Nancy Gómez, universal coverage advocate, speaks to us based on her own experience
Shortly after the November 2016 presidential election, Nancy Gomez, a tireless advocate of universal health coverage, began to feel that the air was lacking and an oppression in her heart.
"I was in shock because of Trump's triumph, I thought it was stress, but I said if I always live stressed, ”he recalls.
At first it did not matter, but as the discomfort in the chest came and went, he decided to visit his doctor. "He agreed that it was stress and should rest a little," he says.
But the months passed, and the discomfort continued.
“It had been half a year since Trump's election, and the pain in his chest was worse. Don't give me a heart attack, ”I thought.
When she went to see her family doctor, Mexican doctor Aliza Litshitz, an endocrinology specialist, this time she immediately sent her to the cardiologist.
"He tested my heart. To my surprise, everything went very well. The results showed that he had a very healthy heart", He says.
Nancy went home. However, he still felt a heavy pressure on his heart and it hurt. "I went back to my doctor, who sent me to do MRI and ultrasound studies."
These tests revealed that he had a tumor in the thymus gland under the heart, and he was oppressing that organ. “My doctor told me that I had never seen such a case. It was very rare. ”
Although Nancy was very concerned, she felt somewhat relieved because she finally knew what she had.
In October 2017, a few days after one year of the elections that led Trump to the US presidency, he entered the operating room to have the tumor removed. "It was not an open heart, but a four-sided intervention."
The best news he received when he left the surgery is that there was no cancer. "That was another great relief," he says.
Two years later, at 52 years of age, Nancy feels fully recovered after having gone through a trance that could cost her her life. “I thought I was going to die, that I didn't get out of that one,” he says.
Nancy, an Argentine immigrant, who worked as an organizational director for more than a decade with Health Access, a nonprofit organization that was part of the national campaign for comprehensive health reform, is a medical sociologist and was a member of the US Navy.
Based on her experience as an advocate for health rights for all and as a patient of a disease that could be fatal, Nancy says that even in the midst of the vulnerability of going through a medical trance, the patient has to learn to defend himself, and if not them, their relatives should take that role.
“No one better than we know our body. So if we feel bad and follow the symptoms, we are not satisfied with being told what stress is, and do not let much time go by because something that can be simple with the months can become serious, ”he says.
In addition, he states that the patient has to fight against medical insurance that does not want to take certain tests for not paying them; and they give doctors orders not to ask them "So they have to insist," he emphasizes.
He adds that it is very important when it comes to serious health situations, look for a second medical option.
"They should ask the health insurance they have, talk to another doctor," he says.
He also says that it may not be highly recommended to seek information about the health problem on the Internet. “You want to know more and go to Google. By nature, bad information will catch your attention. That instead of helping us, will make us worry more and without need. ”
Perhaps, Nancy's biggest recommendation is not to be intimidated by doctors and the health system, whether the person or not insured, is undocumented or documented.
"If we cannot because we are very tired of our medical condition, the family must face the health system, and intercede for us," he emphasizes.
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