7-year-old sells lemonade to fund her own brain surgery. That's how bad America's healthcare system is

Every so often we hear about a sick child in desperate need of financial aid to cover the cost of life-saving treatment or surgery. While their local communities and netizens almost always rise to the occasion and pull off a fundraising miracle that's touted as a heartwarming story of generosity, the root of the problem isn't lost on anyone: the American healthcare system. The shortcomings of the country's healthcare system were once again thrown into sharp relief last week when a 7-year-old's efforts to raise money for her brain surgeries made the news. CBS 42 did a report on how a young girl named Liza Scott has been selling lemonade at her mother's bakery to fund her upcoming brain surgeries.

"She has three cerebral malformations," Liza's mother Elizabeth Scott revealed. "One is what they call a schizencephaly. So it's a cleft in the frontal lobe in the right side of her brain, and we think that's what causing the seizures." The "spunky, loving, fearless, bright, happy girl" is said to have been diagnosed about a month ago when she began having Grand Mal seizures. "In almost every instance of these rare malformations doctors only see one malformation — in Liza's case she has 3," Scott wrote on Liza's Mightycause page.

Liza and her mother are due to fly to Boston Children's Hospital this week for the first in a series of surgeries. Although Scott purchased additional insurance to help pay for her daughter's treatment, the family is looking at almost $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses with travel and hotel costs heaping on top of medical bills. "As a single mom and the financial supporter of both of my children, this is not something you can budget for," Scott said. Opening up about how she feels about her impending surgeries, Liza said: "I can't handle it. So, I hope I make it. My mom keeps saying I'm going to, but I feel like I'm not."

As Liza's story spread across social media, financial assistance started pouring in for the young girl and her family. The fundraiser set up to help the Scotts through this challenging time has raised over $285k so far and the family has also been offered free flights and free housing for their upcoming trip to Boston. While the outpouring of support deserves celebration, many netizens were quick to point out how the American healthcare system is so broken that it forces families to resort to gimmicks to get on the news in the hopes of raising money.

"To frame a story of a 7-year-old selling lemonade to fund her life-saving brain surgeries as anything other than abject societal failure is deranged," wrote Twitter user @amil. "Every time these horrific stories crop up you think 'there can’t possibly be a more depraved and inhumane set of circumstances than this' and yet," commented @lukeottenhof. "It's like a reality show audition. The goal is to be the most charismatic patient, get noticed, then get it paid for via individual donations or shaming the companies. The system remains just as shitty to everybody else. This is survival in the USA," tweeted @thostalk.

"We once were great. We once looked out for one another. We once did the right things or at least tried to. America has become a bloated country of people at the top who throw breadcrumbs to those in the middle and granular yeast to the poor. We must reinvent a new deal," wrote @Charlottes_W3bb. "This isn't news - this is a regular occurrence in the US. Yet, nothing is ever done to address it. We have to beg for [money] to help cover the outlandish cost of health care in this country. As somebody who went through chemo - I speak from experience," tweeted @itsguerin.