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So I had if nothing else been a productive responsible citizen for over sixty years, was unemployed only once and didn't apply for unemployment pay, paid taxes for
over forty years - a lot of taxes - and didn't commit any crimes. My brief military service was more than that of over ninety percent of the population.
I had never received a dollar of 'government assistance' of any kind, and had paid for quite a bit that went to other people. I made a lot of money for three
employers and never asked for more than what they had agreed to pay me. I had provided financially for a decent retirement. At the very least I would
have liked for my fellow beings to refrain from doing bad things to me.
But it was not to be. I went to work one morning and my memory of what happened for the next four months is largely unknown to me except what was told to me by
family and friends. And the hospital records.
The last entry in the journal I had kept for years was for 15 December 2020. It indicates I left for work at 0733. After that, nothing.
I know from memory what I would have done that day. I would have arrived at work a little before 0800 and probably conversed with some co-workers before going up
to my office. I would go up and down those stairs a dozen or more times a day, but that was the last day I would do so.
According to a friend who worked downstairs I came to her office and told her I didn't feel good and might need to see a doctor. Within a few minutes I was unable
to sit up in a chair or speak. An ambulance was called and I was taken to the local hospital.
A decent hospital for a small city of that size, I had
been there once before when I waited too long to see the doctor when I had the flu. I would spend a week there even though I was substantially recovered in a couple
of days, another day or two might have been prudent but seven days?
Looking at the bills paid by the insurance company I noticed one for the seven days of the daily doctor visit. He would come into the room, check my chart, talk to
me and the nurse if one was present, and in ten minutes or less was gone. $115 for each day. Call it $600 per hour. That had been four or five years
earlier, so it is was likely more the next time I was in a hospital.
At sixty-something I had been around the block a time or three, and my experience with homo sapiens in general had been fairly disappointing. Office politics in
companies with a few dozen or thousands of employees eradicated what naivety I started with. A friend now departed used to say to me "people are just no damned
good". Often. I suspected he was right but tried to simply avoid unpleasant people. But when those people have you drugged senseless and
tied to a bed it's difficult to do so.
The hospital that had successfully treated me when I had pneumonia a few years earlier didn't go so well this time. They don't have heart surgery there, and I was
believed to be having a heart attack. They did do something called a cardiac catheterization, and...
Whether or not they assessed the probability of the contrast dye causing injury (I was incapable of conversation) I don't know. It's in the records but I haven't
found a refenence to it in the ones from this hospital. Let's call it Hospital A. In any case as I've noticed the records from at least some hospitals omit any incriminating
data. In any case it seems that the person injecting it stuck the needle in one of my kidneys. The injury from the dye might not have been so severe
otherwise. How do I know? A couple of sources, but since Hospital B (where they sent me a few hours later) recorded a kidney injury upon admission (the effect did
not become apparent for about 48 hours) either they were advised or discovered it on their own. Perhaps I'll find out someday, but neither Hospital A nor Hospital B
is all that important just now.
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