standing in one place for more than 5 minutes nearly impossible.
We all know that there’s a high price to being sick. The co-pays for our tests and medications are becoming unmanageable as we try to survive as 2 people on Jeff’s meager Social Security income. Yesterday I reached my emotional limit when we showed up to a radiologist center for an important scan of Jeff’s liver. The woman at the front desk demanded $150 on the spot. When we said we couldn’t possibly pay that much at once, she didn’t merely turn us away, she furiously glared at us and said “THEN YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!” One gets the feeling they turn away a lot of people from necessary testing and they deal with that by stripping us of our humanity and treating us as criminals.
I’m swallowing my pride and asking for help. Because Jeff’s life is at stake and my ability to be his caretaker is also at stake as I deal with my own health issues.
We’re grateful for anything you could give to help us pay for our medical care so that we can stick around to keep stickin’ it to the rich and powerful who have put us, and millions of others, in this frightening position.
Organizer
Rose Roby
Organizer
St. Petersburg, FL