Last Thursday, my son Zachary participated in Senior Night for his wrestling team.
Zach, a senior at Putnam North, has been on the team for a couple of years now. He loves wrestling and his is a typical teenaged boy. He’s also spent his entire life dealing with catastrophic heart defects.
Born with only three chambers in his heart, Zach had open heart surgery three times from the time he was born to the age of three. Each surgery was done at the state’s publicly funded hospital, OU’s Children’s Health Center.
Since then, he’s thrived. So, why am I telling you this?
The answer is simple. For a while now, several members of our state Legislature have attempted to vilify Oklahoma’s public health system. They have lambasted the Department of Human Services and Children’s Health. They attempted to politicize treatments, health care and services.
At the same time, the physicians and the experts at those facilities have saved lives. They worked with caregivers and parents to aid the residents of this state. That’s their job, a calling, an effort to make things better here in the Sooner State.
And, in the case of my own family, they saved my son’s life.
It was a surgeon at that state-funded hospital who performed a Fontan (named for the French surgeon who developed it) surgery on Zach’s heart to bypass the missing chamber. They surgeries were a success. Zach survived and he grew strong.
Those surgeries are why my son got to participate in the wrestling team’s Senior Night. Those surgeries are why my son is alive and thriving. On Feb. 2, state lawmakers will return to the Capitol. And there, some members of the Legislature will again attempt to vilify our public health system. Their claims with be loud and false. There will be media statements and social media posts.
The noise and the false statements will be loud.
Don’t listen. Please understand that this system - which this group has attempted to demonize - is necessary for this state. Services such as those provided by OU Children’s, the Department of Mental Health or the Department of Human Services are vital.
Push back against the rhetoric and call out those who are trying to destroy a system that saves lives. Call out those who make false statements. Support those who are trying to help.
Oklahoma needs its public health system.
I know this for a fact because that public health system saved my son’s life.
M. Scott Carter is an award-winning political and investigative reporter with more than 40years’ experience covering federal and state government and politics in Oklahoma. He can be reached at scott.carter@swoknews.com.