you don't have the money...you'll have to wait to get your skull re-attached

I came across this while surfing and found it quite unbelieveable. I guess money is more than ones life.

In January, University of Utah hospital surgeons removed half the skull of Briana Lane, age 22 and unemployed, in order to save her life after an auto accident, but because putting the skull back in place was not quite an emergency, it was delayed by negotiations over cost. The skull remained in a freezer for three months, with Lane battling serious pain (and wearing a plastic helmet for protection, feeling her brain "shifting" on her) while the hospital negotiated with the state Medicaid office, which pays only for long-term "disabilities." Her skull was finally reattached on April 30. [Salt Lake Tribune-AP, 5-11-04]

That's sick.
I'm glad that I'm canadian

Yeah, but in Canada, do you even get the option for skull replacement? I mean, it's a sad story that this girl had to wait 3 months to get her skull back...but would she have EVER gotten it in Canada?

Seriously want to know. Also, what's your current tax rate up there?

I read about that too...its pathetic how unhospitable we are nowadays.

I'd like to see a link to this, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. I still believe that if I had been born in the US, I would have died four years ago for the same reason this woman was subjected to so much pain - money.
Luckily the UK still has the NHS (no matter how depleted it has been by successive Governments) and the medical staff are still top notch.

But an uninsured, low-income patient in her situation must wait for a Medicaid disability ruling to come through, a process that takes 90 days from the time of the initial discharge from the hospital ...

Medicaid refused to pay after it was decided Lane did not meet the insurance programme�s disability requirements, said Robert Knudson, Utah Department of Health�s director of eligibility services.

Link




[edit on 6-6-2004 by Pisky]

Originally posted by Valhall
Yeah, but in Canada, do you even get the option for skull replacement? I mean, it's a sad story that this girl had to wait 3 months to get her skull back...but would she have EVER gotten it in Canada?

Seriously want to know. Also, what's your current tax rate up there?

I think you've missed the point on this one.

Why did they take half her skull?
Because she needed medical attention.
Was there money in her head that paid for it?
No. It was about saving lives, providing aid, etc.

Why didn't they put it back?
They wanted money.
Did she need her skull back?
Yes.
Why?
Cause they replaced it with a fake plastic skull.

Was her skull able to be put back, and if so, was that the best thing to do?
Yes. They kept it on ice, for the sole purpose of Putting it back!

If it's because money is the Primary reason to Heal People & Save Lives, then I guess they should have first looked through her wallet and ran a credit check on her. Then if she came back without enough money they could have done the right thing and let her die. After all, I believe that whole Oath thing does say something at the end like "......as long as we make a buck off it.' or something along those lines doesn't it.

Please tell me you understand what I'm getting at here.

Well...they say that the medical care in the USA is the best money can buy. That is also the problem...if you don't have the money or insurance..where does that leave you? With substandard health care or none at all or trips to the ER when you are on death's door! Yeah! It isgreat health care IF you have the money!!!

Originally posted by Jalengrma
Well...they say that the medical care in the USA is the best money can buy. That is also the problem...if you don't have the money or insurance..where does that leave you? With substandard health care or none at all or trips to the ER when you are on death's door! Yeah! It isgreat health care IF you have the money!!!

Yes, I'd say you see things quite clearly. It makes one wonder whether or not such a possibility of this happening occurred to those who decided that 'Capitalism' was the best choice. As it would seem pretty obvious that the motivational factors behind 'Capitalism' & 'Health Care' are fundamentally different, or perhaps even opposite. One of them is based upon Personal Self Gain from Others, while the other is about Personal Sacrifice for Others.

If she was an immigrant or illegal, ehr skull would have been re attached that night. They get free medical care from the state, something denied to citizens. >>>>big sigh

That is utterly pathetic and sick, You know theres a massive problem in society when doctors won't reattach someones skull because of "money" Hell if I was a doctor, I wouldn't even consider removing part of her skull without reattaching it for free, Its just not right that they remove something that important and then refuse to reattach it all in the name of money. That just seems greedy and wrong to me.


the physician could expedite the surgery by considering it an emergency and signing a certificate of need, but the patient would still be responsible for payment. The hospital did not initially consider the second surgery an emergency, Brillinger added.
That just makes my skin crawl, I did say outloud a massive "oh F*** off" after reading that "Non Emergency" Pathetic.


Its crap like this that makes me glad that we have "Free" medical care (to an extent) here (England) Whist we do have to pay for it via our tax's, at least we are safe with the knowledge that if we suffer financial hardship we won't be turned away from hospitals in our times of need.

Has for what Skadi says above, that Immigrants get free med care whereas citizen's don't seems madness to me, The citizen's pay the tax's of the country and therefor they should be the ones getting the free care, whereas immigrants should be the ones paying(at least until they have been in the country for 2/3 years)
Requiring to be in the country X amount of years before free med care is provided would fix the biggest problem with free med care, Over here its lead to people from other countries having medical "Hoildays" where in people who need med care come here for a month, have there op's(Fully paid by the NHS) and then return without having paid a penny.

[edit on 14-6-2004 by cheesegoduk]

Originally posted by mOjOm

Please tell me you understand what I'm getting at here.

mojom...not only do I get what you're saying, I got it on the first post.

You obviously mis-understand that I don't think it is okay for greedy doctor bastards to keep your skull for 3 months.

I'm also pretty bowed over by the fact that having half your skull missing doesn't qualify you for disability

I'm also trying to find out if the NHS countries would have gotten better care (FYI - I am for some type of NHS system in the U.S. so this question is a real one, not a smart-ass one). The reason I ask is because unlike what Pisky said, what you hear here in the U.S. is that it is NOT better in the U.K. One of my doctors did a hernia surgery on an older woman who flew over from the U.K. She had a strangulated hernia and was going to have to wait 6 months for the operation.

Now, I might point out that going 2 or 3 months with a plastic skull is less life-threatening than going 6 months with a strangulated hernia. Apparently triage isn't up to snuff over there. I want to know what it is like in Canada for comparison.

I remember seeing this on TV. Oprah maybe? I don't remember.

It reminds me of the film 'John Q'. I had thought that our medical care had improved since Clintons HMO. I guess not. We shouldn't let things like this happen. I am glad to see that they are making a stink over it.

Back in my college days I worked at a C store with this guy who I also went to college with. We both had the same schedule and the same habits. One day we both woke up and had a "burning" sensation uh..'down below' lol. No we weren't lovers, however we did on occasion happen to share a lover or two. And some of these girls 'got around'. So suffice to say, I was worried.

He got off work first and I had to pull the midnight. So I just took a few aspirin and toughed it out untill morning.

He goes to a local hospital and they run numerous tests and quickly determine that he has epeditamitis, an inflamation of the tube that runs from the scrotum to the penis, caused by abuse of over the counter speed. They then start him on Erythromiacin and give him hydrocodone for pain.

He comes to work and tells me of all this. I was like, cool I thought it may be an STD. So when I get off work I trot up to the same hospital and tell them of my problem. The only test they did on me was the old "bend over" test. They then leave me in the room for two hours. When the doc returns he gives me a prescription for Amoxicilan and tells me to take aspirin for any pain.

Amoxicilan is a weak antibiotic FYI, and Erythromiacin is one of the strongest. Oxycodone is a very powerfull opiate pain releiver as opposed to Aspirin.

I wondered why we were given such different treatment. Same hospital, same doctor, same problem. Then he asked me who my insurance carrier was. I had none. He had some.

Get insurance people, and make sure that it covers everything. If not, you will not recieve the treatment that is available. They will bend you over, slap a band aid on you and send you trotting. And avoid over the counter speed like it's the plauge.



Nutzo

[edit on 14-6-2004 by nutzobalzo]

Something like this should NEVER happen - especially in the US. However, we're going downhill now a days.

There are lots of countries with free healthcare. Why wasnt that set up here in the U.S. Because Americans are cheap bastards? lol. This got me pissed.

My sister lives in Canada , she is married to a canadian guy and they live in Ontario, she has told me numerous stories about how bad the health care is up there, not like in Utah where without money they won't move a finger , but "INCOMPETITIVE" instead.
I'll start with the most shocking: My sister goes to the gym, and she has some friends in there, and there was this guy she knew from mexico, and she told me that the guy was into heavy lifting like, squats and bench press, so one time in a conversation he tells her that he injured his lower back and that it really hurt, he said he had gone to the doctor and hospital to take some X rays and the results said that he had nothing, and the doctor had given him some pain killers,
weeks go by and the guy now tells him that hes visiting a quiropractor because the quiropractor told him that he had some subluxations in his neck, but the guy said that his back still hurt really bad, he wasn't lifting anything anymore he couldn't even bend himself half way down, so weeks go by again and he goes and tells my sister that he is going to mexico to visit a doctor to see if they can heal his back down there,. 7 to 8 months go by, and the guy
returns to the gym and my sister sees him really different, he used to be fat and discolored, and now he was looking athletic and tanned my sister asked, what happened to you? did they heal your back? he goes like yeah! they took some new X rays and showed me that my spine was looking "straight" looking at it sideways, and that i had two hernias in two lower back vertabreas so i was in rehab for 6 months and the hernias dissapeared and my back got it's normal position again, my sister didn't understand all of this at first so the guy took long explaining everything to her, and ofcourse she asked how much it was and the guy said that each rehab session was the same price he was paying for each session with the quiropractor in canada, the only thing he thought was expensive in mexico were the X rays.

She told me another story of a friend that had some acute pain in his foot, he goes to the doctor and tells her that his foot hurts really bad when he walks, apparently the guy didn't know why it hurt , so the doctor tells him so you don't know why hurts huh? So what do you want me to do? and the guy goes like, I don't know, you are the doctor , you should know what to do, give me a medicine, take some X rays etc, etc.. So basically the guy gets into a heated argument with the doctor and then he leaves without getting any help from the doctor or i think she told him to put it in Hot Water with salt. I'll share some other stories from my sister next time im kinda tired now.

IM MAD AT THE HEALTH CARE OF THIS COUNTRY AND IM MAD AT BUSH SPECIALLY.:

[edit on 14-6-2004 by bartholomeo]

If I ever get sick . I am in real trouble. I have been out of work for nearly 4 years. I can't even get a job at the fast food places. I only know english. All the fast food places want english/spanish speaking apps it seems. I have a college degree, but it takes 300$ for the license and about 500$ for insurance. I had to let my kids go live with there father so the would get food and roof over there head. Yeah he was to play child support, but seeing how utah do not inforce child support. He got away with not paying. Please don't give me any grief by saying utah helps mothers get unpayed child support. They don't help and they don't enforce the laws. So here I am uninsured, jobless and soon to be homless. So if I get sick and I need any form of health care. I am s**t out of luck. Its so great to be an American.

Originally posted by Sistinas
If I ever get sick . I am in real trouble. I have been out of work for nearly 4 years. I can't even get a job at the fast food places. I only know english. All the fast food places want english/spanish speaking apps it seems. I have a college degree, but it takes 300$ for the license and about 500$ for insurance. I had to let my kids go live with there father so they would get food and roof over there head. Yeah he was to play child support, but seeing how utah do not inforce child support. He got away with not paying. Please don't give me any grief by saying utah helps mothers get unpayed child support. They don't help and they don't enforce the laws. So here I am uninsured, jobless and soon to be homless. So if I get sick and I need any form of health care. I am s**t out of luck. Its so great to be an American.

Hi Sistinas welcome to the club.

Yep....I live in Utah to......yup...I am uninsured...

I am SO thankfull that my scull is at least in place!