Nurse Alert! A Third World Country – in Michigan

Let’s say you turned on your faucet and your water looked like……

Not Water.

For many months, the Flint, Michigan area has been struggling with contaminated water.  Water was being provided via the Flint River. Where engine parts and refrigerators have been dumped for decades. Because that is a nutritious part of a complete breakfast…..I guess.

The water is contaminated with a high quantity of LEAD.  They are still billing the residents for the undrinkable water.  

Lead does a lot of things to your body.  In developing brains it does ONE very important thing.  A chemistry professor I had in college had a succinct way of putting it.

Lead makes you stupid.

Lead actually changes and damages developing brains.  People with early childhood lead poisoning may have personality disorders, poor impulse control, a low IQ, and a host of other things.  So…..That’s bad, right?

And the City of Flint and the State of Michigan are responsible for feeding it to newborns. As a matter of fact, the tally is Eight thousand children under five years old.  It just warms your heart, doesn’t it? What Will happen to them? Who will pay for their lifelong health issues? What kind of animals would endanger babies for money?

This was part of a cost saving initiative.  I will let you read about it.  It’s all over the internet news channels. CNN had a pretty good piece.  But it has not really been widely covered until recently.  I do not care whose fault it was. We will save that for another day.

The water drive organizer I spoke with is just a regular gal named Lisa Rule from Grand Rapids.  Her family is driving bottled water to Flint from all over the state. However, she is also a one year cancer survivor and told me all about how her nurses were her friends, her confidantes, her support system, and her caregivers.  She was pretty surprised that I called, but she shouldn’t be. She quickly realized who we were and she was really happy at the increased evidence that people in healthcare are just pretty damn good people.  You are good people, reader. Know this. 

We are the face of public health.   We help people in all walks of life, but those who are unable to help themselves are the most vulnerable. We are the defenders of the poor and sick. And we will stand between them and disease today, just as we have always done.

Ok! Now for the part where I stop talking and we get this done.

I have set up an Amazon wish list.  It’s all water and will be delivered to Fire Station #1 in Flint.

I have put all brands and sizes of water and wipes on the list.  That way you can spend the amount of money you can afford.  Please ask your employer, fraternal organization, friends, etc if they would like to go in on a pallet.

This water will not arrive until about the 21st of January.  That is ok. They have the National Guard distributing bottled water right now, but what happens when the news coverage dies down? This is not going to fix itself in a week.  We must keep Flint safe.  A case of water can be sent for under 20 bucks. Surely a whole lot of people can do this.

Additionally, when you share this link with every person you are even remotely acquainted with, please use the hashtags #FlintWaterCrisis and #SMYSofficial. Let’s get this trending. People have to know.

Nobody should be permanently injured by the lack of clean drinking water in this country. Once again, I have to ask you to #ShowMeYourStethoscope. #nursesUnite.

It’s amazing how often that stethoscope comes out. Thanks for keeping yours handy.

 

Love,

 

Janie