Mr. Jenkins killed himself.
He was a African-American senior citizen living in Inglewood, CA. Approximately two months ago his wife passed away at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital. Even while his wife was alive Mr. Jenkins would frequently contemplate a murder/suicide scenario. You see his wife was bed-ridden with a variety of illnesses brought on by obesity.
Life becomes very ugly for many seniors. Mr. Jenkins wife one day decided not to get out of bed and from that point forward stayed in it, for a period of several years. She was already overweight and the lack of movement contributed to her body's self destruction. It is safe to say that she suffered from clinical depression.
While bed ridden, Mr. Jenkins was supposed to move his wife from one side to another every 3 hours. Most of the time he couldn't do that because he weighed all of 175Ibs and wasn't strong enough. His wife also had to use the bathroom. He couldn't assist her with these basic bodily functions either. A catheter was used to handle the problem of bladder control and diapers took care of the rest. Of course Mr. Jenkins needed assistance changing his wife's diapers. Assistnace that often wasn't available when needed.
His senses were diminishing day by day. He could not remember which medication he had taken, which bills had been paid and what he had eaten for his last meal. Mr. Jenkins had only a 5th grade education and generally wasn't very trusting of Social Workers and anybody who wanted to seperate him from his wife. Yes, you could say its a fault if someone doesn't want to accept what little help is being offered. To him it was a sense of love and belonging together that made him want to keep his wife out of whatever chinzy nursing facility that could be assigned to her. And yes, some of those decision and thought processes were severly impaired by his state of mental well-being.
Inspite of all these problems Mr. Jenkins loved his wife dearly. He would often sit at the kitchen table and cry in utter dispair as he watched his wife's body slowly shut down over a period of years. Being a childless couple, the only asset in the Jenkins' life was their house. They did not have any insurance coverage that allowed for long term assisted care by a nursing assistant. To make matters worse, Mr. Jenkins was barely able to get around the city. He couldn't drive a car anymore.
Alone and shut in, prisoners of the medical system, with too many assets to qualify for the medical care available to destitute people, but not enough money to properly care for himself and his wife, Mr. Jenkins felt that he would rather be dead than go on living in this hell. When his wife succumbed to pneumonia Mr. Jenkins reached for the old gun that he kept under his pillow and ended the agony that his life had become.
This is a true story. How man people in the US suffer greatly in their later years? How many young people loose everything because of medical bills? A measure of a societies worth can be seen in how it cares for its elderly and sick.
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