Without a Net
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On November 17 he called 911 again. This time paramedics delivered him to Our Lady of the Resurrection, where he was admitted–dehydrated and with a raging infection in the surgical wound. Doris Beamish was relieved: “My last words to him were, ‘You’re in safe hands now. They’ll take care of you.’” By early the next morning he was dead. The death certificate lists severe dehydration, sepsis, and a failing liver.
Reed knows about that firsthand. Last March he was hit by a car while crossing the street in front of Northlight Theatre, where he was appearing in Lady Windermere’s Fan; his leg was broken in 30 places. He’s still on crutches and needs additional surgery, and his health insurance, covered by Actors’ Equity, will expire in March. To extend it six months he’d have to have worked in Equity shows for at least 12 weeks in the last year. It’s not that he hasn’t tried: “I’ve been auditioning,” Reed says. “There just haven’t been any roles for a cripple.” COBRA will be available, but the quarterly premium for that will be $1,100, “so that’s that,” he says. Reed wonders why there isn’t some way to cover theater people, at least for catastrophic problems, so they wouldn’t be afraid to go to the doctor.
