STEM CELL BATTLES

Last week my wife Gloria’s brother Marty visited.

 

I always feel sorry for him when this happens, because my brother-in-law has the misfortune of being talented in matters of repair—he can fix things.

 

And so Gloria saves up a mental list of things her impractical husband cannot fathom, and when Marty comes over, she smiles sweetly, and he says “Uh-oh, here it comes!”

 

Now among Marty’s many talents is the culinary art of food. He can barbecue meats to the point where they should be illegal for excessive taste appeal.

 

But on this particular day, he made a salad.

 

And here the comedy ends, because a piece of salad, rough and substantial, went down the wrong way.

 

It lodged in Gloria’s throat. She stopped, her face darkened, she rose to her feet.

 

Just enough air to whisper, “Marty”, and then her face turned dark red.

 

“What’s going on?” her brother said.

 

She pointed at her throat.

 

And Marty came around behind her, encircled her with his strong arms, clenched his right fist—and squeezed.

 

The piece of death broke free, a length of waxed string bean, popping out like a cork from a squeezed hot water bag.

 

Gloria gasped in air, and lived.

 

“It was like a curtain of blackness was closing around me,” she said when I got home.

 

I tried to think what to say to Marty—what can you say to someone who has saved the life of your loved one?

 

“It’s all right, man,” said Marty, and changed the subject, as if I had complimented his barbecue, instead of having not only remembered the Heimlich maneuver and performed it perfectly, and kept my wife Gloria from leaving the world.

 

What would I do without her? What if Marty had not been there?

 

Gloria is the sunrise. Without her, the color would go out of my life.

 

Everybody has, if they are lucky, a person they so love.

 

There are also our children, our parents, our friends, and we ourselves- all deserving protection.

 

If these precious lives are threatened, we hope someone will be able to defend them, as Marty did for Gloria.

 

They are the reason we fight, in the war against chronic disease.

 

America faces an unrecognized epidemic. It touches every family, threatens us all.

 

One hundred million Americans with an incurable (chronic) disease or disability?

 

The problem is so big, the mind can’t handle it; we want to change the subject, turn away.

 

But we must not turn away.

 

This is not some vast formless number, but individuals:  the people we love.

 

We must defend them as a country, for all America is under siege, a financial assault more devastating than any since the great Depression.

 

Do I exaggerate?

 

Last year’s medical costs—for chronic disease alone--  was more than every American’s federal income taxes. Total income tax-- $1.4 trillion. Chronic disease?  $1.7 trillion.

 

Check out my math. It is easy to verify.

 

First, go to the Center for Chronic Disease and Prevention website, and click on “costs”.

 (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/overview.htm#2)

 

It will tell you that 75% of America’s medical costs are due to chronic disease. The year it cites is 2005, so the figure is “only” $2 trillion.  Keep the 75% figure in mind.

 

Next, for 2007 medical costs, go to: the National Coalition on Health Care, (http://nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml) which says:

 

“ Total spending was $2.3 TRILLION in 2007, or $7600 per person.”

 

Three fourths of $2.3 trillion is how much?

 

Slightly more than $1.7 trillion.

 

Finally, visit to the IRS website, and verify the $1.4 trillion federal income tax revenues statistic. (http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=102886,00.html)

 

Summary of Collections Before Refunds by Type of Return, FY 2007 [1]

Type of Return	Number of Returns	Gross Collections (Millions of $)
Individual income tax [1]	138,893,908	1,366,241

 

Total individual federal income tax-- $1.36 trillion, round it off to $1.4 trillion.

 

So there we have it: the medical cost of the incurable diseases which threaten our loved ones-- $1.7 trillion.

 

Total federal individual income taxes-- $1.4 trillion.

 

If we poured every American family’s federal taxes into medical care—it would not be enough.

 

The system is broke.

 

We are not fixing people, just maintaining them in their misery, and going bankrupt in the process.

 

The only answer is cure, and that means massive research funding.

 

We have a glorious institute, the National Institutes of Health, a thing of pride—but it is not being funded properly.

 

For the past five years, total NIH funding has remained flat at $28 billion, not even adjusted for inflation.

 

We are fighting an avalanche-- with a teaspoon.