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  • From: SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Back to socialism
  • Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:51:55 -0400

bob ford wrote:
Excerpt:
"The answer — incredibly — is that Canada's bureaucratic health care system transformed me from a human into a number, put me on a waiting list and essentially told me to hope for the best....

Bob, I'm curious to know why you think this is any worse than what happens here, every day in thousands of cases, under the system we now have. When I was still working in the emergency room in a mid-size city in the 1960's we routinely saw people coming into ER, some of whom died then and there, because they had been denied care by the very system we have now. By 20 years after that, it was a daily occurrence, and some days there were several occurrences in a day. Now it's 2008 and I can say it has only gotten worse; now my small town sees almost as many of these episodes as the city of Fort Wayne did in the 80's.

On a more personal level, I began having symptoms of circulatory issues in Jan of this year. There followed many visits to various doctors. To each I took my old medical records (if you don't keep your own copies, you should get them now and keep good track of them yourself), where there is ample documentation of a familial clotting disorder and my several past episodes with same. I upped the ante every way I knew how. Finally in the end of June I was diagnosed with pulmonary emboli (a spiral cat scan at that time showed 88% of the lung occluded by a large saddle clot) and widespread DVT (deep vein thrombosis). I was later told by my 'primary care' physician that "the diagnosis was obscured by the fact that you do not have a history of being physically inactive and we only see this in sedentary patients." All that, in spite of my records right there, readily available, including all genetic information and documentation of previous episodes. In case you are not familiar with pulmonary emboli, it is a condition responsible for many, many deaths.....DVT not so hot, either, as a piece of any of those clots can break off and occlude a vessel at any second. So for 5 months I was left to languish....

The diagnosis was not made (and therefore treatment not available) until I found out about and traveled to a physician who takes no insurance, only cash/other arrangement. Lo and behold, when there was no insurance nipple to suck on, Bingo: "You have pulmonary emboli!". I also have permanent lung damage (occluded too long to recover) and permanent damage to the circulatory system in both legs (also too long to recover, those veins simply try to seal off and lesser vessels try to take over the work of those lost). I'm also fried and pi**ed.

Do you suppose a quick diagnosis/treatment plan would have made the jerks anywhere near as much money as the route they took? So for months they ran 'tests' that had nothing to do with a likely diagnosis, scheduled 2 'visits' to speak to me about my "dangerous" cholesterol level (139), and used every other foot-dragging technique in the book to avoid the obvious, efficient, potentially lifesaving diagnosis.

I submit we are no safer than your Canadian example, and poorer to boot. Unfortunately this is not an isolated episode. This system, although it has great potential, is a disgrace to our country's claim to provide decent medical care and a danger to us all.
Susan Jane, in Maine




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