Life at the Top in America Isn’t Just Better, It’s Longer (Extra Credit)

This article has three main characters: Jean G. Miele, Will L. Wilson, and Ewa Rynczak Gora. All three of these individuals are heart attack patients that try to prevent the recurrence of heart attack because they can die if it comes again. Therefore, they try to keep a dietary regiment, exercise regularly and do not smoke, which cardiologist ordered to prevent the recurrence of a heart attack. Also, cardiologists emphasize that heart attack patients need to decrease stress that comes from work, because heart attacks usually come about by heavy stress. These three characters, who belong to different social classes, have different results in terms of the progress of the disease, as well as in terms of their methods of heart attack relapse prevention.

Jean G. Miele, an architect, comes from the upper middle class in New York. He is wealthy enough because he runs his own business, so that he can enjoy plenty of leisure time without stress that could come from a boss or superiors. He only works for four days a week with a very long vacation compared to other normal workers in the U.S., because he values on time with family and friends. Concerning his well being, he did not expect that he would become a heart attack patient. When he felt the heart attack, he took the ambulance to go to the one of the best hospitals, Tisch Hospital, which has the best facilities and surgeons. Also, this hospital emergency room was not too busy compared to the city hospital, Bellevue, so he could receive care from the doctor as soon as possible. Because of receiving fast procedure, he could come back home two days after with the least damage to heart and muscle. The reason why he could receive the best service from hospital is that his brother, who is the chairman of another hospital, asked for the best treatment for Miele. After returning home, Miele practiced every order that the doctor gave to him with his wife’s devoted help for his diet and reducing stress. He lost a lot of weight and reduced his cholesterol rate and blood pressure, which are crucial factors to a heart attack patient. Similarly to Miele, the people of the upper class take care for their health by themselves based on information about the disease and financial abilities that come from their professional jobs. Even though they have a disease, they receive the best treatment from the best surgeons with the most developed machines based on their money. For this reason, upper class people have more opportunities to live longer than the lower class people who have a lack of resources to keep and protect their health.

Wilson is a member of the middle class in New York, and he works for the consolidated Edison Office as a worker for nearly 30 years. When he got the heart attack, he wanted to go to the Brooklyn Hospital, which is run by the city and has lack of facilities and surgeons, because he worried about the high medical expenses. However, he was transferred to another hospital which had better conditions to get an angioplasty. For this reason, he had to spend five days in the hospital with higher expense than Miele, because he only stayed two days in the hospital. Wilson wanted to get enough rest for recovery, and participated in the Cardiac Rehab Program to prevent the re-occurrence of a heart attack. However, his company required him to return to the work due to the restrictions of the company. His job is always busy and has a lot of stress, because he has to finish all orders that come from his superiors without autonomy. Wilson also needs a dietary treatment like Miele. However, Wilson’s fiancee, Green, does not have as much information as Miele’s wife, Nora. Therefore, Green could not strictly control Wilson’s diet. Besides, Wilson used to eat greasy food that his mother provided to him since he was child. Therefore, he enjoys shrimp fries, although he gives up other fast food. For this reason, his cholesterol rate and blood pressure are still high. Similar to the case of Wilson, middle class people have a lack of information about the disease and its remedy compared to the upper class, and they receive a lot of stress without autonomy and enough rest. Also, members of the middle class are frequently exposed to greasy food, such as fast food, due to their class culture. Moreover, they cannot receive the best treatment from the top doctors with the most funded facilities, because of lack of money and time. In this situation, middle class individuals find it difficult to get systematic and continuous treatment to protect their health from the disease, and to also prevent the re-occurrence of the existing disease.

Ewa Gora belongs to the working class in New York because she works as a housekeeper. As an immigrant, she has too poor of English skills to understand about her disease symptoms, and is unable to explain to the doctor what she felt when she suffered the heart attack. Even though she needed to receive the treatment due to the pain of heart attack, she avoided taking the ambulance and going to the hospital because she did not have money to afford both. After two weeks, she could come back home from the hospital, even though she did not receive the angiogram, because she wasted time while transferring hospitals and examining her condition of heart in each hospital. Like other heart attack patients, Gora also needs the dietary treatment, regular exercise, and a break from smoking to prevent the re-occurrence of a heart attack. However, her distrust and ignorance of her doctor’s orders, lack of her will to keep good health, and a lack of help from her family and acquaintances makes her gain more weight, quit the exercise, and keep smoking. Besides, she receives continuous stress because she needs work to earn money for her hospital bills. Her husband cannot make enough money to cover all of their expenses. Finally, she returns to the work with an unrecoverable body like Wilson, even though Wilson will retire in the next year. However, Gora has an optimistic vision about her life, because she believes that her life is normal compared to others even though she is not rich. Unfortunately, her health is getting worse.

Throughout the stories of three characters’ lives, we can understand about how social position affects the disease because their level of education, financial ability, living environment, and neighborhood could generate, protect and heal the disease. As seen above, the people, who are middle/working class or even lower class, are exposed more possibilities to get the diseases than upper middle or upper class people. An even worse situation is that lower class people do not have enough financial abilities, information and time to treat or to prevent the disease. Therefore, they have vicious cycle, which generates a bad financial situation and the effect of a worse disease.