bosco
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2005
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- 987
This is the first part of an article from my old home-time paper, the Juneau Empire.
Can't wait to hear how the free-market zealots spin this one. How much longer is the US going to tolerate the shame of this kind of treatment of its citizenry?
Can't wait to hear how the free-market zealots spin this one. How much longer is the US going to tolerate the shame of this kind of treatment of its citizenry?
Cab driver who jumped off bridge faced cancer
55-year-old lacked money to fight his illness
By TONY CARROLL
JUNEAU EMPIRE
A 55-year-old Juneau man who died Monday evening after leaping from the Douglas Bridge was facing cancer and didn't have the money to learn if surgery could help, according to the office manager at the cab company for which he drove.
James P. Sullivan "was a real good guy," said Mike Laflin of Capital Cab. "When he got mad, he just would say, 'I'm mad.' He never spoke ill of anyone.
But Laflin said Sullivan had learned he had cancer and that it would cost him $10,000 just to find out if it was operable. Sullivan also had glaucoma, Laflin said. When he sought help paying for medical costs, he was told he would have to be destitute to receive public assistance, his boss added.
Police, who ruled the death a suicide, released Sullivan's identity early Tuesday after notifying relatives in Michigan. Witnesses said he jumped from the bridge into Gastineau Channel shortly before 7 p.m. Monday.
Boaters found Sullivan floating face-down after he jumped, and that they unsuccessfully tried to get him out of the water before a U.S. Coast Guard rescue boat pulled him out, officers said.
Coast Guardsmen said Sullivan still had a pulse and that they began cardiopulmonary resuscitation before arriving at the dock and handing him over to Capital City Fire and Rescue emergency medical technicians.
They were unable to revive Sullivan, who was pronounced dead at 7:17 p.m., 26 minutes after his fall.