Our Health Policy Matters

On August 7, 2012, Allen Daniel Hicks, Sr., died of a stroke.  The Hillsborough County FL resident was 51 years old.  At the time of his death, he was coaching Little Leaguers. It is a tragedy to lose someone so young to a stroke, but it is not uncommon.  And race matters with strokes. According to the Office of Minority Health at the Department of Health and Human Services , African Americans are 60 percent more likely to have a stroke than their white counterparts.  And African American men like Mr. Hicks are also 60 percent more likely to die from a stroke than are white men. But Allen Hicks’s death was especially tragic because the circumstances surrounding it eerily echo those surrounding the death of a young black woman named Anna Brown a year earlier and 1000 miles away. Both died from blood clots.  Mr. Hicks’ was in his brain; Ms. Brown’s was in her lungs.  Both died young and left children behind.  Both suffered from pain a...

On August 7, 2012, Allen Daniel Hicks, Sr., died of a stroke.  The Hillsborough County FL resident was 51 years old.  At the time of his death, he was coaching Little Leaguers. It is a tragedy to lose someone so young to a stroke, but it is not uncommon.  And race matters with strokes. According to the Office of Minority Health at the Department of Health and Human Services , African Americans are 60 percent more likely to have a stroke than their white counterparts.  And African American men like Mr. Hicks are also 60 percent more likely to die from a stroke than are white men. But Allen Hicks’s death was especially tragic because the circumstances surrounding it eerily echo those surrounding the death of a young black woman named Anna Brown a year earlier and 1000 miles away. Both died from blood clots.  Mr. Hicks’ was in his brain; Ms. Brown’s was in her lungs.  Both died young and left children behind.  Both suffered from pain a...