Woman dies after obamacare screwups delay treatment
Posted by Non_mooching_artist 9 years, 9 months ago to Legislation
This was a totally unnecessary result. This woman could have survived treatment had it been available to her in time. But because of delays because of the utter uselessness of obamacare, she died. This needs to be broadcast often and vigorously. This sorry excuse for healthcare needs to be dismantled.
Citizen: That woman is definitely deceased. You assured me that her total lack of metabolic function was due to it being tired and shagged out following a prolonged lawsuit.
Reid: She is not, she's Stunned from the marvels of Obamacare.
Citizen: OBAMACARE?!? She wouldn't have gotten care had they pumped an additional 4 billion dollars into it.
Reid: Well, she's...she's, ah...probably pining for Obama. Remarkable woman, the Xerox employee idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
Citizen: PINING FOR OBAMA? She's passed on! This woman is no more! She's ceased to be! She's expired and gone to meet her maker! Bereft of life, she rests in peace! If you hadn't propped her up with false promises, she wouldn't be pushing up the daisies! Her metabolic processes are now history! She's kicked the bucket, shuffled off her mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PATIENT!!
Reid: Well, we'd better cure her then. (they take a quick peek around Congress) Sorry squire, I've had a look 'round the government, and uh, we're right out of cures.
Citizen: I see. I see, I get the picture.
Reid: (pause) I got a healthcare insurance subsidy...
Do you really consider the report unbiased? Check out the writer: Natalie Johnson is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/jul...
"Heritage Foundation is a conservative research think tank based in Washington D.C. Read studies and papers on free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom ..."
Looks like many of the authors on that site have connections to the Heritage Foundation.
Looks like a duck, has webbed feet, quacks...
My advice is to stay VERY aware of your meds, double check everything they do, write and say. Keep a full copy of your medical record and for some of us this is a hassle, but keep a physical copy of all doctor reports and test results. With the VA this requires summiting a FOIA request at each visit.
Generally, I think that the time for a separate medical facility for vets has passed. Yes, there was a time after the Civil War when it might have been better to have a gov't run medical facility, but that would have been very limited. Today, the only incentive is to do as little as possible, see as few as possible (but falsify the records so as to not disclose such), and spend as little as possible. There is little in the way of actually helping the vets - that said, there is still incredible care given at many locations. That is due to the people not the system, in my most humble opinion.
Here's where they do something good - I'm certain you all have experienced the typical doctor "visit" that lasts about 45 seconds and the doctor spends more time washing his hands than talking with you. When I see my SCI Doc, I will be one of the six patients he will see that day. When I say he gives me a complete checkup each of my quarterly visits, I do mean it's complete. Any on going problem I have with my health is covered in depth and all of my records are reviewed.
In a for profit hospital, that would NOT happen. In the Minneapolis VA Medical Center there is a 50,000sf (guess) clinic devoted to SCI. No matter if they have half the beds empty, under no circumstances would a non-SCI patient be bedded in that clinic. The therapeutic swimming pool is not used by any other patients or staff. This clinic has it's own radiology unit equipped with assistive devices to roll, turn and handle patients in ways that no place I've ever seen. All this just scratches the capabilities there - and I've never seen any place like it in a civilian hospital.
Then you look at Hines VA Medical Center in Chicago - or as we know it, the hospital vets go to die in. Similar equipped, a bit older but the one time I was hospitalized there, I can't write all that was wrong about that place. I've had three vet friends go there for treatment of SIMPLE issues who died from "complications".
THAT'S a hole in the VA system that needs cleaned out.
private interests and give you an ID which serves
as a voucher? on medicare, I don't have to
submit a foia request. -- j
There's not job in the world where you might be asked - even demanded to assault a machinegun across a open field with almost absolute certainty that you will be killed - but 50 men behind you may live to destroy it. If you aren't killed, or in my case a fall from a missile launcher did not kill me, I knew that had I passed, my wife would have certain needs arranged for, my children would go to college and their medical needs would be taken care of until they graduated.
The obligation made to me was that I'd be given such care as could be provided and the usual therapy and treatment. Beyond that disability pay and retirement pay would be paid me and rehabilitation in the form of additional education was made. The intent was to restore as much of a veterans life as is possible in repayment for the sacrifice they have made for the country.
Then we must consider what would happen to veterans coverage if the BO-care system collapses by virtue of it's logistic weight. Would vets suddenly have no coverage as they came home wounded, paralyzed, burnt and suffering from PTSD? Heaven forbid!
Then you have the oddities that are peculiar to the VA. Most people don't understand how high a percentage of wounded veterans come home as paraplegics and Quads. One of the largest individual "clinics" within the VA is the SCI clinic (Spinal Cord Injury Clinic). Civilian hospitals, if they have a clinic for this at all (our local hospital does not) it is a very small unit, whereas all VA medical centers each have a entire wing dedicated to treating the specialized need we have.
There is no doubt that many of my day to day medical needs could be handled locally and my twice monthly 300 mile drive to the VA hospital would be reduced some. But there are things that simply must be handled differently or else the promise President Lincoln made 150 years ago will fall along with BO-care.
the specialized care afforded by va hospitals;;; I did
not know.
second, I did know about the Lincoln law which
includes families, and meant to imply that family
members would have vouchers as well. I strongly
agree with the debt which we owe our veterans and
their families -- I am one, though only usaf.
I was trying to state that the vets' care should be
first among the population -- you go to the front
of the line. didn't say that directly;; sorry!!!
I do wish that you did not have the 300-mile drive.
yet, the specialized care is no doubt worth it. you
deserve the very best, sir!!!
further, Dr. Jim Brenner is working among specialists
who are on the verge of curing spinal cord injury,
as I understand it;; he will keep us posted here in
the gulch -- "jbrenner".
I hope that I speak for a grateful nation -- at least
some of us who are still loyal to you -- when I say,
Thank You For Your Service! -- j
following TED talk by Anthony Atala of Wake Forest, probably
the leader in the field.
http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_p...
Dr Brenner and I have been in communication about some recent developments that I'm following up on.
I guess I should have added that I'm pretty certain you knew about the stuff with the VA benefits we have, but you asked a very good question that many are asking today. I've even questioned the viability of utilizing our local hospital for more of my care. The big problem is that the VA and the private hospitals operate so differently that there's no way to effectively pass records between them.
Last year I had a sudden development of a problem that required immediate hospitalization. When we went into the local ER and explained what the problem was they had to go look everything up since they had never heard of it and I required immediate treatment.
I began to tell the doctor what was going on but he was trying to diagnose it as something entirely different. Since it's a side effect of SCI that I had gone through before, I knew what it was and how to treat it. Fortunately two things happened at that time, first since the treatment is rather benign I finally convinced him to start treatment before my body shut down completely. Secondly my wife got my VA doc on the phone so they could converse about this syndrome that SCI folks live with. In about 6 hours I was back to normal and they released me. As I was leaving I saw a PILE of medical books on the desk of the nurses station - none of them were likely to have any helpful information in them.
The specialized care we do get tends to spoil us a bit. Since injuries like mine require so much care you build up a strong relationship with your doctors and nurses that care for you and because I'm as much of a techno geek as my doctor he and I share a lot of understanding since he knows I'm always going to accurately diagnose what symptoms I'm experiencing and if it's a SCI problem, I will know what the problem is.
Civilian Docs, not so much. To them a patient with erratic BP, elevated pulse, profuse perspiration around the head, chest and feet, in not other pain, blood sugar norm, along with most of the other blood work. Convincing the doc to push a IV was not problem but a cold water enema and inserting a catheter into my bladder and flushing that was just outside his understanding. But it does fix things when my system begins this run-a-way cycle of one system pushing another system to the point of collapse and death. A SCI doc would do this without thinking about it twice.
things could get with spinal cord injury. scary. I am
very glad that the va doctor was available!!!
to the extent that you may agree, please know that
you are in my prayers!!! -- j
p.s. my wife has unusual effects from back pain
and arthritis, and I learn things from her about
these effects almost daily. I have zany effects
from peripheral neuropathy and low O2 and
describe them to her -- always learning!!!
Thank You for your patience!
The VA has now supplied me with a medical card that has enough information on it to point a doctor in the right direction if I have an attack. Fortunately, if I'm being reasonably attentive to what's going on with my B&B (not bed & Breakfast ;^) I can head off any problem.
while you're there!
thanks again for your professional advice in the
world of hardware, sir -- very happy with our new
friend here!!!
may the bluebird of happiness fly in your sunroof!!! -- j
when I got to the serious content, above .......
I "enlisted" in rotc in engineering school and had a
bunch of my college paid by y'all taxpayers, and Thank
You!!!
after rotc, I had a 6-year obligation -- 2 years active,
4 years reserve. I opted to stay 4 years active, and
had the option to go to pilot training. I declined
the offer, since I wanted to be an engineer -- since
I did not know that pilots have to BE engineers to
a very great extent. youthful ignorance. they sent me
to aircraft maintenance, and boy did we!!! when the
pilots saw that I had signed an aircraft off as safe
for flight, I could give them a real explanation.
then, when they came home with "discrepancies",
I could say, "You Broke It!" with a wink and a smile!
some days, I wish that I had made the choice to fly.
I did better than the guys who were headed there,
they said. oh well....... -- j
p.p.s. I stayed for 24 years reserve, by the way.
I didn't have the chance to go to college after high school. I was the oldest of 5 kids and even though Dad worked 8hrs a night at a factory job and 8+ hours a day building houses and doing rental remodels, there wasn't ever the cash needed for college. No grief over it because it just was the way it was.
So I joined the Navy as I started my senior year and graduated early since I already had all my requirements finished. That placed me as an armorer's mate on river patrol boats. That only meant that I maintained all the weapons and manned a M60 amidships.
These weren't the swift-boats that gained some fame a few years ago, our boats were larger, about twice as long, were slower, carried a larger crew and were armed to really defend themselves whereas the swift-boats would attack based on being fast enough to rush in and hit a target and get away. Our boat would move along the waterways checking junks for arms and if attacked, we could bring a lot of firepower to the job.
Usually the swift-boats looked for trouble spots along the shore and depended on their speed to get away or to attack with. When they found a concentration of enemy, we'd be called in to do a joint strike, provided we had enough draft to not get hung up.
After I got back stateside it was GI Bill time for college, get married, have kids and after graduation I was commissioned as 2ndLt, went to jump school and since I was prior service I was allowed to try out for Ranger School. That allowed me to be promoted to 1stLt and I was allowed in the 75th Ranger Battalion for a few years.
In 1983 Operation Urgent Fury I led a platoon of the finest soldiers in the world as we jumped onto the south beach. The rest of that was history.
On our return I was given orders to help field one of the newest systems in the Army and headed off for Ft Sill OK. for more training. After 7 months I was finally given orders to form with our battery of men who were finishing training and we all headed to Bamberg Germany where we were attached to the 76th Field Artillery, 3rd Infantry Division becoming "C" Battery 1/76th FA 3rdID. This was the first time this unit had been formed since being closed at the end of WWII. My Father also had served in the 3rd ID during WWII so this held some special meaning for me.
Then on 04 june 1985 I made a spot inspection of the motor pool where I saw one of our launchers with a camo net tie-down strap dangling from it's roof, so I climbed up to re-tie the strap before the commander saw it. As I was tying it I was "instructing" the new crew chief on how it was to be tied down. When I finished I stood up straight and lost my balance and fell the 12ft down to the concrete floor, where I landed butt first breaking one hip, the pelvis, crushing 2 vertebra and fracturing 2 more severing my spinal cord and compressing it in 2 other places. Ending my military career.
Oh, I had another year and a half on the payroll as I was rehabbed to a new life in a wheelchair, but for all intents, it was over and I faced a much scarier life ahead - as a civilian, eventually a businessman, both successfully and unsuccessfully, a college adjunct prof of history and art in a Midwest Jr College (talk about a mistake) and a few other things leading to this day.
But you have. :-) There's a lot to be said for that.
my harley to the alert pad at high speed to help make
good scores on operational readiness inspections,
and had to jump a cable once when the bike couldn't
stop ...... and then did the 4 wheel drive thing with
the civil air patrol, training kids and evaluating CAP
operations ... for the latter years. I've been lucky!
had wheelchair life only after breaking my right leg
2 years ago. broke my right arm (big bone) during
motorcycle safety training before that, and broke
both bones in my left arm in P.T. for the broken leg.
to this day, the bike safety folks still think that I just
sprained my right wrist. never went to the Dr. for that.
my wife and I are getting ready to go to the beach
for a week, starting saturday, and I wish that we
could take you with us. there is room in the car,
and we can put your wheels on a trailer.
just know that there are many of us on your side,
star, and breathe deep (remember nights in
white satin) as you heal, OK???
Thank You For Your Service!!! -- j
You guys have a great time and we'll chat about servicing jets when you get back.
NMA
the camaraderie of the military -- those who hate
war the most, among us.
my sister is an artist, even good enough to open
disney world as a sidewalk sketcher, years ago ...
my love for has always been strong (know the song
"sister's keeper" by pure prairie league?), and as
we get older, we grow closer by the day. her talent
is so exceptional that I just go ga-ga over her!!!
I just wish that I could share some of her work
here.
nma, we appreciate you and your sharing this post!!! -- j
Dittos!!! Your posts and "at-a-boys" are so appreciated.
There are times when I post something I "thought" was important, but there would be no response and you just wonder if anybody saw it. Then there will come a reaffirming post from NMA. Thank you.
I know what you mean.
Obama:"Regrettably, no system is perfect, especially this early on. Steps shall be taken to investigate this problem so it will never happen again. Our hearts and prayers go out to the relatives of this poor woman."
This man needs to go