One in Forty Million

An uninsured American experiencing a medical emergency is 52% more likely to die in a hospital ER than the privately insured. In today's badly broken American medical system the news gets worse daily, and the number of U.S. citizens adversely affected continues to skyrocket begging the question, what would happen to you if suddenly hospitalized for a life threatening medical emergency? As a 25-year veteran TV reporter, Jerry Johnson had written stories about everything from Olympic glory to the untimely deaths of famous friends. Never, did he think he would write a book about an uninsured medical emergency that nearly cost his own life. On a cool, December evening Jerry found himself among the more than 40-million Americans working full time yet completely uninsured. On a Monday evening, minutes after arriving home, he inexplicably began vomiting blood and lost consciousness. He was rushed to a hospital where it was believed life saving treatment would be imminent. When told he was uninsured, the hospital staff placed him in a room and left him in the care of a single nurse and his fiance', a 20 year veteran RN. There would be no doctor and no significant medical intervention for more than 14 hours. By morning, Jerry had lost nearly all the blood in his body and his organs began to fail one after another. His children were told he would die and gathered to say their goodbyes. The woman Jerry had long thought to be his ex-wife appeared with an evil smile and a secret life-insurance policy, gleefully telling his fiance' their divorce had never been final. Add the indifference of a public hospital administration with a reputation, born of a $700 million dollar judgment in a Federal medical malpractice suit, and the result is a harrowing medical and personal drama captured in the pages of this true and tragic story. Jerry discovered first hand, money means more to some hospitals than a single human life. The frightening truth is, it could happen to anyone.