Author Archives: Stephanie O’Neill | California Healthline

Posted inLocal Politics

A ‘safe’ space to shoot up: worth a try in California?

by Stephanie O’Neill | California Healthline

Tawny Biggs’ seemingly happy childhood in the northern Los Angeles County suburb of Santa Clarita showed no outward sign that she would one day struggle with drug addiction.
As Biggs tells it, she was raised with two siblings “in a very good family” by an assistant fire-chief dad and a stay-at-home mom. Her after-school hours were filled with hockey and soccer.

Posted inHealth

Medicaid caps pitched by GOP could shrink seniors’ benefits

by Stephanie O’Neill | California Healthline

Before nursing home patient Carmencita Misa became bedridden, she was a veritable “dancing queen,” says her daughter, Charlotte Altieri.
“Even though she would work about 60 hours a week, she would make sure to go out dancing once a week—no matter what,” Altieri, 39, said. “She was the life-of-the-party kind of person, the central nervous system for all her friends.”
A massive stroke in March 2014 changed all that. It robbed Misa, 71, of her short-term memory, her eyesight and her mobility—and it left her dependent on a feeding tube for nourishment.

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