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NAVIGATION PNHP RESOURCES
Posted on August 5, 2008

Recovering Rush seeks care for all

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Congressman declares himself cancer-free

By Azam Ahmed
Chicago Tribune
August 4, 2008

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) declared himself cancer-free on Monday at the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine at the University of Chicago and challenged Barack Obama and John McCain to push for national health care for all Americans.

After a five-month battle with a rare form of cancer, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) returned to the political scene Monday declaring himself cancer-free and challenging the presidential candidates to make national health care a centerpiece of their campaigns.

“I am a member of Congress, and I have access to the best medical care in the nation,” said Rush, 61, who continues to struggle with his speech since doctors removed a half-inch tumor near his jaw five months ago. “I can’t be satisfied until every American has access to the same kind of care.”

Speaking before a small crowd Monday at the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine at the University of Chicago, where he was treated, Rush’s dark gray suit swallowed his diminished frame. His face appeared sallow and his voice tenuous, owing to the 14-week battery of radiation and chemotherapy he endured after his surgery.

Behind his lectern, a banner depicting a shoulder-length picture taken before the cancer hung from the wall, a sharp reminder of the cancer’s toll.

Yet Rush struck a triumphant note about his recovery and return to office last Wednesday, laughing with his doctors, whom he referred to as the “Dream Team.” He clasped his hands together, lifted his head and thanked God.

Rush, who started his own church in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, said the experience brought him even closer to God, and has made him prioritize things differently in his life. “Every day matters to me now,” he said.

The eight-term congressman, who soundly defeated Barack Obama in 2000 when the Democratic presidential candidate challenged him for a congressional seat, voiced his frustration with the Illinois senator as well as Republican nominee John McCain.

“I’m quite disappointed with the whole political scene, where neither of the candidates has shown [a] political commitment to nationalized health care,” he said. “If we can spend trillions in Iraq . . . then we can conquer this dreaded disease.”

Specifically, Rush said, Obama should “be talking about national health care as one of his priorities.”

Questioned about the risk of his quick return to public duties, his surgeon, Dr. Elizabeth Blair, joked, “Nothing you can do in D.C. is as bad as what we did to him here.”

Blair, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center, likened the past several months of Rush’s intensive care to being run over by a Mack truck twice. The surgery required cutting into Rush’s face, where a tumor in his saliva gland was hidden beneath his lymph node and his facial nerve, which controls facial movement.

During Rush’s battle, there was speculation that Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th), the wife of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), could be his potential replacement. Rush said he was “disappointed” that the congressman would “even think along those lines” but said he “soon got beyond it.”

The Jacksons released a statement Monday saying they were not involved in spreading the speculation.

Rush’s doctors said that a recent CT scan showed no evidence of the disease remaining, though they will continue to monitor the congressman’s health on a regular basis. He is currently seeing a speech therapist and will soon begin physical therapy.

Growing emotional, Rush recalled a moment during his treatment when he realized the extent of cancer’s blight.

Heading to treatment, Rush said he spotted a tiny hospital bed and inquired about it. He was told that it belonged to a 3-year-old cancer patient, whose condition did not look good, he said.

“This 3-year-old baby had not had a chance to experience any of life, and yet was confronted with this disease,” he said. “It moved me.”