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Mum of seriously ill schoolgirl in plea for life-saving stem cell donor
Mum of seriously ill schoolgirl in plea for life-saving stem cell donor

Daily Record

time19 hours ago

  • Health
  • Daily Record

Mum of seriously ill schoolgirl in plea for life-saving stem cell donor

Josie Davidson, six, from Alness, has been told she will need a stem cell transplant from a stranger in order to give her the best possible chance at life. The mum of a seriously ill Scots schoolgirl has made a public plea for stem cell donors to come forward so her daughter can have a second chance at life. ‌ Josie Davidson, six, alongside her sister Adeline, eight, have both been diagnosed with the rare and life-threatening condition Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome. The condition is a rare genetic disorder that poses serious health challenges, including bone marrow failure. ‌ Both girls, from Alness in Ross and Cromarty, were told they'd need a stem cell transplant from a stranger in order to give them the best possible chance of survival. While Adeline has already received a life-saving stem cell transplant, Josie is still waiting for her perfect match. ‌ Speaking of her daughters' double diagnoses, the girls' mum, Steph, said: "Our eldest daughter, Adeline, was diagnosed in February 2019, and it was a huge shock. "At that time, I was also six months pregnant with twins. ‌ "It took almost two years for Adeline to have her life-saving transplant, and at times, we thought it was never going to happen. "We thought it was over until a new person popped up on the register as a match for Addie - that person gave her a new life. "In that long wait, of course, the twins were born. At around six months old, I had a strong feeling that Josie had the same condition. I just thought, 'We have to go through it all again.' ‌ "At the moment, there is no match for Josie on the register, so we're still searching. Because she is so fragile and her condition is so rare, it is so important that we find a perfect match for her. "It's a waiting game really – we either wait for that perfect match or we need to wait until she gets poorly, which we don't want, so the more people on the register, the more likely it is that she'll get her second chance too.' ‌ Josie's illness currently requires weekly appointments with many different medical professionals. A perfect stem cell match could, however, give her the chance to enjoy a carefree childhood with her twin brother, Jude, and older sister. Steph continued: 'Josie is a sweet, loving little girl, strong-willed but a free spirit. She loves dressing up, playing games, and doing crafts and activities - the messier, the better for Josie! ‌ 'She adores her big sister, and they sing and dance together daily. She doesn't let her condition stop her. She just loves life and people.' The family is working closely with blood cancer charity, DKMS, to encourage more people to join the stem cell register. ‌ To help find Josie's match, DKMS will be at the Bridge of Allan Games on August 3 and the Black Isle Show on August 7 to encourage members of the public to join the stem cell register. The process is quick, simple, and could give Josie - and others like her - a second chance at life. ‌ Chris Bain, a stem cell donor from Aberdeenshire and who now leads the Scotland volunteer hub for DKMS, said: "For patients like Josie, stem cell donors offer a crucial second chance. "The fact that her sister is now doing so well shows the life-changing impact of the stem cell donor register, and having been through this process from the donor side, I know just how easy it is. "Only a third of patients find a match in their family, so joining the register means that you could give someone more time with the people they love, and potentially save a life. "We'll be at the Bridge of Allan Games and the Black Isle Show signing people up to the register, so come say hello and get signed up! It just takes a few minutes – we'll be there to answer any questions that you have'.

Return To Office Mandates Hurt Women Of Colour, But Australia Won't Talk About It
Return To Office Mandates Hurt Women Of Colour, But Australia Won't Talk About It

Refinery29

timea day ago

  • Business
  • Refinery29

Return To Office Mandates Hurt Women Of Colour, But Australia Won't Talk About It

In March 2025, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said that 'women have a right to feel at risk' as Peter Dutton tried to roll back remote work arrangements in the public service. In Australia, then, we're fine with acknowledging that gender structures the way we experience the workplace, and petitioning the government accordingly. But the same can't be said about race. When it comes to conversations about a return to office, which have once again been making headlines, there's been a glaring absence of discussion about the unique harm that can come with forcing women of colour back into office environments. 'It's like working on eggshells', says Josie*, a 25-year-old woman of Filipino heritage, when asked her experiences of working in an Australian office environment. 'Because I work in an white-dominated industry, I feel like I have to be very careful about what I say and how I say it, especially to avoid being branded as an aggressive, outspoken brown girl,' she says. By working from home, Josie speaks of feeling less pressure to constantly monitor how she is presenting herself. As doing so offers less in-person interaction, she's relatively insulated against the racism born in offices. The women that I spoke to also expressed having to produce a level of output that wasn't expected of their white counterparts, making working from the office a frustrating experience. Leah*, a 34-year-old woman of Chinese descent, spoke of becoming more aware of her role as the 'quiet, reliable Asian girl' when in the physical confines of her white colleagues. 'There's this expectation on me to keep my head down,' Leah tells Refinery29 Australia. 'Working in an open plan office means that I often hear my white coworkers gossip about things completely unrelated to work,' she says, adding that it was 'frustrating' to see how much more time they had in their day. Working from home, she said, allows her to feel 'less on edge', while giving her the space to complete her work. Remote working can also offer a break from having to present themselves in ways that are grounded in white, western culture. One 28-year-old woman, Zoya*, of Pakistani heritage, for example, spoke of receiving unwelcome comments from a colleague because she tended to wear trousers to work over a skirt. 'One of my coworkers was like, 'why don't you ever wear a skirt? Are you a lesbian back home or something?'' Having grown up in a culture where it wasn't common to expose her legs, Zoya has found working from home a welcome escape from comments about how she presented herself, adding that her company's claims to be 'multicultural' didn't really square with the reality of being at work. Given the reprieve that remote work arrangements offer to women of colour, it's disturbing that almost nothing on the topic has featured in the Australian context, even though it's been discussed extensively in the US, the UK, and Canada. It's an absence that's especially egregious when research from 2024 shows that two out of three women of colour in Australia experience discrimination in the workplace, a number that is up from 10% in 2021, with racism being the predominant type of discrimination they experience. Perhaps one of the reasons that the experiences of women of colour in offices continue to get worse is a dearth of racial literacy in Australia that, of course, bleeds into the contours of office life. While Australians usually talk about race euphemistically, to 'multiculturalism' and 'CALD', we rarely talk directly about the specificity of how people of colour are discriminated against: the specificities of how we move through the world and are impacted by it. This is baked into us from an early age, with a 2021 study finding that kids are steered away from talking about racism, stunting racial literacy from a young age. The result of not talking about race, both on an interpersonal and government level, is that conversations like this aren't broached, and no one is thinking about how to make workplaces work for us. Thanks to a national acknowledgement that blitzing remote work arrangements disproportionately impacted women, Peter Dutton admitted he made a mistake. But the Aussie approach of thinking about an amorphous mass of 'women' isn't working. An approach to workplace equity that doesn't acknowledge the unique and specific challenges that women of colour in Australia experience is at best, mostly benefits women who are white. At worst, it's actively doing women of colour harm.

BBC Broom Cupboard star Josie D'Arby's surprise new career and very famous ex
BBC Broom Cupboard star Josie D'Arby's surprise new career and very famous ex

Daily Mirror

time3 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Daily Mirror

BBC Broom Cupboard star Josie D'Arby's surprise new career and very famous ex

The BBC's hit children show The Broom Cupboard saw the birth of many iconic presenters - now Josie D'Arby's career has taken a surprising turn away from the cameras In a tiny, cramped booth nestled away in the BBC studios, a whole host of famous TV presenters kicked off their careers. ‌ Children's TV show The Broom Cupboard began in 1985, replacing the shaky voiceover and still slides linking CBBC shows with real-life presenters. ‌ Despite its practical beginnings it soon became a hit in itself, with the likes of Phillip Schofield, Debbie Flint and Zoe Ball all forging their famous TV personalities on the show. ‌ Iconic characters Edd the Duck, Otis the Aardvark and Gordon the Gopher even joined in on the fun, with letters and drawings from viewers plastered across the walls of the tiny studio room. Many of the programme's stars look completely different these days, with brand new careers - and Josie D'Arby is no exception. Where The Broom Cupboard's Andy Crane is now and unrecognisable new look Jesy Nelson admits being in 'constant state of fear' during tough pregnancy with twins ‌ After her stint in The Broom Cupboard, Josie went on to become an award-winning presenter, becoming a well-known face on the likes of Songs of Praise, Top of the Pops, Inside Out and Cardiff Singer of The World. In 1999, the 52-year-old star from Newport, Wales, became the youngest British woman to have her own chat show, titled Josie, on Channel 5. ‌ Josie's media ambitions didn't stop there and she soon pivoted to acting, where she starred as Alisha Adams in Holby City and made guest appearances in Casualty and Doctor Who. She's even tried her hand as a quiz show contestant, appearing on Richard Osman's House of Games and Pointless in 2022. More recently, Josie ditched the cameras for a career that's worlds away from presenting. The star has been pursuing her artistic talent, even showcasing her painting in a show at the Newport Museum Art Gallery in 2023. ‌ The BBC star started to take art more seriously after winning a televised art competition, South Wales Argus reports. The painting was called Less, which Josie said was "about how little it can take to make people happy." "Art is for everyone and I am happy if my piece is just a tiny little reminder that public galleries can be a space and a time to press pause, and enjoy a lovely space if you're in the city," she explained. ‌ Before her TV career took off, Josie was said to be in a relationship with Hollywood actor Gerard Butler - known for iconic roles in 300, Law Abiding Citizen and London Has Fallen. The pair apparently briefly dated in 2005. And Gerard isn't her only celebrity flame, as Josie reportedly went on a date with actor Joseph Fiennes - the brother of Harry Potter legend Ralph Fiennes - in 2006. Josie isn't the only Broom Cupboard presenter who took a different career path. Andy Crane, 61, has been brightening up people's days on Greatest Hits Radio since 2019 and he looks very different from his days on the CBBC show. He is now residing in the picturesque location of Lake District. Andy, who was born in the seaside town of Morecambe, Lancashire, presents three hours of the best songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s on Greatest Hits Radio, including The Top 10 at 10 and Midnight Music Marathon. Before hitting the radiowaves, Andy also presented children's show, Motormouth, for ITV on Saturdays. He also featured on What's Up Doc? and Challenge TV.

‘We need some hope': can a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump's bill?
‘We need some hope': can a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump's bill?

The Guardian

time3 days ago

  • Health
  • The Guardian

‘We need some hope': can a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump's bill?

When her severely allergic toddler, Josie, began gasping for breath in the middle of the night, Krissy Cunningham knew there was only one place she could get to in time to save her daughter's life. For 74 years, Pemiscot Memorial hospital has been the destination for those who encounter catastrophe in Missouri's poorest county, a rural stretch of farms and towns in its south-eastern Bootheel region. Three stories of brown brick just off Interstate 55 in the town of Hayti, the 115-bed hospital has kept its doors open even after the county's only Walmart closed, the ranks of boarded-up gas stations along the freeway exit grew, and the population of the surrounding towns dwindled, thanks in no small part to the destruction done by tornadoes. For many in Pemiscot county, its emergency room is the closest available without taking a 30-minute drive across the Mississippi river to Tennessee or the state line to Arkansas, a range that can make the difference between life and death for victims of shootings, overdoses or accidents on the road. In the wee hours of one spring morning, it was there that Josie received the breathing treatments and a racemic epinephrine shot that made her wheezing subside. 'There is no way I would have made it to one of the farther hospitals, if it wouldn't have been here. Her airway just would have closed off, and I probably would have been doing CPR on my daughter on the side of the road,' recalled Cunningham, a nurse who sits on the hospital's board. Yet its days of serving its community may be numbered. In May, the hospital's administration went public with the news that after years of struggling with high rates of uninsured patients and low reimbursement rates from insurers, they may have to close. And even if they do manage to navigate out of their current crisis, Pemiscot Memorial's leaders see a new danger on the horizon: the 'big, beautiful bill' Republicans pushed through Congress earlier this month, at Donald Trump's request. Centered around an array of tax cuts as well as funds for the president's mass deportation plans, the bill will mandate the largest funding reduction in history to Medicaid, the federal healthcare program supporting low-income and disabled Americans. That is expected to have ripple effects nationwide, but will hit particularly hard in Pemiscot county and other rural areas, where hospitals tend to have frail margins and disproportionately rely on Medicaid to stay afloat. 'If Medicaid drops, are we going to be even collecting what we're collecting now?' asked Jonna Green, the chairwoman of Pemiscot Memorial's board, who estimated 80% of their revenue comes from Medicaid as well as Medicare, another federal health program primarily for people 65 and older. 'We need some hope.' The changes to Medicaid will phase in beginning in late 2026, and require enrollees to work, volunteer or attend school 80 hours a month, with some exceptions. States are also to face new caps on provider taxes, which they use to fund their Medicaid programs. All told, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts that 10 million people nationwide will lose their healthcare due to the bill, which is nonetheless expected to add $3.4tn to the federal budget deficit through 2034. Trump carried Missouri, a midwestern state that has veered sharply away from the Democratic party over the past three decades, with more than 58% of the vote last November. In Pemiscot county, where census data shows more than a quarter of residents are below the poverty line and the median income is just over $40,000 a year, he was the choice of 74% of voters, and Republican lawmakers representing the county played a notable role in steering his tax and spending bill through Congress. Senator Josh Hawley publicly advocated against slashing the healthcare program, writing in the New York Times: 'If Republicans want to be a working-class party – if we want to be a majority party – we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America's promise for America's working people.' He ultimately supported the bill after a $50bn fund to help rural hospitals was included, but weeks later introduced legislation that would repeal some of the very same cuts he had just voted for. 'I want to see Medicaid reductions stopped and rural hospitals fully funded permanently,' the senator said. Jason Smith, whose district encompasses Pemiscot county and the rest of south-eastern Missouri, oversaw the crafting of the measure's tax provision as chairman of the House ways and means committee, and has argued they will bring prosperity rural areas across the state. Like others in the GOP, he has said the Medicaid cuts will ferret out 'waste, fraud and abuse', and make the program more efficient. It's a gamble for a state that has seen nine rural hospitals close since 2015, including one in a county adjacent to Pemiscot, with a further 10 at immediate risk of going under, according to data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform policy group. The Missouri Budget Project thinktank estimates that the bill will cost 170,000 of the state's residents their health coverage, largely due to work requirements that will act as difficult-to-satisfy red tape for Medicaid enrollees, while the cap on provider taxes will sap $1.9bn from the state's Medicaid program. 'There's going to be some really hard conversations over the course of the next five years, and I think that healthcare in our region will look a lot different than what it does right now,' said Karen White, CEO of Missouri Highlands Health Care, which operates federally qualified health centers providing primary and dental care across rural south-eastern Missouri. She forecasts 20% of her patients will lose Medicaid coverage through 2030. As the bill was making its way through Congress, she contacted the offices of Smith, Hawley and Missouri's junior senator, Eric Schmitt, all politicians she had voted for, asking them to reconsider cutting Medicaid. She did not hear back. 'I love democracy. I love the fact that we as citizens can make our voices heard. And they voted the way that they felt they needed to vote. Maybe … the larger constituency reached out to them with a viewpoint that was different than mine, but I made my viewpoint heard,' White said. Spokespeople for Schmitt and Smith did not respond to requests for comment. In response to emailed questions, a spokeswoman for Hawley referred to his introduction of the legislation to partially stop the Medicaid cuts. Down the road from the hospital lies Hayti Heights, where there are no businesses and deep puddles form in the potholes and ditches that line roadways after every thunderstorm. Mayor Catrina Robinson has a plan to turn things around for her 500 or so residents, which involves bringing back into service the water treatment plant that is the town's main source of revenue. But that is unlikely to change much without Pemiscot Memorial. 'Half of those people that work at the hospital, they're my residents. So how they gonna pay their bills? How they gonna pay their water bill, how they gonna pay their light bill, how they gonna pay rent? This is their source of income. Then what will they do?' Robinson said. Trump's bill does include an array of relief aimed at the working-class voters who broke for him in the last election, including tax cuts on tips and overtime pay and deductions aimed at senior citizens. It remains to be seen if whatever financial benefits those provisions bring to the workers of Pemiscot county will outweigh the impact of the stress the Medicaid cuts place on its healthcare system. 'The tax relief of server's tips and all that, that's not going to change the poverty level of our area,' said Loren Clifton, the hospital's administrative director. 'People losing their healthcare insurance absolutely will make it worse.' Work can be found in the county's corn, wheat, soybean and rice fields, at a casino in the county seat Caruthersville and at a shipyard along the banks of the Mississippi . But Green questions if those industries would stick around if the hospital goes under, and takes with it the emergency room that often serves to stabilize critical patients before transferring them elsewhere. 'Our community cannot go without a hospital. Healthcare, employment, industry – it would devastate everything,' Green said. The board is exploring partnerships with other companies to help keep the hospital afloat, and has applied for a federal rural emergency hospital designation which they believe will improve their reimbursements and chances of winning grants, though that will require them to give up other services that bring in revenue. For many of its leaders, the stakes of keeping the hospital open are personal. 'This is our home, born and raised, and you would never want to leave it. But I have a nine-year-old with cardiac problems. I would not feel safe living here without a hospital that I could take her to know if something happened,' said Brittany Osborne, Pemiscot Memorial's interim CEO. One muggy Wednesday morning in July, Pemiscot's three county commissioners, all Republicans, gathered in a small conference room in Caruthersville's courthouse and spoke of their resolve to keep the hospital open. 'It's 50-50 right now,' commissioner Mark Cartee said of the hospital's chances of survival. 'But, as long as we have some money in the bank of the county, we're going to keep it open. We need healthcare. We got to have a hospital.' They were comparatively sanguine about the possibility that the Medicaid work requirements would harm the facility's finances down the line. 'We got a guy around here, I guess he's still around. He's legally blind but he goes deer hunting every year,' commissioner Baughn Merideth said. 'There's just so much fraud … it sounds like we're right in the middle of it.' A few blocks away, Jim Brands, owner of Hayden Pharmacy, the oldest in the county, had little doubt that there were those in the county who took advantage of Medicaid. He also believed that fewer enrollees in the program would mean less business for his pharmacy, and more hardship overall. 'Just seeing this community, the situation it's in, the poverty, we've got to get people to work. There are a ton of able-bodied people that could work that choose not to,' he said. 'To me, there's got to be a better way to weed out the fraud and not step on the toes of the people who need it.'

‘We need some hope': can a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump's bill?
‘We need some hope': can a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump's bill?

The Guardian

time4 days ago

  • Health
  • The Guardian

‘We need some hope': can a rural hospital on the brink survive Trump's bill?

When her severely allergic toddler, Josie, began gasping for breath in the middle of the night, Krissy Cunningham knew there was only one place she could get to in time to save her daughter's life. For 74 years, Pemiscot Memorial hospital has been the destination for those who encounter catastrophe in Missouri's poorest county, a rural stretch of farms and towns in its south-eastern Bootheel region. Three stories of brown brick just off Interstate 55 in the town of Hayti, the 115-bed hospital has kept its doors open even after the county's only Walmart closed, the ranks of boarded-up gas stations along the freeway exit grew, and the population of the surrounding towns dwindled, thanks in no small part to the destruction done by tornadoes. For many in Pemiscot county, its emergency room is the closest available without taking a 30-minute drive across the Mississippi river to Tennessee or the state line to Arkansas, a range that can make the difference between life and death for victims of shootings, overdoses or accidents on the road. In the wee hours of one spring morning, it was there that Josie received the breathing treatments and a racemic epinephrine shot that made her wheezing subside. 'There is no way I would have made it to one of the farther hospitals, if it wouldn't have been here. Her airway just would have closed off, and I probably would have been doing CPR on my daughter on the side of the road,' recalled Cunningham, a nurse who sits on the hospital's board. Yet its days of serving its community may be numbered. In May, the hospital's administration went public with the news that after years of struggling with high rates of uninsured patients and low reimbursement rates from insurers, they may have to close. And even if they do manage to navigate out of their current crisis, Pemiscot Memorial's leaders see a new danger on the horizon: the 'big, beautiful bill' Republicans pushed through Congress earlier this month, at Donald Trump's request. Centered around an array of tax cuts as well as funds for the president's mass deportation plans, the bill will mandate the largest funding reduction in history to Medicaid, the federal healthcare program supporting low-income and disabled Americans. That is expected to have ripple effects nationwide, but will hit particularly hard in Pemiscot county and other rural areas, where hospitals tend to have frail margins and disproportionately rely on Medicaid to stay afloat. 'If Medicaid drops, are we going to be even collecting what we're collecting now?' asked Jonna Green, the chairwoman of Pemiscot Memorial's board, who estimated 80% of their revenue comes from Medicaid as well as Medicare, another federal health program primarily for people 65 and older. 'We need some hope.' The changes to Medicaid will phase in beginning in late 2026, and require enrollees to work, volunteer or attend school 80 hours a month, with some exceptions. States are also to face new caps on provider taxes, which they use to fund their Medicaid programs. All told, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts that 10 million people nationwide will lose their healthcare due to the bill, which is nonetheless expected to add $3.4tn to the federal budget deficit through 2034. Trump carried Missouri, a midwestern state that has veered sharply away from the Democratic party over the past three decades, with more than 58% of the vote last November. In Pemiscot county, where census data shows more than a quarter of residents are below the poverty line and the median income is just over $40,000 a year, he was the choice of 74% of voters, and Republican lawmakers representing the county played a notable role in steering his tax and spending bill through Congress. Senator Josh Hawley publicly advocated against slashing the healthcare program, writing in the New York Times: 'If Republicans want to be a working-class party – if we want to be a majority party – we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America's promise for America's working people.' He ultimately supported the bill after a $50bn fund to help rural hospitals was included, but weeks later introduced legislation that would repeal some of the very same cuts he had just voted for. 'I want to see Medicaid reductions stopped and rural hospitals fully funded permanently,' the senator said. Jason Smith, whose district encompasses Pemiscot county and the rest of south-eastern Missouri, oversaw the crafting of the measure's tax provision as chairman of the House ways and means committee, and has argued they will bring prosperity rural areas across the state. Like others in the GOP, he has said the Medicaid cuts will ferret out 'waste, fraud and abuse', and make the program more efficient. It's a gamble for a state that has seen nine rural hospitals close since 2015, including one in a county adjacent to Pemiscot, with a further 10 at immediate risk of going under, according to data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform policy group. The Missouri Budget Project thinktank estimates that the bill will cost 170,000 of the state's residents their health coverage, largely due to work requirements that will act as difficult-to-satisfy red tape for Medicaid enrollees, while the cap on provider taxes will sap $1.9bn from the state's Medicaid program. 'There's going to be some really hard conversations over the course of the next five years, and I think that healthcare in our region will look a lot different than what it does right now,' said Karen White, CEO of Missouri Highlands Health Care, which operates federally qualified health centers providing primary and dental care across rural south-eastern Missouri. She forecasts 20% of her patients will lose Medicaid coverage through 2030. As the bill was making its way through Congress, she contacted the offices of Smith, Hawley and Missouri's junior senator, Eric Schmitt, all politicians she had voted for, asking them to reconsider cutting Medicaid. She did not hear back. 'I love democracy. I love the fact that we as citizens can make our voices heard. And they voted the way that they felt they needed to vote. Maybe … the larger constituency reached out to them with a viewpoint that was different than mine, but I made my viewpoint heard,' White said. Spokespeople for Schmitt and Smith did not respond to requests for comment. In response to emailed questions, a spokeswoman for Hawley referred to his introduction of the legislation to partially stop the Medicaid cuts. Down the road from the hospital lies Hayti Heights, where there are no businesses and deep puddles form in the potholes and ditches that line roadways after every thunderstorm. Mayor Catrina Robinson has a plan to turn things around for her 500 or so residents, which involves bringing back into service the water treatment plant that is the town's main source of revenue. But that is unlikely to change much without Pemiscot Memorial. 'Half of those people that work at the hospital, they're my residents. So how they gonna pay their bills? How they gonna pay their water bill, how they gonna pay their light bill, how they gonna pay rent? This is their source of income. Then what will they do?' Robinson said. Trump's bill does include an array of relief aimed at the working-class voters who broke for him in the last election, including tax cuts on tips and overtime pay and deductions aimed at senior citizens. It remains to be seen if whatever financial benefits those provisions bring to the workers of Pemiscot county will outweigh the impact of the stress the Medicaid cuts place on its healthcare system. 'The tax relief of server's tips and all that, that's not going to change the poverty level of our area,' said Loren Clifton, the hospital's administrative director. 'People losing their healthcare insurance absolutely will make it worse.' Work can be found in the county's corn, wheat, soybean and rice fields, at a casino in the county seat Caruthersville and at a shipyard along the banks of the Mississippi . But Green questions if those industries would stick around if the hospital goes under, and takes with it the emergency room that often serves to stabilize critical patients before transferring them elsewhere. 'Our community cannot go without a hospital. Healthcare, employment, industry – it would devastate everything,' Green said. The board is exploring partnerships with other companies to help keep the hospital afloat, and has applied for a federal rural emergency hospital designation which they believe will improve their reimbursements and chances of winning grants, though that will require them to give up other services that bring in revenue. For many of its leaders, the stakes of keeping the hospital open are personal. 'This is our home, born and raised, and you would never want to leave it. But I have a nine-year-old with cardiac problems. I would not feel safe living here without a hospital that I could take her to know if something happened,' said Brittany Osborne, Pemiscot Memorial's interim CEO. One muggy Wednesday morning in July, Pemiscot's three county commissioners, all Republicans, gathered in a small conference room in Caruthersville's courthouse and spoke of their resolve to keep the hospital open. 'It's 50-50 right now,' commissioner Mark Cartee said of the hospital's chances of survival. 'But, as long as we have some money in the bank of the county, we're going to keep it open. We need healthcare. We got to have a hospital.' They were comparatively sanguine about the possibility that the Medicaid work requirements would harm the facility's finances down the line. 'We got a guy around here, I guess he's still around. He's legally blind but he goes deer hunting every year,' commissioner Baughn Merideth said. 'There's just so much fraud … it sounds like we're right in the middle of it.' A few blocks away, Jim Brands, owner of Hayden Pharmacy, the oldest in the county, had little doubt that there were those in the county who took advantage of Medicaid. He also believed that fewer enrollees in the program would mean less business for his pharmacy, and more hardship overall. 'Just seeing this community, the situation it's in, the poverty, we've got to get people to work. There are a ton of able-bodied people that could work that choose not to,' he said. 'To me, there's got to be a better way to weed out the fraud and not step on the toes of the people who need it.'

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