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“I want you to fight. Fight for me, fight for the millions of unheard voices.” – Raul Carranza
May 19, 2012 (San Diego)—When Medi-Cal cut Raul Carranza’s round-the-clock nursing care, the paralyzed student feared for his future. “Please join us so we can stop these cuts and save not only my life, but thousands of others,” Carranza said at the time, organizing rallies in an effort to restore in-home healthcare services.
But now Carranza is in a hospital fighting for his life. He was taken to the Thornton UCSD hospital Wednesday night, suffering fluid in his lungs, difficulty breathing and low oxygen.
“This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t had my nursing hours cut,” said Carranza, who cannot walk, move his arms, eat or even breath on his own due to Muscular Dystrophy.
He was forced to give up his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and move back to San Diego. Recently he had to lay-off his long-time nurse and decrease his nursing hours from 24 to 13 hours.
Carranza is among many disabled people statewide suffering the impacts of $15 billion in cuts to health care and social services, including In-Home Supportive Services and Medi-Cal. Many are anticipated to wind up in institutions, unable to care for themselves, as ECM previously reported: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/8521
How you I help?
- Sign the petition for Raul to get his hours back. It only takes a second to do!
- If you’d like to donate towards Raul’s medical bills please check out the donation page.
- Contact Governor Jerry Brown (916-445-4481) (
@JerryBrownGov) (facebook.com/jerrybrown) and DHCS Director Toby Douglas (916-440-7400) and ask them why Raul doesn’t have 24 hour care.
To read more about Raul Carranza and learn what you can do to help, visit www.raulcarranza.org.
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