August 9, 2009
Contact:  Teresa Baum-Farrow
Panama City, Florida
baumt@bellsouth.net  850-685-5683
 
 
WAITING . WAITING . WAITING . . on our HealthCare System
 
Random Act of Kindness renders 30 yr old Bay County, Florida man a quadraplegic -
Michael Harris waits for a Spine Rehabilitation Hospital who will accept him.
 
 
“This could have happened to any one of us”, says Michael Harris’ Mother, Darlene, who has been by Michael’s side at Bay Medical Hospital day or night for 120 days now.  The irony of this situation is that for the better part of Michael’s adult life, he has worked tirelessly on behalf of terminally ill and disabled children and adult veterans through groups like Buckmasters and The Way Outfitters.  He arranged many complimentary trips for the children and their families to come here to Bay County to fish and swim at the beach and to hunt in Alabama.  Now, he is one of them, and all he desperately needs and wants is to go to a specialty Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Hospital for the rehab treatment he needs to help him get off of the breathing ventilator and learn the new mobility skills he’ll need  for his new life as a disabled person. 
 
Michael’s C-5 and C-7 vertebrae were broken and his spinal cord was injured while helping a friend unload large sheets of plywood at his home.  The stacked plywood fell like dominos and Michael was standing in its path.  It crushed him and in an instant his life was changed. 
 
“The nurses and doctors at Bay Medical have been wonderful to Michael and to our family”, says Johnny Harris, Michael’s father.  “Michael has had a few set-backs since the injury, but he is getting stronger every day and is anxiously awaiting rehabilitation”.  It is a critical next step for him.  Darlene Harris, a humble & caring woman, who just happens to be a nurse, has been through so many ups & downs since the accident.  “It is easy for my husband, Johnny, and I to lose faith – but just when we get down someone new walks into our lives and a new door opens, and this gives us hope and the strength to keep going”.
 
There are fourteen specialty Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Centers in the country.
One of them is Boston Medical Center where Christopher Reeves was treated and rehabilitated.  These types of injuries are fragile & complicated and can be layered with ancillary health problems at any stage of recovery.  Sometimes it is two steps forward and one step back and this can be very hard for the patient and the families. 

What’s the hold-up?  Finding the right Center who will accept Michael’s case. 
Michael, like millions of Americans, didn’t have health insurance when this happened to him.   He’s just another number stuck in our healthcare system now – which doesn’t wear a watch, by the way.   “He’s a very determined young man, says Darlene, and we aren’t giving up”.  We were told this week by Medicaid that one of the best facilities in the country, Shepherd Hospital in Atlanta, didn’t have enough dollars in their reserve healthcare
Account set aside (for cases like ours) to take our son.  We waited over 4 weeks to hear this very bad news.
It has been a major set-back for us & now we have to start the process all over again.  But, we have also heard that other states won’t work with the Florida Medicaid system.  We need help from our government officials,
starting right here in our County and all the way up to Governor Charlie Crist, and we’re not going to stop until we get some help. 
 
In writing this story, I find this ironic that the very day the Harris’ are given this bad news, FOX News airs a piece on “Managing the Wild Mustang Horses” and indicated that $700 million dollars of our hard earned tax money is being spent on this cause!  Go figure. 
 
“No matter how broken we are, we can’t give up for Michael’s sake”. “ He can’t speak for himself, so we want to share his story in hopes that he will be given the chance to go to SCI Rehab and live the best quality life he can possibly have when he comes home”.   And then, maybe we can help make it easier for others who are going through similar circumstances to work through the system like we have had to do.  Maybe they won’t have to wait.