On Jan 26, 2009 I collapsed from a dissecting aneurysm of my ascending aorta. It's the same thing that killed John Ritter. Mine was caused by a congenital defect I was born with called a bicuspid aortic valve. I was rushed to the hospital and into emergency open heart surgery where they replaced my aortic valve with a mechanical valve, replaced my entire ascending aortic arch with gortex, rebuilt the root to my aorta, took a vein from my leg to do a bypass and 4 days later implanted a pacemaker. It took the Doctors 3 hours just to stop my internal bleeding. It then took them another 8 hours for the rest of my open heart surgery. I almost lost my right leg as well due to it not having any circulation for about 8 hours. I also have another dissection (tear) in my aorta near my spine that will have to be operated on some time within the next 10 years. My pacemaker also needs to be replaced every 7-10 years. After a recent visit with my heart surgeon, I was told I may have tumors on my adrenal glands as well as a vascular problem that is not allowing enough circulation to my brain. I have no health insurance, I am unable to work and Medi-Cal and Social Security are still deciding, after several months, whether or not to give me benefits. I owe $300,000 in hospital bills and have no way to pay them. This healthcare bill has done nothing for someone in my situation. If our government really cared about providing all of it's citizens with healthcare, they would have passed a Universal Healthcare Bill, guaranteeing everyone access to free healthcare. We went to war because 5,000 people were killed on September 11, yet tens of thousands of American die every year because they have no access to affordable quality health care. Thw healthcare situation in this country is criminal and this healthcare bill is a joke.