A tireless advocate for progressive social justice causes, attorney Ady Barkan got diagnosed with terminal Als in 2016.
It was only a matter of time that the regular motor functions and vocal abilities of the energetic Santa Barbara resident — an adoring husband to his wife Rachael and the brand-new father of baby Carl — would begin to deteriorate.
The 32-year-old Barkan obviously knew that he was dying, with only a handful of years left to live based on his doctors’ estimations.
But in Nicholas Bruckman’s compassionate “Not Going Quietly,” a clearsighted and traditionally inspirational documentary portrait of Barkan’s rise to prominence in the healthcare debate, Barkan rightfully indicates that dealing with insurance then was far worse than this harrowing awareness.
Simply put, he needed a breathing machine to stay alive, but his insurance company refused to pay for it, flagging the device as “experimental.”Shortly after, Barkan and his family
Read full article