Maryland boy, 12, dies after bacteria from tooth spread to his brain

[sarcasm]It is obvious the mother was abusing the system. Hope they throw the book at her![/sarcasm]


[seriousness]And they want to cut the CHIPS program.[/seriousness]

Truely Tragic!

The worst thing is this didn't have to happen. If they had just had the Access they needed to a dentist, and this boy's parents had paid attention, he would still be alive.

Tim

Originally posted by wellwhatnow
This link shows how different countries health care systems rank according to the World Health Organization:

That's from the findings of a World Health Organization report in 2000. Wow, it must be the truth, because the World Health Organization is squeaky-clean objective, aren't they? And they're not politically-motivated at all, are they?

Hold on... Here are some other little tidbits from the same report:

The U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds.

The impact of failures in health systems is most severe on the poor everywhere, who are driven deeper into poverty by lack of financial protection against ill- health, the report says.

"The poor are treated with less respect, given less choice of service providers and offered lower- quality amenities," says Dr Brundtland. "In trying to buy health from their own pockets, they pay and become poorer."

One key recommendation from the report is for countries to extend health insurance to as large a percentage of the population as possible. WHO says that it is better to make "pre-payments" on health care as much as possible, whether in the form of insurance, taxes or social security.

Oooh... So the World Health Organization is recommending reforming healthcare systems worldwide, extending health insurance to as much of the population as possible, and paying for this massive welfare initiative through increased taxes — presumably taking money from those who can afford to pay taxes and subsidizing healthcare for those who can't afford to pay.

So, the World Health Organization is endorsing socialized healthcare. Oooh... So that's why the USA is ranked lower than the UK and Canada (what a laugh). It's because the USA doesn't have nationalized healthcare. Now it all makes sense!

In short, the WHO report in 2000 was utterly biased in favor of socialized healthcare, and biased against the non-socialized "performance" of the USA. Even the World Health Organization admits that the USA spends more on healthcare than anyone else on earth.

Listen, the World Health Organization is one of the biggest purveyors of Globalization and New World Order initiatives that you can imagine. These guys are up to their necks in tampering with world politics, and this WHO healthcare ranking is just more of the same.

— Doc Velocity

[edit on 3/2/2007 by Doc Velocity]

Originally posted by Doc Velocity

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Don't go boasting about something like that. I'm sure that other industrialised countries that have a just as good healthcare system as that of the U.S. I didn't create this thread for "my truck is bigger than yours" posts.

Where was this thread supposed to go if not to a discussion of health insurance/health care reform?

It can go in the way of discussing the pro's and con's of a different healthcare system, and possible adopting one that can help people better. Yes, a socialized one could be an example of a better one. I think there is a social indoctrination in which people learn to frown on the word "social".

I never intended for anyone to come boasting about their healthcare being the best or whatnot. None are perfect, and obviously the one in the U.S. is not perfect or even close to it if there are deaths like that of this child.

And I'd like to know what other industrialized country has a level of health care that is the same as or is better than that of the USA. I measure in terms of how many people from around the world come to the United States for life-saving health care. They're not flocking to Canada, nor Great Britain, nor Cuba, nor Australia, nor the Former USSR, nor any of the other experiments in socialized health care.

Kinda strange though, because according to this report U.S. Citizens are highly dissatisfied with U.S. healtcare.
Besides that... Of course the U.S. is a leader in certain areas (Cancer research is one I can think of). But it isn't the best in all areas. There are some countries better in other areas... But for a child to die in from such a preventable medical condition is unacceptible IMHO, and something needs to change there soon. The amount of poor people will increase in the next 10 years in the U.S. because of inflation, outsourcing and stagnant wages. That means more people are going to die from preventable conditions if this doesn't change.

Are you going to bust me down another 20 points for being argumentative now?

— Doc Velocity

Did you ever see another mod do that? If not, then why ask??




[edit on 2-3-2007 by TheBandit795]

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Did you ever see another mod do that? If not, then why ask??

Because you busted me down 20 points earlier for posting a one-liner. I figured if I really stepped on your toes you'd throw the book at me.

— Doc Velocity

That's because your one-liner post didn't have anything to add to the topic. Now enough of that and back to the topic.

Originally posted by Ghost01

The worst thing is this didn't have to happen. If they had just had the Access they needed to a dentist, and this boy's parents had paid attention, he would still be alive.

I think the Mom had faith in the US medical system, and the treatment her son was getting.

This boy received medical care for almost two months before he died - from January 11 to his death on February 25.

* His abcessed tooth was extracted after two brain operations.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

It was on Jan. 11 that Deamonte came home from school complaining of a headache. At Southern Maryland Hospital Center, his mother said, he got medicine for a headache, sinusitis and a dental abscess. But the next day, he was much sicker.

Eventually, he was rushed to Children's Hospital, where he underwent emergency brain surgery. He began to have seizures and had a second operation. The problem tooth was extracted.

After more than two weeks of care at Children's Hospital, ... He seemed to be mending slowly, doing math problems and enjoying visits with his brothers and teachers from his school, the Foundation School in Largo.

His death certificate listed two conditions associated with brain infections: "meningoencephalitis" and "subdural empyema."

The fact that he seemed to be responding after the extraction, then got worse and died, suggests a new infection...

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear in my earlier post.

First, I don't find anything from any WHO report indicating that the US should pay for health care via an increase in taxes. I simply can't find that anywhere in the 2003 report. (If anyone can find stats elsewhere that are newer, please share them.)

These rankings were based on 5 performance indicators, not upon socialized versus non-socialized medicine. We can go ahead and disregard WHO though if you like.

How about this info from the US Department of Health and Human Services:

Changes recommended

They want to see changes because of issues like this one:

Although the newborn mortality rate in the United States has fallen in recent decades, it is still higher than most other industrialized nations – 2.5 times that of Finland, Iceland and Norway, and about three times higher than the newborn mortality rate of Japan. (Infant Mortality is often used as an indicator of over all health care progress.)

Physicians for a National Health Program do not suggest raising taxes either. They agree with the US Department of Health and Human Services.

So health care could be better. It doesn't require raising taxes.
What's the problem? Are you just worried about that word - "socialist?" Is the word the problem? We already have socialized programs in the US. It's no big deal.

I will side with the 14,000 people in the medical profession (the PNHP) who would like to see improvements. I want to see people truly receive the best.

Originally posted by wellwhatnow
First, I don't find anything from any WHO report indicating that the US should pay for health care via an increase in taxes. I simply can't find that anywhere in the 2003 report. (If anyone can find stats elsewhere that are newer, please share them.)

Hey, I followed your link to the WHO ranking, and that's where I pulled those quotes.

Originally posted by wellwhatnow
What's the problem? Are you just worried about that word - "socialist?" Is the word the problem? We already have socialized programs in the US. It's no big deal.

Socialism is about tearing down the mountains to fill in the ditches, and it goes against everything America is. Yes, I love capitalism, I love the unequal distribution of wealth, it's what makes this country tick, and it's what distinguishes America from the rest of the savage nations in this world that believe the richest should be legislated into subsidizing the poorest. Socialism is legalized theft and a disincentive to excellence.

Originally posted by wellwhatnow
I will side with the 14,000 people in the medical profession (the PNHP) who would like to see improvements. I want to see people truly receive the best.

Gee, 14,000 people, that's a lot... That's, like, 1/6 of the total healthcare professionals in the Texas Medical Center in Houston alone. Pardon, but 14,000 is not a fair representation of healthcare professionals across the entire nation. I'd prefer to hear from the majority.

— Doc Velocity

[edit on 3/2/2007 by Doc Velocity]

Originally posted by anxietydisorder
If the American people wanted socialized health care they would reflect that wish when they go to the polls. The people of the United States would tell their elected officials how important it was to them to have health care if they wanted it, wouldn't they

Obviously they don't care if children die from something totally preventable.
The American people have a cancer growing in their society that will eat them from the inside out, and they don't seem to care.


I guess they'll reap what they sow eventually.

Your pretty stupid. Nobody around me has a problem with health care. Everyone gets great health care....exept massivly poor 15k and less who refuse to work and sit around on government benifits. Thank god we havent become a total welfare state...when that happens america will be as # as europe. Reap what we sow? Reap what? The fact that we are the leaders in medicine? Reap the fact that the whole world comes HERE to mayo clinic/cleavland clinic ect for health care. GTFO, your just america bashing and I must say doing it very convincingly.

Your pretty stupid. Nobody around me has a problem with health care. Everyone gets great health care....exept massivly poor 15k and less who refuse to work and sit around on government benifits. Thank god we havent become a total welfare state...when that happens america will be as # as europe. Reap what we sow? Reap what? The fact that we are the leaders in medicine? Reap the fact that the whole world comes HERE to mayo clinic/cleavland clinic ect for health care. GTFO, your just america bashing and I must say doing it very convincingly.

I am one of the massively poor who make less than 15k per year. I do not refuse to work and I certainly do not accept any government benefits. I do not collect commodities or food bank food. I am constantly turned down for work because I collected workmens compensation for injuries I sustained on a job in the past. Let me clue you in on a few things concerning getting medical care in America. The illegal aliens have completely ruined medical care here for AMERICANS by not paying for their treatments in emergency rooms. Without insurance you will not see a physician in Arizona. Furthermore, the fraud that is rampant in American medicine has driven the cost up so far that it is outrageous. This is because our wonderful doctors bill the MEDICAID/MEDICAIR/INSURANCE for charges they do not earn such as the two thousand dollar fee I recently saw on my father's medical papers which was for looking at a chart for all of two minutes. "Hey doctor Jones come over here and look at this for a minute." And how about ten dollar aspirins and Ibuprofens? Then there was the hospital bed at five thousand dollars a night. You see doctors have gotten used to this windfall that the American Medicare and Insurance industry have provided for them and they freely pass the bennies around to each other. I have pulled the last six teeth that have gotten infected because I could not get into see a dentist with my 70 dollars cash. Forget the 500 dollars that it costs to get my teeth cleaned. When I finally get a job with insurance things will not get a whole lot better for me because they will declare all my health problems as "pre existing".

You only get into the Mayo Clinic with medical insurance.

The "average joe" will not.

There are alot more of us living under $15,000 per year than anyone knows. Many of us do not get counted because we do not collect government benefits and are thus invisible to the government.

America leads the world in medical fraud and failure to properly care for it's own poor and elderly.

[edit on 3-2-2007 by groingrinder]

My heart breaks for this poor, ignorant woman who has lost her child. No one should have to lose a child. Unfortunately, poor usually means uneducated, and in my experience, less aware of what good oral hygiene entails. I work in a dental office that sees a great deal of poorer people, and you wouldn't believe how ignorant most of these folks are of what they should be doing to take care of themselves and their children. It wasn't too long ago that dental care wasn't considered important by the general population. Now it's mostly the poor who think this way. I understand that food and shelter are priorities.

It is interesting that children of more affluent parents tend to get less cavities. My own parents came from poor homes, and while they took us to the dentist yearly ( I have a mouth full of fillings to prove it ), I can't remember my mom or dad actually brushing my teeth. They would send me to do the job and not check afterward. It's the parent's responsibility to make sure that their kids are doing a good job, and to pick up the slack if they're not. I know that I will be angry with myself if I find my own child to have dental decay, as it is totally preventable in most people. You just need to know what to do and how to do it to prevent dental disease. In my own experience, those whose teeth are truly "soft" are very rare. Most of the patients that I see (that have serious dental problems) that say they brush their teeth regularly and thoroughly are, in actuality, lousy, lazy brushers. When you work in the mouth daily, you can tell who takes care of their teeth and who doesn't. It's glaringly obvious.

One answer would be to have the pediatrician and staff more involved in the child's oral care. The pedo staff should make sure that parents know how to care for their children, including good oral hygiene habits. I have seen a proposal that dental hygienists be allowed to practice in a pediatrician's office, in order to give more comprehensive care. The dental associations shoot this idea down at every opportunity. You should all contact your state legislators and urge them to vote to improve access to care by expanding dental hygienist's working opportunities outside of traditional dental office settings, which are currently severely limited in most states. Sorry to go somewhat off topic, but there are answers out there that most folks don't know exist.

Unfortunately, ignorance and lack of belief in the importance of education tend to be passed from generation to generation.

This poor little child.
What a waste of a young beautiful life.
It seems that human life has no value at all.
To think that this is going on in so-called civilized first world countries with untold wealth.
It would appear that in reality, a lot of people are living 3rd world existences in the lands of plenty.

Originally posted by TheBandit795

Originally posted by Helig

So its excusable that the parents didn't enforce proper hygiene practices upon their children then? Aren't they responsible for the welfare of their children? Sure a trip to the dentist might be pricey but a cheap toothbrush and some bottom shelf tooth paste long before hand could have went miles to preventing this situation...

Don't forget that the family was poor and half of the time homeless. Perhaps they didn't always have access to water. Or they didn't have enough money to buy the toothbrush and toothpaste (everytime the toothpaste was finished).

The issue here for me is a child died because his parents did not have the money for medical insurance thus limiting the treatment available.

As for poverty and cleanliness, a friend of mine just recently came back from the Phillipines and he couldnt get over how clean the people were. Regardless of the fact they live in poverty and sanitation is below par, the personal hygiene was exceptional.

The sad reality here is this boy died in a developed western country and that fact alone is tragic and unacceptable.

Absolute shame...

Originally posted by soficrow

I think the Mom had faith in the US medical system, and the treatment her son was getting.

This boy received medical care for almost two months before he died - from January 11 to his death on February 25.

* His abcessed tooth was extracted after two brain operations.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

It was on Jan. 11 that Deamonte came home from school complaining of a headache. At Southern Maryland Hospital Center, his mother said, he got medicine for a headache, sinusitis and a dental abscess. But the next day, he was much sicker.

Eventually, he was rushed to Children's Hospital, where he underwent emergency brain surgery. He began to have seizures and had a second operation. The problem tooth was extracted.

After more than two weeks of care at Children's Hospital, ... He seemed to be mending slowly, doing math problems and enjoying visits with his brothers and teachers from his school, the Foundation School in Largo.

His death certificate listed two conditions associated with brain infections: "meningoencephalitis" and "subdural empyema."

The fact that he seemed to be responding after the extraction, then got worse and died, suggests a new infection...

I responded too quickly, read up to page 2 and didnt see this. Thanks soficrow. Well, the child had received medical treatment even though the family did not have insurance? If that is the case, then the lack of medical treatment due to not having insurance is a moot point.

cheers