When luck runs out, uninsured gardener turns to the hospital

By JOSIE HUANG, Staff Writer

Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by Doug Jones Self-employed gardener Kathy Gerry of Limerick couldn't afford to buy health insurance and relied on luck and home remedies - until a swollen arm required attention.
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Her slender arm was puffed up like a roughed-up football player's for several days before Kathy Gerry says she finally sought help.

As a self-employed gardener for grand estates on Prouts Neck, Gerry's rule-of-thumb had always been "Don't go to the doctor unless I'm dying. "

Her husband, a disabled veteran who runs an auto shop, receives care through the Veterans Administration hospital in Togus, but Gerry, 52, has gone more than 10 years without health benefits. In a good year, the Limerick couple makes roughly $22,000, but they can't afford to keep Gerry covered under a policy on the increasingly expensive individual market.

So when Gerry gets sick, she says she tries to "self-diagnose" by going on the Internet or talking to friends and family. Got a yeast infection? Well, take some yogurt, she says.

But home remedies weren't working with her left arm earlier this year. At first, she iced her arm and kept it raised. "(The swelling) wasn't going down."

Gerry finally went to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where doctors discovered a blood clot.

Gerry was immediately placed on blood thinners and went for regular blood tests at Leavitt's Mill Health Center in Buxton. The hospital and free clinic provided her with services at no charge, but she had to pay for the lab work that amounted to a "few hundred dollars." She completed treatment this July.

Gerry, the mother of a grown son, hasn't had any health problems since, and hopes to keep it that way.

"I've been lucky," she said. "I've never seriously broken a leg or anything."

- Josie Huang

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