Doc Survived, Uninsured Patient Didn't

Dr. Perry Klaassen is pictured in his office in Oklahoma City, in a Thursday, March 8, 2007 photo. Dr. Klaassen lived to tell about his frightening ordeal with colon cancer. His patient did not. They were the same age, in the same state, suffering from the same disease. But there was one huge difference: Klaassen had health insurance, his patient did not.(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) (Sue Ogrocki - AP)

-- Dr. Perry Klaassen lived to tell about his frightening ordeal with colon cancer. His patient did not.

Same age, same state, same disease. Striking similarities, Klaassen thought when Shirley Searcy came to his clinic in Oklahoma City. It was July 2002, a year after his own diagnosis.

But there was one huge difference: Klaassen had health insurance, Searcy did not.

His treatment included surgery two days after diagnosis and costly new drugs. They have kept him alive six years later despite disease that has now spread to his lungs, liver and pelvis.

"I received the most efficient care possible. I was 61 years old and had good group health insurance through my workplace," he wrote in an essay in a medical journal essay that starkly contrasts his care with that of his uninsured patient.

The doctor didn't name Shirley Searcy in his March 14 article. After all he'd been through, he couldn't remember her name. But for days he dug through old medical files searching for her identity after he was interviewed by The Associated Press. He realized he could shine a more powerful light on the plight of the uninsured and an inequitable health care system if her story could be told more fully.

And it is a story that's far from unique. The widowed mother of eight grown children, Searcy had little money. When she began to sense she might be sick, she put off going to the doctor for a year because she knew she couldn't pay the medical bills. Deeply religious, she put her faith in God, according to her family.

By the time she saw Klaassen, her cancer had spread from her colon to her liver. She had surgery but rejected chemotherapy.

"She just really didn't feel like she wanted to endure what that would cost physically or financially," said her daughter-in-law, Karen Searcy.

Shirley Searcy died Dec. 22, 2003, about 18 months after her diagnosis.

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While recent attention has focused on high-profile cancer patients like Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow, who have the means and insurance to pay for the best treatment, there are tens of thousands of tragic, unseen cancer cases like Searcy's _ people whose lack of insurance stops them from seeking care when they should.