And then Lolita died

by Barbara Jean Hope

This article was reprinted from the January 25, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

As the health care issue is debated across the nation and in the halls of Congress, people are dying. People are dying because of a greed that is all consuming - so all consuming that human life has become meaningless as capitalism runs amok in its dying stages. Lolita Cunningham paid the price of living in capitalist America with her life.

In 1985, Lolita Cunningham became Philadelphia's first child to receive a heart transplant. The most advanced resources, under a media spotlight, were brought to bear to save her life and the world was led to believe that money was not an issue. Under the glare of TV cameras and the scrutiny of other media, many felt that Lolita had been given a second chance at life, many perhaps felt that this was what America was all about. Well, 10 years later, Lolita found out what America's health care system is all about.

Lolita Cunningham was born with a deformed heart. It kept her alive for a while but, as she grew, it could no longer support her body. Doctors at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children decided to risk a heart transplant. The transplant worked. Afterwards she maintained her health by carefully following the strict regimen of expensive medication to which all heart-transplant recipients must adhere.

Lolita, a 24-year-old African American woman, came from a family that was described as "poor." In spite of these odds, she stayed in school and attended Drexel University but high tuition fees forced her to drop out. In spite of that, she was able to find employment as a part-time lab assistant and was able to get her own apartment. Things should have been looking up.

The final hurdle that Lolita could not jump over in the race toward a decent life - or any life at all for that matter - was the U.S. health care system. Brenda Datts, Lolita's foster mother, said that Cunningham became angry and depressed when, after getting a job, she became ineligible for Medicaid. Without that coverage it became nearly impossible for her to pay the $600 per month for the drugs to keep her transplanted heart working.

Caplan said that "Cunningham became one of millions of Americans who, because they are part-time employees, do not qualify for health insurance through their jobs." Datts said that because of worries about cost, her daughter stopped going to the doctor for regular checkups. As Cunningham's worries about money and health insurance grew, she began to skip her medications.

In the summer of 1996, she had to be taken to the emergency room at Temple University Medical Center. In spite of working and striving to gain a foothold in the "American Dream," Cunningham's medical bills continued to mount as did the worry about becoming a burden to others.

The little girl that Philadelphia rallied around in 1985 was left on her own to battle the corporate-owned health care system. She lost. Lolita Cunningham died in December 1996 because she could not afford the medication that could have saved her life.

No TV cameras captured the broken heart of the young adult Lolita. No TV cameras captured the reality of her life-or- death struggle against the forces of private profit. After all, it would not have made "feel-good" copy.

Because she could not answer the demand to help fill the coffers of the greedy before being made well, Lolita's life was snuffed out. Indeed, capitalism kills. It will continue to kill if we don't fight back - if we don't fight so that there are no more deaths like Lolita Cunningham's.

As we struggle to force the U.S. health care system into a single-payer plan, at the least, let us remember Lolita Cunningham and the thousands, perhaps millions, of others who are dying across the country for the profit of a few.