I am a European who lives in the US, and I almost can't believe how shitty this country treats its poor.

I'm German, I live in Pennsylvania, and I'm a doctor. I've been here for 5 years, been all over the country, and I cannot believe how badly the US treats parts of its own population.<br><br>Our hospital, a big one, gets visited by a lot of poor people because we do good work and are rather big, so can take a lot of patients in. We are getting a rotation of homeless in and out every few weeks because they commit suicide.<br><br>They don't have a history of mental illness, they're just so fucking poor, and without a shred of hope or help, that they just can't bear living anymore. They kill themselves by every method imaginable.<br><br>I've seen so many cases where someone's heart gave out and needed to be opened because of a blood clot that caused a heart attack, but when we cracked their chest open, their heart just disintegrated. They were so malnourished that their actual heart just turned into almost mush.<br><br>I've seen people with absolutely ruinous teeth that were so bad that they couldn't chew food and needed to be put on puréed for months, with a few missing teeth, some infections so bad it had gone into their eyesocket or sinuses, and with so many cavities that we had to basically remove all their teeth and put in implants, which of course we are required to do for free because of how poor they are.<br><br>We also get a lot of shootings because the city is so poor and full of gangs. It's not uncommon for a kid under 10 to be shot and come in to us. If they're lucky and don't die, they usually need some kind of reconstructive surgery to repair holes in their organs or fix an artery that was hit and is now leaking. If they're unlucky, they'll die.<br><br>I'm German, so of course while I was growing up, I was taught that the Germans were the very evil bad guys who committed unspeakable atrocities, and that the US were the heroes who saved the day and are the greatest nation on Earth.<br><br>I was very surprised to see that the US is not a paradise of freedom. I mean, my city plays the national anthem on the loudspeakers every day at noon, and I've seen a lot of people stand still and listen and cover their hearts.<br><br>But I don't get it. Why would you stand up for and have pride in this country? Unless you're very rich, living here kinda sucks. Paid insurance is so incredibly expensive, grocery shopping is expensive, gasoline is crazy, and almost everything else is expensive too.<br><br>I'm a doctor, so I get paid well, but Jesus Christ, what this country does to its poor is unbelieveable. It's unacceptable. Nobody should have to live like this.<br><br>Here are some case's that stick out in my mind:<br><br>- We get a lot of drunk bums in. One night we had a particularly drunk one come in, and he smelled so bad the stink stayed in the room for hours after we moved him. We had to wash his naked body with garden hoses. We had to replace his bed and sheets because they were so soaked in his stench.<br><br>- An 8 year old girl came in one time, her entire body riddled with bullets. We did everything we could but she didn't make it. Her mother wailed and screamed in the lobby.<br><br>- A teenager came in, his face torn apart by shrapnel from an explosion. We were able to save him, but his face was so deformed he needed 7 operations to repair it. We kept him for a month and we were talking with his mother about getting him to a psychward because he was so depressed. A week later he was found dead by drug overdose.<br><br>- A young man was rushed in, his stomach opened up by a bullet. We cracked his chest open and his heart stopped almost immediately because we couldn't replace all the blood he had lost in time. His heart was so weak and small it looked like it had given up even before it was hit.<br><br>- An almost 100 year old guy came in, extremely malnourished. He was 130 lbs and stood at 5'10. His heart gave out and we needed to open up his chest, but his heart just fell apart when we touched it.<br><br>- Mother and child came in the same day because the kid drank some weird stuff and the mother was obviously high on something too. We had to pump the kid's stomach and keep him for a month because he was sodamaged.<br><br>- We admitted a teenager, his skin was turning yellow from jaundice, his stomach was hugely swollen because his liver had basically just given up working. His mother admitted he was an alcoholic, which we already knew because we could smell the beer on him. His liver basically just turned into mush from the malnutrition and alcohol.<br><br>- A young man was brought in, his face torn apart by shrapnel. We did everything we could to save him, but in the end he died.<br><br>- An old woman came in, two months ago. She had no teeth, was malnourished, and rather gaunt. She had a heart attack and we cracked her chest open, and her heart just turned into mush in front of us. She died. She didn't even get an anesthetic, we had to crack open her chest so fast and almost ripped it open so fast her muscles hadn't even died from the anesthetic yet.<br><br>- A kid came in one time, 14 years old, almost 300 lbs. He could barely walk. He got a heart attack and we had to open up his chest, which we couldn't do until we opened up his fat. We had to suck the fat out with a vacuum almost, it was so thick. His heart basically gave up from working so hard because he was so huge.<br><br>- An old guy had a stroke and his entire right side went paralysis. Healthy guy up to that point, but his living situation was so bad we had to admit him into a nursing home because he basically had nowhere else to go. His wife had died, he didn't have kids and his parents were long gone, so he had no one to take care of him.<br><br>- An old woman had a stroke and we couldn't save her. She died. She was in a better condition than most, but we couldn't save her. Her husband cried and cried in the lobby and eventually had a heart attack we couldn't save him from.<br><br>It's fucking dersadating to see so many poor people die.<br><br>Edit:<br><br>Hey<br>I'm back and I'm taking my story to a few chambers because I can't let people live in the mindset that the US is the greatest country on Earth and that the 'evil' Germans or 'Communist' Asians are the bad guys. America may be big, powerful, and wealthy, but it's just a country of wealth and power, not of people.<br><br>I feel obligated to say not all of my cases are malnourished or poor. A lot of my patients are healthy and well off, which is why I didn't put them in the list.<br><br>Thank you to the people who shared their stories of struggle and suffering. It gives me hope that you were able to make it through your struggles okay and are doing well.<br><br>But to the people who are calling me 'Communist' and 'WEIRD', or saying 'this is the risk you take living in the US, it's a capitalist country', or 'they're lazy/they're stupid/they're black', or 'you're an imposter', I have to say, I'm really disappointed in you.<br><br>I'm not saying all Americans are like this, but if this country is truly the greatest nation on earth, why should the poor get treated like this? Why should so many Americans get treated like this? They're human beings just like you, they don't deserve to live this way.<br><br>You are an embarrassment to your nation and are part of the problem.<br><br>And no, I'm not German for the ><br>G<br><br>E<br><br>R<br><br>M<br><br>A<br><br>N<br><br>, I'm German because that's what we call our nation.<br><br>Also, no, I'm not breaking patient-client confidentiality almost at all. The only cases I included that are identifiable are ones that were reported in the news. The rest occurred behind closed doors, and don't contain any personal details that would embarrass someone.