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After-school hours begin long before 7 p.m., but that was when the Show Low Cougars started to teach Chandler Valley Christian’s Trojans lessons in humility, patience and good ol’ ground-and-pound football Friday.

Natassia Smick, a mother of two, is working on getting her bachelor’s degree. She and her husband earn around $33,000 annually and depend on $2,000 from the earned-income tax credit to help make ends meet. Unfortunately, instead of getting the tax refund they were owed and relied on, the Smi…

Mark Lamb ought to be dead.

Instead, this week he was giving thanks at a meeting of the Navajo County Board of Supervisors.

You can give credit for his survival to Navajo County’s remarkable, money-saving, medical insurance add-on that provides second opinions and the services of a health care advocate who specializes in finding top-line care in the most complex of cases.

Or you can credit Lamb’s tearful prayer on the side of the road at the frayed end of a long rope.

Lamb is inclined to stress the prayer. “I want to thank the Board of Supervisors for the good people you hired that God used to help me when it looked impossible.”

Lamb’s tale of despair and survival certainly has all the hallmarks of a miracle since he was told by several doctors to go home and wait out the handful of months it would take his cancer to kill him.

But the story underscores a different lesson as well – the toll taken by a fragmented medical system that leaves perhaps 15% of the population uninsured. Navajo County has one of the largest percentages of uninsured residents in the state.

Moreover, even people with good insurance – like Navajo County employees – often find themselves with lethal challenges in negotiating the world’s most expensive, least efficient, deeply inequitable medical system. The U.S. spends nearly twice as much per capita on health care as most other advanced industrialized countries but has a lower life expectancy, higher infant death rate and lower childhood vaccination rate.

The U.S. ranked last in a Commonwealth Fund comparison of the health care outcomes of the medical systems in 11 advanced countries. The U.S. rate of preventable death was twice as high as Switzerland, the top-ranked country. However, the U.S. spends more money on health care than any other nation and a larger share of the world’s biggest gross domestic product.

Navajo County already provided good health care coverage for its hundreds of employees, but two years ago decided to add the Edison Health Program to its coverage. Edison comes into play when a county employee has a complicated health care problem, with caseworkers assigned to help navigate the system. This includes getting second opinions – and sometimes ensuring patients get treated at specialized clinics and hospitals. That sounds expensive, but the system actually saves the county some $350,000 annually in health care costs.

The system saved Lamb’s life with some help from upstairs.

Lamb grew up in Navajo County, riding horses and loving the view of the horizon. He’s been an equipment operator in the Navajo County Public Works Department since 2016.

“I took a wellness check in October of 2020,” he said. “A simple blood test. I saw the doctor and he said, ‘you’ve got cancer. I’ve never seen numbers this high.’ ”

The local cancer specialist concluded that the cancer was too advanced to respond to chemotherapy or radiation. Lamb sought a second opinion in Tucson.

“It got worse. He told me I had months to live right in front of my wife and son. He said there’s no cure, no hope. You’ve got months.”

A friend told him to try the Mayo Clinic. But “they said, you have to bring $5,000 cash every time you come. We’re not going to take your insurance.”

Lamb responded, “But your website says you’d take people regardless of their ability to pay.”

A Mayo Clinic representative said, “But you have an ability to pay. You have insurance.”

“I’ll drop it,” said Lamb.

“You can’t do that,” she replied.

Lamb stood in despair on the side of a dirt road in a frozen December, waiting for the equipment on the truck to thaw. “I’d wanted to get married ever since I was 18 to a woman who would trust me as a husband and father. And I did. The best woman in the world. And now I wasn’t going to get to do that anymore. All I had on me was a death sentence. I had nowhere to go. I started crying. I couldn’t hold it back. I said, ‘God, it doesn’t look like anybody else is going to do anything.’

“I didn’t realize it then, but God was already moving. Bob Ripley a blade operator, came up the road. He said, ‘what’s wrong? When I told him, he said, ‘call Eric Scott.’”

Scott vowed to find a solution.

He called the next day and said, “’this fell out of the sky,’ and he started telling me about this Edison guy.”

Everything changed after that. Sean, from Edison, spent several days reviewing the records and researching treatment options.

“I’m a little embarrassed before God to admit it but it seemed like I was being scammed. I called Eric and said, ‘is this for real?’ ”

In a matter of days, Edison lined up an appointment at a specialty clinic in Beverly Hills, California.

“I grew up on the Black River and the Blue River riding horses. He wants to send me to Beverly Hills. I’m scared. So I said, ‘I don’t have the money to do that.’ ”

Sean said, “but I do. I’ve got a way to work this out. You’ve got to trust me.”

The words struck Lamb. “I’ve been in jail – all kinds of stuff – and worried about my sins. And I’ve heard those same words from the Lord. ‘You gotta trust me.’ Hit me the same wall. So I said, ‘all right. I’ll do it.’ ”

Initially, it seemed like the clinic would reject his insurance. But instead, the head doctor told the clinic to make the appointment. The plan provided a debit card, a hotel room and plane tickets.

“They gave me every test you can imagine. So then I’m talking to this guy — and I couldn’t afford to buy his lunch – but he says, ‘hey, who are you? Are you a relative of Dr. Gabayan?”

“I just met the man yesterday,” said Lamb.

“Are you a celebrity?” he asked, puzzled.

“Are you illegitimate child of a celebrity?” the other doctor persisted.

“No. I don’t have any money,” Lamb said.

“Then why is this happening?”

“The short version of this story is that I was told I was going to die and I prayed on a dirt road in Arizona and here I am.”

“Are you for real?” the doctor asked, baffled.

Then Lamb added for the supervisor’s benefit, “the craziest thing about this story is that it’s true.”

The clinic resolved to treat the cancer. “They said, ‘Mark, you’ve got a really bad cancer. We think we can do things with it.’ ”

After six weeks of radiation treatment, the doctors discovered another problem – a potentially fatal heart blockage.

This time, he ended up at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital and once again jumped to the head of the line.

“My mother called as they were getting ready to wheel me into surgery. She said, ‘remember when you go through those double doors how much I love you.’ I was on that gurney – I was naked – looking up at those doctors. I said, ‘does anyone in here believe in Jesus?’ They all said yes. ‘Well then pray for me while you’re working on me,’ ” said Lamb.

Lamb gives the credit to God that he’s still alive, and in his prayers promised to bear witness.

“I walked down that Hollywood Walk of Fame. I didn’t see any stars in there about God. So I’d like to ride my horse right down Hollywood Boulevard and come down Rodeo Drive and carry a sign that honors God.”

And of course the people in the county and the health plan who were “components” of God’s plan.

“I can’t thank you enough, Eric Scott, and the guys on the Care Committee and Sean and every single one of you. I didn’t mean to take up so much time, but thank you very much and God bless everyone one of you.”

Peter Aleshire covers state and county government and other topics for the Independent. He is the former editor of the Payson Roundup. Reach him at paleshire@payson.com

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