So, you appeal to the show to help your four children who are ill with a rare blood disorder and get a new house built.

Then you get sick and are thinking about selling the house so you can pay for your surgery and put your children at risk?

To me, it is wrong on so many levels. Selling the gift of his house at the expense of his kids, which as a mother, I say comes first.

So we should let him suffer?

It is a tough call.

On the one hand (the more evolutionary?) I say save the kids, keep the house. But then again how well will the kids do when they have to move out on their own? Maybe they won't really survive to reproduce as adults anyway, even under best circumstances.

And seeing someone suffer like that has to be terrible. Then again, the surgery sounds like it is very risky; any surgery has risks, brain surgery particularly. What if they sell the house and he gets the surgery and dies on the table? What then?

Tricky. No "good" answer.

Then again, they've gotten the media involved. Maybe a new option will pop up.

No, there are no good answers.

But as a mother and having recieved a gift from public donations for my kids for their well being and health, I personally would not sell my house (of which I would not have gotten if my 4 kids were well) to pay for my surgery.

I, personally, would endure HELL rather than uproot my kids.

i dunno. it really is a tough call. they have 4 children who are in need of serious medical care, and if the father should die (or just remain debilitated as he is), how well can a single parent handle raising them? i just feel really bad for all of them.

on another note, this is the second time a makeover house in idaho has been in jeopardy. the first one up north had to be sold because the guy just couldn't afford to upkeep it.

every time i watch that show, that is pretty much exactly what i think because the houses they build ARE amazing, but they usually have gigantic windows, and are just ostentatious. the people they are building these houses for are not rich (otherwise they wouldn't need help). so i really don't think the show is 100% about giving gifts and goodwill, so much as it is about creating a spectacle for entertainment. so in my opinion, selling these houses in order to salvage finances, family, whatever is perfectly within utilization of the "gift."

Of course the show isn't 100% about giving gifts. It is 100% about RATINGS. Nothing more, nothing less. If a program about how to make lifelike ducks out of cotton and leather made better ratings, you can bet your ass that "Duckworks with Rachel Ray" would in the time slot and not this program.

Hollywood is the plastic insincere lying two faced capital of the world. All they give a shit about is the bottom line. They couldn't care less about what happens to these "gift" recipients after the last take.

I hate these type programs. All they do is glamorize being down and out and raise people's expectations that somehow a magic fairy with a TV camera might swoop down and save them. We need to be responsible for ourselves and take lumps when they need to be taken. Not to say I am against public assistance...it has certainly allowed my family to eat more than one time. But to put it on a TV program and make everything look like it works out wonderful just because the hour is up disgusts me.

Wow, what amazing comments. I agreed with you all in turn. While I agree with TM when it comes to putting children and charity first, it became clear as I read the other comments that they didn't really receive charity. They were willing actors in an entertainment program that obviously earns more from being aired than it costs to build them their home or the show would not be on the air. They were paid to become that "one hour" of feel-good programming. Charity comes from people who give to you without expectation of return. This was not charity. It was a contract.

And damn you- medical insurance company, pay for that surgery you cheap-ass, heartless idiots!!

Indeed.

I watch and am further disgusted by all the stuff they get in the house that they truly don't need. Flat screen TV's everywhere, crazy frills that I can't even begin to count. That show goes waaaay beyond the word charity. I shudder to think how much they could do for alot more down and out people if they could scale down the frills.

I can't stand that show either, Moe, maybe that is why I feel so strongly about it.

That is a tough call, but I think it should ultimately rest with the husband/father.

This just makes me grateful to know that I will never be in this situation. UHC FTW!!!

What a conundrum... She should contact the people from extreme makeover and ask them what the hell she should do? maybe they'll give her a hand...

On a separate note... I've been getting headaches, from the back of my head to my left eye, that stop me in my tracks and then disappear moments later... I used to NEVER get headaches until I was about 17 and then I started getting migraines... I wonder what his symptoms started as and then turned into... O_O;

Per the article, the surgery has a 60% success rate...

$100,000 for a surgery (it's called deep brain stimulation, they will implant a pacemaker like device to try and trick the brain)that has just over a 50/50 success rate. BTW, this surgery is NOT FDA approved. (Oh and Mr Stockdale no longer works for Omnipure Filter Company, I assume his health coverage is thru cobra.)



What if it fails?
What if he doesn't make it out of the OR?
The his children have no father AND no safe house to live in.

I for one hope this father does the right thing, for his children.





Addendum: a google serach turned up another story with video



IMO these people are using the media to bully his former employer into paying for an experimental procedure.

There IS a good answer. The insurance company should pay for the surgery, no if's, and's or but's. That's what insurance is supposed to do. I don't give a damn if it's experimental or not. It's a human life in pain, and it's worth the risk. This is a classic example of why the entire health care system needs an overhaul.

If the insurance company didn't use the "experimental" excuse, they'd come up with another one.