etm567
24th December 2011, 16:03
This is really sad, and unfortunately all too typical here in the USA. Apparently, some response from the public has resulted in slightly better care for him.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/165343/1968-olympian-lee-evans-has-brain-tumor-and-no-health-insurance
1968 Olympian Lee Evans has a brain tumor and no health insurance:(
Dave Zirin on December 24, 2011 - 8:25am ET
Lee Evans needs our help. The Olympic Gold Medalist and political activist, who exploded all records in the 400 meters at the 1968 Olympics, has been hospitalized with an aggressive brain tumor. The prognosis for the 63-year-old Evans is not good. As his fellow 1968 Olympic activist John Carlos said in an email, “All of our teammates want to go out and say some prayers. All there is left to do is pray.”
But the situation is made far worse by the fact that Lee Evans, after four decades teaching and coaching at schools ranging from the University of South Alabama to Nigeria, doesn’t have health insurance. This has meant, according to Lee’s sister, Rosemary, that he has been terribly mistreated during his hospitalization. Rosemary said to me, “I heard his doctor in the hall and I heard him say he wished [Lee] had been transferred somewhere else because he didn’t have insurance.... Lee is in intense pain. Not even morphine is helping. He hasn’t eaten in several days, yet there was no IV in his arm when I first went into his room. He’s lying in his filth and nothing is happening. If family members aren’t vigilant… If we aren’t vigilant, I don’t know what would happen.”
Thanks to this pressure and vigilance, the basic conditions of Lee Evans's room has improved in the last 12 hours. But the fact that his care is even a question constitutes a national disgrace. Lee Evans, in addition to his 1968 Olympic gold medals in the 400 and 1600-meter relays, is a central part of athletic and American history. A founding member of OPHR, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, Lee Evans helped turned the sports world on its head by attempting to organize a boycott by African-American athletes of the ’68 Olympics to protest racism and oppression both at home and abroad. They wanted South Africa and Rhodesia disinvited from the games. They wanted the Hitler-sympathizer Avery Brundage removed as head of the International Olympic Committee. They wanted Muhammad Ali’s title, stripped for his opposition to the war in Vietnam, restored. They wanted more African American coaches hired. They pledged to boycott, protest, and raise hell if their demands were not met.
This protest was punctuated with Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s famous raised fist salute after finishing first and third in the 200 meters. As for Evans, he famously wore a black beret, in a nod to the Black Panthers, on the medal stand. Recently, Evans has been working to build a school on 13 acres of land he purchased in Liberia. He has even been trying to sell his gold medals to raise money for this dream saying, "I don't need the medals," he said. "I need money to build the school." Evans’s wife, Princess, is a Liberian refugee and his dream was to build the school and name it after her.
(more at link)
This is from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Evans_%28athlete%29
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Lee_Evans_mod.jpg/150px-Lee_Evans_mod.jpg
Lee Edward Evans (born February 25, 1947 in Madera, California) is a former American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
While running for Overfelt High School in San Jose, California, Evans was undefeated in his high school career, improving his 440-yard time from 48.2 in 1964 to 46.9 in 1965. He attended San Jose State, where he was coached by Hall of Famer Lloyd (Bud) Winter. As a freshman, he won his first AAU championship in 440 yd (402.34 m) in 1966. He won the AAU title four years in a row (1966–1969) and again in 1972 and added the NCAA 400 m title in 1968. His only defeat during that streak came at the hands of San Jose State teammate Tommie Smith. The two were so competitive, Winter could not let them practice together.
Lee Evans achieved his first world record in 1966, as a member of the USA national team which broke the 4 x 400 m relay record at Los Angeles, the first team to better 3 minutes (2:59.6) for the event. The next year he broke the 4 x 220 yd (201.17 m) relay world record at Fresno in a time of 1:22.1.
Evans won the 1968 Olympic trials at Echo Summit, California with a world record 44.0 and demolished it in Olympic final, winning in 43.86, from which he still stands as the seventh best performer in history. Evans won a second gold as the anchorman on the 4 x 400 m relay team, setting another world record of 2:56.16. Both the times stood as a world record for almost twenty years (the relay, 24 years). While accepting the relay Gold medal Evans, with fellow African-American medalists Larry James and Ron Freeman, received their medals wearing berets in imitation of the Black Panther Party.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/165343/1968-olympian-lee-evans-has-brain-tumor-and-no-health-insurance
1968 Olympian Lee Evans has a brain tumor and no health insurance:(
Dave Zirin on December 24, 2011 - 8:25am ET
Lee Evans needs our help. The Olympic Gold Medalist and political activist, who exploded all records in the 400 meters at the 1968 Olympics, has been hospitalized with an aggressive brain tumor. The prognosis for the 63-year-old Evans is not good. As his fellow 1968 Olympic activist John Carlos said in an email, “All of our teammates want to go out and say some prayers. All there is left to do is pray.”
But the situation is made far worse by the fact that Lee Evans, after four decades teaching and coaching at schools ranging from the University of South Alabama to Nigeria, doesn’t have health insurance. This has meant, according to Lee’s sister, Rosemary, that he has been terribly mistreated during his hospitalization. Rosemary said to me, “I heard his doctor in the hall and I heard him say he wished [Lee] had been transferred somewhere else because he didn’t have insurance.... Lee is in intense pain. Not even morphine is helping. He hasn’t eaten in several days, yet there was no IV in his arm when I first went into his room. He’s lying in his filth and nothing is happening. If family members aren’t vigilant… If we aren’t vigilant, I don’t know what would happen.”
Thanks to this pressure and vigilance, the basic conditions of Lee Evans's room has improved in the last 12 hours. But the fact that his care is even a question constitutes a national disgrace. Lee Evans, in addition to his 1968 Olympic gold medals in the 400 and 1600-meter relays, is a central part of athletic and American history. A founding member of OPHR, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, Lee Evans helped turned the sports world on its head by attempting to organize a boycott by African-American athletes of the ’68 Olympics to protest racism and oppression both at home and abroad. They wanted South Africa and Rhodesia disinvited from the games. They wanted the Hitler-sympathizer Avery Brundage removed as head of the International Olympic Committee. They wanted Muhammad Ali’s title, stripped for his opposition to the war in Vietnam, restored. They wanted more African American coaches hired. They pledged to boycott, protest, and raise hell if their demands were not met.
This protest was punctuated with Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s famous raised fist salute after finishing first and third in the 200 meters. As for Evans, he famously wore a black beret, in a nod to the Black Panthers, on the medal stand. Recently, Evans has been working to build a school on 13 acres of land he purchased in Liberia. He has even been trying to sell his gold medals to raise money for this dream saying, "I don't need the medals," he said. "I need money to build the school." Evans’s wife, Princess, is a Liberian refugee and his dream was to build the school and name it after her.
(more at link)
This is from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Evans_%28athlete%29
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Lee_Evans_mod.jpg/150px-Lee_Evans_mod.jpg
Lee Edward Evans (born February 25, 1947 in Madera, California) is a former American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
While running for Overfelt High School in San Jose, California, Evans was undefeated in his high school career, improving his 440-yard time from 48.2 in 1964 to 46.9 in 1965. He attended San Jose State, where he was coached by Hall of Famer Lloyd (Bud) Winter. As a freshman, he won his first AAU championship in 440 yd (402.34 m) in 1966. He won the AAU title four years in a row (1966–1969) and again in 1972 and added the NCAA 400 m title in 1968. His only defeat during that streak came at the hands of San Jose State teammate Tommie Smith. The two were so competitive, Winter could not let them practice together.
Lee Evans achieved his first world record in 1966, as a member of the USA national team which broke the 4 x 400 m relay record at Los Angeles, the first team to better 3 minutes (2:59.6) for the event. The next year he broke the 4 x 220 yd (201.17 m) relay world record at Fresno in a time of 1:22.1.
Evans won the 1968 Olympic trials at Echo Summit, California with a world record 44.0 and demolished it in Olympic final, winning in 43.86, from which he still stands as the seventh best performer in history. Evans won a second gold as the anchorman on the 4 x 400 m relay team, setting another world record of 2:56.16. Both the times stood as a world record for almost twenty years (the relay, 24 years). While accepting the relay Gold medal Evans, with fellow African-American medalists Larry James and Ron Freeman, received their medals wearing berets in imitation of the Black Panther Party.