Whitehouse bringing Riverside cancer survivor to State of Union
4:55 PM Thu, Jan 24, 2008 | Permalink
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Mike Tracy, a cancer survivor from East Providence's Riverside section, will be a State of the Union address guest of U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, Whitehouse said Tracy's healthcare struggles point up the need for better health care quality. Tracy will fly to Washington on Monday afternoon and watch President Bush's speech from House visitors gallery. According to Whitehouse's office, Tracy suffered from a misdiagnosed case of squamous cell carcinoma on his foot, and his cancer therefore went untreated for years. He was told his leg would have to be amputated to prevent the cancer's spreading. After he got a second opinion at a Boston hospital, his final diagnosis had to be delayed several weeks so his complete records could be moved from Providence, the release said.
His amputation surgery was eventually successful; Tracy now has a prosthetic limb. He has been cancer-free since surgery, but he "struggled financially for several years with health care premiums so high they exceeded his monthly mortgage payments," Whitehouse's news release said. “A mistaken diagnosis changed my life forever," Tracy said in the release. "Paper medical records meant I had to wait in limbo -- knowing my life was in danger -- while my chart was transferred from one hospital to another. Nobody should have to go through an experience like this. “We need to fix the health care system.” 
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