HEARING - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

13
Senator HEINZ. So you are faced with having to give up some
medical care that you need in order to have enough left to live and
take care of your husband. That is really what you are saying to
us, isn't it?
Mrs. YELINECK. Exactly, yes.
Senator HEINZ. What about Medicaid? You know, there is a program
for people who are in great need and destitute. Are you eligible,
do you know?
Mrs. YELINECK. I have not gone into that. I do not know anything
about it, really. The little I do know is that it is some kind of
help for medical expenses.
Senator HEINZ. But you have not looked into that?
Mrs. YELINECK. No.
Senator HEINZ. Have you asked anybody about it? Have you
talked to the hospital or the doctors or a social worker or anybody?
Mrs. YELINECK. No. This all came on so quickly with me. I had
been taking care of my husband, as I said before, and I have had
nurse's training, so I was acquainted with how to handle his pulmonary
spasms when he goes into them. It is the same sensation as
a person drowning. I know how to increase his oxygen or decrease
it; if you increase it too much, you can blow their heads off, and
you build up a carbon dioxide in the body which is poisonous, and
it would be instant death.
So therefore, I have been doing this for the last 5 years when he
has been so very ill. He has been ill a total of 7 years, but 5 years
intensive illness, and taken nine times by emergency to the University
Hospital. They have a little joke going, and they say, "Don,
you are quite a guy."
As a matter of fact, they have a very strong interest in my husband
because they say they have not seen anybody survive such severeness.
His blood pressure is 244 over 160, which is beyond stroke
level. And they are studying him because they feel he has such a
strong biofeed. Are you acquainted at all'with what biofeedback is?
Senator HEINZ. A little; I know of it, but I have never tried it.
Mrs. YELINECK. Well, I do not know how to track it. It just comes
natural to my husband, apparently.
Senator HEINZ. And it works?
Mrs. YELINECK. Yes. And also, they have complimented me and
allowed me to sleep in the room with my husband when he is critical.
They have a bed alongside his bed, and he holds onto my hand,
and they say I am giving him my strength that I have.
Senator HEINZ. Do you think you are?
Mrs. YELINECK. I am hoping that I am.
Senator HEINZ. Let me ask you one last question. If you think
back 7 years ago or even further back, I guess, 8 years ago, when
your husband first turned 65, became eligible for Medicare--
Mrs. YELINECK. Yes.
Senator HEINZ. Did you think that most of your health care
needs and concerns would be taken care of by either Medicare or
the Medigap insurance that I understand you had?
Mrs. YELINECK. Oh, yes, Senator, yes.
Senator HEINZ. And so you never anticipated that something like
this would happen?