Source: www.scpr.org - Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Grant Burningham, who lives in Bountiful, Utah, worked to get a referendum on Medicaid expansion on the Utah ballot in November.; Credit: /Kim Raff for NPR Alison Kodjak | NPR It wasn't all that long ago that Grant Burningham was homeless and sleeping in a tent in the woods. "That's hard for me to talk about because I thought I had reached the end," he says. Burningham, a former financial adviser from Bountiful, Utah, developed serious medical problems 17 years ago. Back in 2001, Burningham offered to donate his stem cells to his sister for a transplant. It required multiple procedures, and each time Burningham was given high doses of a medication to boost his immune system. " And then I got really sick," he says. He believes it was a reaction to the drug that ended up causing a constellation of strange symptoms. "I literally got what might even be termed the boils of Job. I have scars all over my body now," he says. "And then I got some really strange severe headaches and fatigue, and that was associated with the blood pressure that got remarkably high." He lost his job, his health insurance and eventually he lost his home. Now he has a place to live but still can't get the care — or even a diagnosis — that might allow him to get back on his feet. That could all change. On Election Day, Utah residents will be going to the polls to vote on whether the state will join 33 others and Washington, D.C., in expanding Medicaid coverage
Source: Breaking News
Grant Burningham, who lives in Bountiful, Utah, worked to get a referendum on Medicaid expansion on the Utah ballot in November.; Credit: /Kim Raff for NPR Alison Kodjak | NPR It wasn't all that long ago that Grant Burningham was homeless and sleeping in a tent in the woods. "That's hard for me to talk about because I thought I had reached the end," he says. Burningham, a former financial adviser from Bountiful, Utah, developed serious medical problems 17 years ago. Back in 2001, Burningham offered to donate his stem cells to his sister for a transplant. It required multiple procedures, and each time Burningham was given high doses of a medication to boost his immune system. " And then I got really sick," he says. He believes it was a reaction to the drug that ended up causing a constellation of strange symptoms. "I literally got what might even be termed the boils of Job. I have scars all over my body now," he says. "And then I got some really strange severe headaches and fatigue, and that was associated with the blood pressure that got remarkably high." He lost his job, his health insurance and eventually he lost his home. Now he has a place to live but still can't get the care — or even a diagnosis — that might allow him to get back on his feet. That could all change. On Election Day, Utah residents will be going to the polls to vote on whether the state will join 33 others and Washington, D.C., in expanding Medicaid coverage
Source: Breaking News
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