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Since I was diagnosed with motor neurone disease I have been fighting for healthcare for all. I hope you will join me | Ady Barkan
Six years ago I was handed a death sentence and exposed to the cruelty of the profit-driven US healthcare system – but I hope my story can bring new people into the movement for change
Six years ago, I was a healthy, 32-year-old lawyer at the peak of my career fighting for economic and racial justice. My wife, Rachael, and I had just brought our chubby, happy newborn home to Santa Barbara, California. We could see decades of happiness stretching out before us. And then overnight, I was handed a death sentence. I was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which we call ALS in the US, a fatal neurological illness that destroys the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement. I was told I had three to four years left to live.
Today I am nearly completely paralysed and am typing these words using computer technology that follows the movement of my eyes. I can no longer eat, speak, or breathe on my own, and am hooked up to a ventilator 24 hours a day. I rely on a team of caregivers that work around the clock to keep me alive.
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