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malls, to discount grocery outlets
and fast-food joints.
When the pain got so bad that
she could not handle it, Johnson
lay on her couch and watched television (mostly soap operas) and
consulted a book on home remedies. That’s where she learned
about vinegar treatments. (“It
brings your blood pressure down,”
she says.) That’s where she read
that dabbing rubbing alcohol on
her temples might limit her headaches, while a little lemon juice
could be used for dizziness. For
kidney troubles, she says, baking
powder and water are thought to
do the trick.
On a muggy morning in May
2011, she felt so faint that she
could not get herself to work, the
pressure in her chest having become unbearable.
“It felt like something was smothering my heart,” she said. “I was terrified. It was very traumatic.”
Her sister drove her to the
emergency room at the E.A. Conway Medical Center, a half-hour
drive to the east in the town of
Monroe. The hospital — part of
the Louisiana State University
health care system, which specializes in care for low-income people — occupies a five-story brick
HUFFINGTON
02.03.13
building next to a juvenile prison
ringed by razor wire. Nearly half of
the patients at the medical center
are enrolled in Medicaid, and 38
percent have no insurance, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
System-wide, the LSU hospital chain derived nearly half of its
2011 revenues from state and federal funds that reimburse facilities
that treat large numbers of people
who fail to pay their bills, accord-
“IT FELT LIKE SOMETHING
WAS SMOTHERING MY HEART.”
ing to its latest annual report. At
E.A. Conway, nearly two-thirds
of the revenues came from these
sources, according to the report.
The medical staff put Johnson
on a ventilator and ran a battery
of tests.
The doctors found a substantial
quantity of fluid around her heart,
which was severely enlarged, she
says. They determined that her
blood pressure was so high that
she was at severe risk of a stroke.
“The doctor asked me, ‘Why
did you wait so long to come in?’”
Johnson recalled. “He told me my
body was almost getting ready to
shut down. And I’m thinking in
my head, ‘I didn’t come because I
don’t have any insurance.’”