Firewater!

Dear Friends: For years now I have written on these pages about how I think the Indians are not being treated fairly by the government and society. (And I don't mean they are being treated poorly!)

Since this is about a liver transplant for a native woman named Delilah Saunders I will have to tell you a quick story about what I saw on TV concerning this very problem. 

On the new TV show "The Good Doctor" there was a fairly important guy who was in line for a transplant. (No mention was made of the fact that he was black.)

However, one of the rules for a transplant recipient is that they are not allowed to consume alchohol within the previous six months before the operation!

Now this guy remarked that he drank a small glass of wine at his daughter's wedding about two months before, and this set everyone in a panic for the breach of the rules. 

What made it such a no-no is that he drank anything at all, even if it was two months before and it was only a small glass of wine. 

After a lot of talk back and forth amongst the doctors the guy was denied a tranplant even though it was a sure death sentence for him, becauseTHE RULES ARE THE RULES! (The next guy in line got it!)

Now, enter Delilah: This week, Delilah Saunders was admitted to hospital hoping for a liver transplant to save her life. But the rules of our health care system appeared to prevent her getting one — because she had consumed alcohol in the past half-year. (She was an alcoholic and that's why she needed a new liver.)

Family members say transplant specialists initially rejected Saunders as a candidate (though she was being assessed anew on Friday). The Indigenous activist has fought addiction, and in our triage-based health system, where organs are in short supply and experts must make hard decisions about who would benefit most from getting one, those who have consumed alcohol in the last six months are thought to run greater health risks than those who have not. 

NOW, HERE'S THE REASON I DON'T AGREE WITH THIS WHOLE THING: 

Not being satisfied with this decision Delilah has claimed discrimination because she is aboriginal, and even took her case to Amnesty International for a ruling. (Naturally they said she was being unfairly treated because she was an Indian, never mind her life style or anything else except that she was a poor, hard-done-by Native American!

(Saunders has endured much. Earlier this year, Amnesty International gave her its ambassador of conscience award, an honour that came at great cost: Three years ago, her sister, Loretta, was murdered. Saunders became an outspoken activist on missing and murdered Indigenous woman but her sister’s violent death was a blow and relatives say it factored in to her battle with addiction. Her sister had sub-let her apartment to two guys and when they didn't pay their rent she went to talk to them, so they killed her and dumped her body on the side of the Trans Canada Highway! What this has to do with the "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman inquiry is beyond me.)

The bleeding heart, left wing Ottawa Citizen says it’s tied to Saunders’s case in this way: 

Marginalized people — which in Canada often means Indigenous citizens — seem to be treated less diligently by the “system” than the rest of us are. Particularly in emergencies. That’s not acceptable; it’s shameful. Even in a rationed health care system, moral judgment should not be the arbiter of care. People such as Saunders deserve better.

 Two things here folks:  First of all she drank, (and it wasn't just a small glass of wine) and playing the sympathy card just because you're an Indian is wearing pretty thin as far as I'm concerned!

The way I see it anyway!

********************