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Opinion: The Affordable Care Act saved my daughter’s life. We must keep strengthening it for patients like her.
Personal Story

Opinion: The Affordable Care Act saved my daughter’s life. We must keep strengthening it for patients like her.

William Garcia shares his story about how the Affordable Care Act provided his daughter with critical access to health care. William’s story exemplifies the importance of the law and the need to expand it.

The Stories team at the Center for American Progress Action Fund works with storytellers who author op-eds about how policy impacts their lives. The team helps elevate their op-eds.

On Christmas Day last year, my daughter Merlin suddenly began experiencing a massive headache. For a typical 24-year-old, this might simply be a symptom of exhaustion or overindulgence in spiked eggnog the night before. We hoped it was a migraine or stress headache, but given our daughter’s medical history, we knew there was a possibility that it was something more serious. We took Merlin to the emergency room to be safe.

At the hospital, the ER doctor ordered an MRI, which found something shocking: a golf-ball-sized tumor in our daughter’s brain. Doctors rushed Merlin into emergency surgery, where a team of surgeons removed the tumor. After an agonizing wait, we finally received good news: The surgery had entirely removed the tumor, which was thankfully benign and likely caused by a previous brain surgery. After a month of rest and recovery, Merlin was back to her usual, happy, productive self.

The above excerpt was originally published in The Wisconsin Independent. Click here to view the full article.

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Author

William Garcia

Team

Digital Advocacy

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