By Joyce Tsai
The Kansas City Star
August 17, 2007
A husband, financially desperate because of his wife’s medical problems, walked her to the balcony of their fourth-floor Kansas City apartment, kissed her, then threw her to her death, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
In court records filed with the charges, police say (Stanley) Reimer killed his wife because he no longer could afford the avalanche of medical bills from the treatment of her uterine cancer and neurological problems.
Criste Reimer had battled numerous medical problems for several years, a fight that drained her physically, according to Jackson County Probate Court records.
Her weight had dropped to 75 pounds, she was partly blind, and she had an extensive history of traumatic brain injury, knee surgeries, neurological disease, hypothyroidism and hydrocephalus. She was also on a host of medications.
Her medical bills ranged from $700 to $800 a week, and she had no health insurance, according to Probate Court records.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/233876.html
Scotland:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1300572007
Australia:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22257643-663,00.html
England:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=61940&in_page_id=34
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007380022,00.html
Germany:
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=64334
New Zealand:
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/Story/tabid/209/articleID/32681/Default.aspx
Taiwan:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/2007/08/17/118765/Man-accused.htm
Canada:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?
CNN International:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/08/16/wife.killed.ap/?iref=mpstoryviewid=a8c0a2cc-4d21-481b-9314-77673ea64db7
Croatia:
http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=71893
Russia:
http://www.imedinews.ge/en/news_read/58277
And, of course, FOX News:
http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=02BF6B0BAD06115DAC27736C0C260A48?contentId=4079237&version=18&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
What a tragedy. None of us can really understand the desperation of this man that caused him to do this terrible thing. It is too easy for us to accept the media reports that he did this because of medical bills and no insurance to pay them. It is much more likely that his grief over her suffering was his primary motivating factor.
But from a sterile health policy perspective, the attention that this story has generated in other nations speaks to the fact that the world cannot understand how the United States continues to accept financial hardship as a consequence of ill health. Life can be tragic enough without adding the insult of medical debt and bankruptcy.
We can and must do better.