"But I'm not dead yet!"
Posted on 01/07/2010 6:59:39 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
MAYNARDVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- An East Tennessee woman has spent her entire life fighting a disease, living more than 20 years longer than doctors told her she would.
But on Christmas Eve, she found out the government classified her as dead, cutting off all her coverage.
Leaving Terri Thompson to face one of her toughest battles.
She calls herself a fighter, finding out at 6 year sold that she has a rare and incurable blood disease.
Terri says, "It's called Hypogammaglobulin Anemia." "It affects my immune system, when I don't have enough white blood cells." "It's caused many of my organs to stop on me."
Doctors told Terri that she wouldn't live to see 25, but she continues to prove them wrong, a couple of months shy of her 49th birthday.
"I've been a fighter, and a fighter, and I've had 6 doctors give up on me," says Terry.
Laying in her Union County apartment, hiding from the germ-ridden world, she leaves every 3 weeks for treatment.
But, on Christmas Eve, she needed to go by the bank to take out money for dinner with her son.
"When I showed that lady my license, she turned white as a ghost." Terry says the bank employee, "said, I got a note that you died, that you're dead. So, I sent your Social Security back to the Social Security office."
Then when she got home, she found a letter in her mailbox saying her medical coverage ended.
"That letter stated to my family my condolences, and sympathy at the death of Terri Thompson, and I'm reading that myself."
Tearfully, she called the Social Security Administration in Knoxville. "They really couldn't tell me nothing. They told me I've got to come into the office and talk with somebody, and that they didn't have an opening until the 14th."
That's 3 weeks from the date of the call, and in between, Terri has a treatment, and several bills, that she can no longer pay for.
"I can't understand how they can make a mistake like this," as Terri chokes back her emotions.
Now she faces two fights: one to keep her life, and the other to prove she is still alive.
"I'm taking a chance at losing my life over somebody else's mistake."
When Volunteer TV called the Social Security Administration about this story, the regional office in Atlanta asked for Terri's phone number.
They say they're working to re-instate her coverage as soon as possible, instead of making her wait until January 14th.
These are the same people who will be running government health care.
They’ll be telling us we are really dead and will be taking us to a mortician while we’re still breathing.
When the death panel says you are dead, you must stay dead.
In the Middle Ages so many people were buried alive (unconscious, in comas, etc.) that it became the fashion to hang a bell on top of a grave with a cord running into the coffin. The idea was that if the "corpse" awoke he/she could pull on the string and ring the bell. That's where the expression "that's a real bell ringer" came from.
Looks like we may have to reinstate that custom when the govt. takes over our healthcare (not really sarcasm).
Yeah. For some reason when my wife reached 65, and it was time to make medicare her primary insurance and my private plan secondary, as it already was for me, the social security office refused to believe it. For a year they insisted that UHC was primary, and UHC insisted that medicare was primary, and neither would pay anything toward her medical bills because the other hadn’t paid first.
It took two senators and a congressman to persuade them to change their minds. And we still don’t understand what the problem was.
"But I'm not dead yet!"
Doc Daneeka
“Dead Ringer” actually..
I believe your explanation describes the etymology of the phrase "Dead ringer".
CUSTOMER: Here’s one — nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
MORTICIAN: What?
CUSTOMER: Nothing — here’s your nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
MORTICIAN: Here — he says he’s not dead!
CUSTOMER: Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not!
MORTICIAN: He isn’t.
CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
DEAD PERSON: I’m getting better!
CUSTOMER: No, you’re not — you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
MORTICIAN: Oh, I can’t take him like that — it’s against regulations.
DEAD PERSON: I don’t want to go in the cart!
CUSTOMER: Oh, don’t be such a baby.
MORTICIAN: I can’t take him...
DEAD PERSON: I feel fine!
(Monty Python & the Holy Grail)
That’s true too. I was relating the story from memory. Obviously, my memory is not what it used to be. THanks for the correction.
Just a preview of Death Panels.
Somebody from your area of TN...
The clowns at the SS office in Knoxville need to get off their coffee break and get this woman's check and likely Medicare restored ASAP as in a matter of minutes not weeks. Someone in that office has the authority to do this. One call or Maryland I think it is to Maryland does the trick and Maryland should be put on notice to do a walk it through as well. I think her congresscritter is likely Duncan and the family needs to contact his office also.
Move to Philly. Not only will they declare you alive, they will register you as a dumbocrat and give you section 8 housing.
Acvtually the SS office could clear the matter up in minutes to confirm she is alive. Call the Union County Sheriffs Office and have the deputies go do a welfare check {a check by LEO’s to check to see if a person is OK} and run her ID while there.
I’m glad the media got this. What a tough life.
If I walk to my back property line I'm at the boundry of Duncan's district. If I go a mile or two up the road I'm in Union County. That's about as close to my general location as I'll post and even then nobody's going to find my house LOL.
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