My review of: A Painful Truth - The Entrapment of America's Sick by Nancy Rector

[Lumo]

A Painful Truth is the (apparently true) story of a middle aged US citizen who, due to not having health insurance (despite her and her husband working) works out ways to self diagnose and self-medicate painkillers for her ever increasing chronic back pain. Part of this involves ordering prescription only narcotic painkillers from foreign websites. The author says that this works well and continues doing so for yaears. Then, one quiet day, after receiving another batch of painkillers, a SWAT team breaks her door down and arrests her for possession of controlled subsances with intent to distribute. The main part of the story is her description of her (brief) time in jail, the jail system and her subsequent experiences with the legal system. These descriptions are detailed, interesting and in many cases eye opening. She ultimately gets a criminal record.

 

Nancy does acknowledge and explain some of her seeming self contradictions (for example, saying that she hates western pharmaceutical medicines, but also saying that despite numerous attempts at other things the only thing that helps her pain is strong painkillers) and at times there is a reasonable amount of humour in the book.

 

Before writing this book Nancy was an activist for many different things, and this becomes very apparent throughout. She attacks the government, the pharmaceutical companies, the legal system, politicians and fellow countrymen. While she may well be correct in what she says, parts of it read like an extremest website and diverge from the main story somewhat.

 

Despite that the book is undoubtedly moving and I agree with her that it is shocking that someone in such a developed country is refused by doctors because she hasn't the cash to pay them up front (she knows that she will need scans and x-rays in addition to consultations, so this will run into the thousands of dollars price range). Her portrayal of the legal system is also eye-opening.

 

I read the Kindle edition of the book, it was low cost (£1 - £2) and I think the print edition is done through self-publication. I'm glad I read this book and while I don't agree with everything Nacy says, I do empathise with her strongly.

 

http://www.amazon.co...f=docs-os-doi_0

 

Product Description

 

At age 52, while in the privacy of her own home, Nancy Rector had a twenty plus man SWAT team break her door down with a battering ram and was arrested in front of her daughter and 5-year-old granddaughter and taken away to jail in handcuffs. Her crime? Purchasing a single order of pain medication online without a prescription. She ended up a convicted felon for doing nothing more than trying to survive an incredibly painful, debilitating, chronic illness for which no doctor would diagnose nor treat her as she had no insurance. This is her detailed story of what happened to her and how and why it can happen to anyone.

 

We live in a country where freedom, individual rights and justice are held to be of extreme importance. A country on the cutting edge of science, medicine and technology, where the common social mantra is "We're Number One!" It is also the only industrialized nation in the world that does not provide healthcare for its sick and dying. In fact preditorial capitalism has made any type of healthcare option out of reach for millions of its citizens. This, in combination of an overburdened legal system, places its citizens in circumstances where justice, decency and humanity are lacking if not absence altogether.