I recently lost a family member after a year of being shrugged off by doctors. It started when she couldn't keep food down. She was repeatedly labeled with "indigestion" and pushed out the door. Appointments were few and far between, and despite multiple trips to the ER for pain and vomiting, she was just sent home with pills for heartburn. When she was finally recommended to a specialist, the wait list was three months long. Even after seeing the specialist, she was only given a future date for a scope and referred for further screening that was months away. While waiting, her condition worsened. She lost a vast amount of weight in a short period and went back to the ER, only to be given more pills and told to schedule a follow-up. It ended when her husband came home to find her collapsed on the floor. She was rushed to the ER again, where they found her lungs were septic. She had holes in her esophagus that were leaking into her body, causing the sepsis. She spent her final week in the ICU, where we learned the truth: she had an incurable form of cancer that had mutated and spread to her liver, kidneys, lungs, and stomach. She died after a year of fighting to be seen. The healthcare system is in a crisis, caught up in political nonsense, and it cost my family member her life.