+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy
Most Shared

One thing survivors of the Pulse shooting won't have to worry about: medical bills.

Local hospitals are doing the right thing.

On June 12, 2016, 20-year-old Patience Carter was shot in both legs during the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

The Philadelphia-area woman was on vacation with friends when they decided to visit the popular gay nightclub. One of her friends, Akyra Murray, was killed in the attack. The other, Tiara Parker, survived a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Patience Carter is overcome with emotion after speaking to the media from Florida Hospital. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

Like many of the Pulse shooting survivors, Carter faced a long and painful recovery. Additionally, she faced mounting medical bills.

More than 50 people were wounded during the attack that claimed the lives of 49. Carter was taken to Florida Hospital along with 11 others.

The average medical costs for a gunshot victim come in somewhere around $20,000. As a student, it's not like Carter just happens to have tens of thousands of dollars in disposable income laying around.

I guess some people didn't see this post on my Facebook when I posted it a few days ago, so here it is. Truth As long as God knows the truth, as long as the other survivors know the truth, as long as the surgeons, and nurses who helped save a countless number of lives know the truth, as long as the police officers who risked their lives to save ours know the truth, As long as the majority of the world that sends their love and support knows the truth, As long as the strong members of the LGBT community know the truth, As long as I know the truth... I can find some peace to heal, I can find some peace to learn how to walk again, I can find some peace to want to live on, Laying here in my bed, bullet holes in my legs the size of nickels, As numerous people spin my words, the media can be very insensitive, and fickled I'm a real person, Tiara Parker and Akyra Murray are real people, and this pain is real, We all laid on that cold bathroom floor together, and the people that suffered through the hours with us, know how we feel. #OurPainIsReal #Pray4Orlando

A photo posted by Patience Carter (@patiencecarter) on

In a major act of generosity (and great news), local hospitals have announced that they won't be billing victims of the shooting.

Both Orlando Health health care network and Florida Hospital have indicated that they will not look to Pulse survivors for reimbursement. Even better, this includes follow-up care as well.

Hospital staff listen as Patience Carter speaks to the media. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

"Orlando Health has not sent any hospital or medical bills directly to Pulse patients, and we don’t intend to pursue reimbursement of medical costs from them," Orlando Health told ABC News.

Between what Orlando Health can gather in the form of state and federal funding, insurance, charitable donations, and more, the organization hopes to offset some of its own costs — which, over the course of survivors' lifetimes, could go well into multimillions of dollars.

As seen in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, the price of surviving a terrorist attack can be pretty steep.

In 2013, more than 260 people were injured in a bombing attack near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. More than $30 million was donated to funds meant to help victims. Still, for many, it's not enough, resulting in a lifetime of debt not covered by insurance or crowdfunding.

Generosity and kindness are wonderful things. It's just worth remembering that when considering the holes in our current health care system. Without generosity and kindness, people in need can get swallowed up in medical bills through no fault of their own. It's adding insult to literal injury.

Boston Marathon bombing victim Erika Brannock arrives at the sentencing of accused bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev. Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images.

In the case of the survivors of the Pulse shooting and in Carter's case, the medical bill situation has worked out for the best, thanks to the generosity and compassion of two health care organizations.

Even so, we should all keep pushing for a health care system in which we don't have to rely on hospitals or strangers for help.

Health care really is a right. We need to start thinking of it that way.

Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

True

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul|YouTube

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
switched at dog daycare
Family

Woman 'kidnaps' her baby to teach lazy husband a scary lesson

Did she go too far?

via Kroshka_Nastya/Freepik

A guy passes out on his bed eating pizza.

A 29-year-old woman had a baby girl, and after a brief maternity leave, she had to return to work. She couldn't afford childcare, so her husband, 35, reluctantly agreed to watch the baby while she was at work.

“It’s important to know that he’s been unemployed since 2021,” the woman wrote on Reddit’s AITA subforum. “He receives benefits. It’s also important to know that he’s extremely lazy. He doesn’t cook, clean, or help out in any way. I was nervous about leaving her home with her father, but I had no choice.”

The mother had reason to be worried about leaving her baby home alone with her husband, but in the beginning, things seemed fine. “When I came back from work, she was clean and sleeping. The next few times I came home, he was either playing with her, feeding her, or out for a walk with her. I was happy,” she wrote.

Keep ReadingShow less
moms
Family

Mom has the perfect response to teen son who refuses to do 'girl' chores

What exactly are "girl" chores, anyway?

via Krampus Production/Pexels

A boy doing the dishes.

A 41-year-old mom with 3 boys, 12-year-old twins, and a 10-year-old, pays them $10 daily to do their chores. However, their pay is deducted $10 if they miss a day. The boys have to do their tasks 5 days a week, although it doesn’t matter which days they choose to work.

“This system has worked swimmingly for us since it started, the boys have always complied with completing their chores,” the mom wrote on Reddit.

Her 12-year-old son was getting ready to play Fortnite with a friend and told him he’d be ready in 15 minutes once he finished his chores. When the boys started playing the game, he told the friend he was in charge of dusting and sweeping the stairs, to which the friend responded, “It’s a good thing my parents don’t make me do girl chores.”

After learning what the friend said, the mom told her son that chores are genderless.

Keep ReadingShow less
parenting
Health

Women do better when they have a group of strong female friends, study finds

We're stronger together.

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

Women do better when they have female friends.

Madeleine Albright once said, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." It turns out that might actually be a hell on Earth, because women just do better when they have other women to rely on, and there's research that backs it up.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that women who have a strong circle of friends are more likely to get executive positions with higher pay. "Women who were in the top quartile of centrality and had a female-dominated inner circle of 1-3 women landed leadership positions that were 2.5 times higher in authority and pay than those of their female peers lacking this combination," Brian Uzzi writes in the Harvard Business Review.

Part of the reason why women with strong women backing them up are more successful is because they can turn to their tribe for advice. Women have to face different challenges than men, such as unconscious bias, and being able to turn to other women who have had similar experiences can help you navigate a difficult situation. It's like having a road map for your goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
women
Joy

​Man goes all out for his squirrel neighbors, 'Richard' and 'Maxine,' and it's too sweet

His videos are like therapy.

@derrickdowneyjr/TikTok

Derrick Downey Jr. has been dubbed the 'squirrel whisperer.'

Most of us who live in the U.S. are used to looking out a window or walking out our front door and seeing squirrels. The cute, fluffy-tailed rodents often appear perfectly pettable, but they generally scamper away when humans get too close.

That is not the case for TikTok creator Derrick Downey Jr., however, as he has not only befriended his neighborhood squirrels but goes all out to help them live their best squirrel lives.

Downey shared a video in May of 2022 in which he chats with a couple of squirrels on his porch while feeding them and offering them water. That video received over 26 million views and kicked off a whole series of videos showcasing the adorable antics of Richard, Maxine, Hector, Consuela, Norma (may she rest in peace), and Hood Rat Raymond. He's built Richard a house, rescued Maxine's babies, mourned Norma's transition (to wherever squirrels go when they die) and more.

People can't get enough, and who can blame them? Squirrels are the best (when they're not tearing up your patio furniture and stealing cotton for their nest, as Downey has experienced.)

Keep ReadingShow less
animal friends
Education

Voice recordings of people who were enslaved offer incredible first-person accounts of U.S. history

"The results of these digitally enhanced recordings are arresting, almost unbelievable. The idea of hearing the voices of actual slaves from the plantations of the Old South is as powerful—as startling, really—as if you could hear Abraham Lincoln or Robert E. Lee speak." - Ted Koppel

Library of Congress

When we think about the era of American slavery, many of us tend to think of it as the far distant past. While slavery doesn't exist as a formal institution today, there are people living who knew formerly enslaved black Americans first-hand. In the wide arc of history, the legal enslavement of people on U.S. soil is a recent occurrence—so recent, in fact, that we have voice recordings of interviews with people who lived it.

Keep ReadingShow less
history
Trending Stories