Eduardo Needs a Heart
While most children wish for the latest toys and gadgets for Christmas, there is a 14 year old boy who wishes for a heart so he can live a normal life.
Eduardo Loredo was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy, an illness in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged, and cannot pump blood efficiently. Eduardo was first hospitalized at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO in July 2009 and was there for three months before being sent home on Oct. 14, 2009. Since Eduardo doesn’t have health insurance and his undocumented residency status prevents him from being eligible for Medicaid in Kansas City, the family was told they need $500,000.00 to place Eduardo on the transplant waiting list for a heart. Children’s Mercy Hospital does not perform heart transplants. The hospital is doing everything they can to get Eduardo on the list, but they have not had any success. Doctors say he could die in a few days or a few years, but without getting on the waiting list for the heart, he doesn’t have a chance.
Eduardo now needs our help to get the heart he desperately needs.
Healthcare-NOW! and the Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign call on healthcare advocates and people of conscience to join the campaign to save his life. Together, we must demand that Eduardo get on the wait list for a heart.
There are millions like Eduardo who are unable to access the health care they need because of financial barriers to care. This injustice must end. We ask that you to continue support and build for a solution that is universal, humane, and equitable – improved Medicare for All.
Here is what you can do right now to give Eduardo a heart for the holidays and build the movement for Medicare for All:
1. Sign and circulate the international appeal to save his life (download a printable petition here).
2. Join us for the fundraiser on December 20th in Kansas. If you can’t be there, sponsor someone else to come!
Date: Sunday, December 20, 2009
Time: 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: JCCC Capitol Federal Room (Regnier Center), 12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, Kansas 66210
3. Donate to the campaign to give Eduardo a heart. Either go here to donate online, or donations can be sent to the Gahutier Eduardo Loredo Transplant Fund at any Bank of America branch.
4. Tell everyone – Forward this information!
5. Plan an action on December 21st for Eduardo and Medicare for all. We are asking people to plan vigils, meetings, gather petition signatures, or fund raise to make sure that the message about Eduardo is reaching the public. Use this time to educate the public about Eduardo’s case and the need for Medicare for all. Please pledge to plan an action to demand that Eduardo receive a heart, and end deaths because of inability to pay for healthcare. Fill out this form if you are going to plan action..
6. Write a letter to the editor about Eduardo’s that says we wouldn’t have to fight for Eduardo’s life, or for the 45,000 others who die every year for lack of access to healthcare, if we had Medicare for everyone.
7. Find Eduardo on Facebook.
With your help, we will stand up for the right to health care by loudly demanding that Eduardo be placed on the waiting list for the heart he so desperately needs. As we fight for a 14-year-old to have access to his full life’s potential and the health care this country needs, we remember Dr. King’s powerful words, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”