The wheelchair and folded jeans leg pinned up neatly to one thigh are the most recent chapter of that bleak story. Emergency room doctors treated him for a ruptured rectum, removing part of his lower intestine and leaving him with a bag attached to a colostomy, a hole in his left side. Four days later, a surgeon amputated Panfili's right leg at mid-thigh because a blocked artery that had been obstructing blood flow to the limb created the possibility of gangrene. He was panicky. I'd have been devastated, and I have a home to go to.
Limited funds preclude a simple solution.
Hospitals can't afford to keep patients indefinitely once they've recovered sufficiently, convalescent homes aren't obliged to take the uninsured, shelters are full. He's bothered not just because Sutter Delta officials said they couldn't keep him any longer, but because he's still recuperating from two major surgeries that require him to empty his colostomy bag and change dressings daily. I have four major incisions. I'd get infected and die in a minute. Knowing that others are in the same boat is cold comfort.