Retirement Homes and The Government Rob Families

I’m one of the baby boomers.  My grandparents passed away in hospitals after illnesses.  Left behind in the household was my Uncle, who was born with polio.   He went to work, at a construction company of all things, as a radio man.  He must have worked at that job for 30 years.  He is single, as he never really went looking for love & I guess was afraid nobody would want the responsibility of helping him out on a daily basis.  Growing up I was very proud of him.  A person with a severe handicap was working everyday & not giving in.  He would put on his braces & leave every morning to work all day.

A few months ago, after years of slowly loosing his voice, he was diagnosed with cancer in his throat.  They started radiation treatments & he became weak enough that he could not pull himself up off the toilet.  A proud man felt embarassed by one of the things many of us take for granted – just standing up.  While in the hospital it was like they did not know what to do with him.  Nobody had polio these days.  They were so confused and unknowing of his past strength.  They decided there was no way this man could take care of himself & refused to let him go home unless someone was there 24/7 to watch him.  My parents are in their seventies.  I am married & live almost 2 hours away.  I cannot drive 4 hours a day back & forth to work to work.  The cost of gas alone would bankrupt me.  The economy is so bad there are no jobs to be found where he lives.  Unemployment is at the worst it has been since the great depression.  They told us if he goes home alone they would report us to the authorities, much like child protective services.  They do not know he has taken care of himself for years.  All they see is the polio and are frightened by it.   What do we do?

We all know it was going happen one day regardless.  He would get weaker each year & would need the help.  What we did not plan on was the cancer, the radiation, and the system, not giving him a chance to continue on his life the way he wanted.  We all want to look the other way & not think about these things until it is a little too late, granted.  But the audacity of medicare, the goverment, and the entire system, trying to rule someone’s elder years & money was not something I was ready for.