Wishing you a speedy recovery...

and congratulations on a successful outcome in your encounter with the pharma/medical industry. Having suffered a heart attack four years ago I found the treatment to be uniformly expensive, painful, invasive and humiliating. To this day I remain in the industry's grasp.

On the plus side, I was already dead and was revived more than once in the process. Diagnostics, triage and such mechanical repairs as you and I required are what they are good at. They employ one of their two weapons in these cases. Those weapons are to attack the disease with a knife (surgery) or attack the disease with a poison (pharmacueticals, particularly antibiotics).

Treatment of diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disease are things they still have problems with, because they don't have the weapons to ensure a long term positive outcome. Perhaps advances in understanding the human genome can contribute to cures in these areas.

Oh, yeah, and how about them Cubs?

by John Sanchez Jr. (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1266 comments) on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 9:09:41 AM
 

Glad you are on the mend.

But you had a family physician who sent you to the ER and more than likely some kind of insurance. Had you  gone directly to the ER without a referring Doctor the out come may have been quite different. They would have done a cursory exam and given you some thing for pain and released you to find a Doctor on your own or recommended you go to a clinic and by the time you got your appt you more than likely would have had a ruptured bowel and if you survived the peritonitis you probably would have wound up with a colonoscopy for a bit. I quit nursing when it became a corporate cash cow .We will never know how many people die each year from treatable problems because they go to a profit driven ER or cannot afford a private doctor and just rely on the kindness of strangers to save their lives. Every one needs a family physician who knows them or at least a public heath system for the indigent and  a quality  medical needy program ,before it is too late.  Ronald Reagan defunded nieghborhood clinics.back in the 80' just as the HMOS took over health care. Luck and Opportunity  played a part but potential cash payments secured  a larger part in you successful outcome. But I am glad you are on the mend as you and every  human are entitled to.

by cluelessfl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 184 comments) on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 2:37:55 PM
 

Get Well Soon!

Having had major abdominal surgery, as well as several other operating room experiences, in the last six years, let me first offer my hopes for you having a speedy, and complete recovery. As a young person, I expect you will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your strength and energy return.

When it comes to the quality of care, and cost, my experience has been quite different than that which you have extrapolated to be the case for many. You say

In the hospital, I constantly thought about the dollars and cents patients were spending for care.

I live in Pasadena California. At the time of my first surgery in 2001, I was a full time employee of a publicly held company. That most serious surgeries I have had was done at a for-profit hospital in that city, occasioned by a my waking with intense pain on a Saturday night, and calling for an ambulance. I awoke some two weeks later, having been kept on a morphine drip, until such time as I could be conscious without too much discomfort. Like every other patient on the surgical ward, I was in a pleasant private room, with the TV having access to most of the channels to which I have satellite access at home. A friend brought my laptop, so I had no difficulty in connecting to the Internet, although at that time there was no patient access to a broadband connection.

Company health insurance covered every dime of what turned out to be a quarter-million dollar bill. Long term disability insurance covered some 80% of my salary after the first five days absent from work.

After leaving the hospital, I required post-surgical home care for 10 days of recovery. That was also covered by my insurance policy.

I was all too often looking patients in the eye who were in pain and seeing looks that I thought showed fear. My own mind filled in the reason for fear as being one stemming from not knowing how to pay for all this treatment.

During the first, nor subsequent hospitalizations, I never had occasion to speak to another patient, let alone be able to assess their psychological response to the situations in which they found themselves. Thus your interpretation of the fear they had worrying about how they would pay for their treatment, I have to say is less than convincing.

Nothing was more revealing of why I was so bothered about the way the hospital operated than this quote, “The longer they make you wait, the less money they make.” This came from a nurse who assured a patient he would be in surgery soon.

The above statement is nothing short of bizarre. Perhaps you imagined it, while you were on your pain medication. First, it is inaccurate. Each day you spend in the hospital means more, not less, income, if you are covered by an insurer. For the uninsured, who show up on the steps of county hospitals, their wait to be treated is interminable. Doctors are employees of that hospital, rather than Independent Contractors, thus receiving the same compensation, regardless of patient load.

If it weren’t for the fact that my hometown, Mishawaka, is so small, I do believe that the system would show its ugly side with employees more interested in the work and less interested in healing the patients no matter what saint is watching over the hospital.

Frankly, this statement is both rude and insulting to the medical profession. To get to the point where s/he can perform surgery, requires the investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in training, 12 to 15 years of long work at low pay, along with all of the costs of medical liability insurance, once out in private practice. For the man or woman looking to get maximum and rapid Return on Investment, there are many, many, professions demanding far less personal commitment, than that of medicine.

The big GE apparatus was possibly one of the most despicable things in the hospital given what I know about GE. Yet, it was a very efficient machine that took all of about 10-15 minutes to process and show that I needed surgery.

Which brings me to the question I have often asked, but you have never chosen to answer. Without technologies like the PET scan, and the medications you were given, you might well not be alive to write this article. Yet, you constantly attack capitalism, monetary incentives, and the motives of those who invent and develop the very things that keep you alive, and make it possible for you to express your views to all of us. Having asked, “Why,” many times before, perhaps, as you have the time to reflect, you might want to take a crack at giving me an answer.

In the meantime, as I said at the beginning, best wishes, and hope to hear from your old contrarian self in the near future.

by Sherwin Steffin (15 articles, 25 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 97 comments) on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 6:32:45 PM
 

Yes, Kevin ..

Get well soon!  Sorry that happened to you. I always beeline for your articles and finding this item was disturbing.  My thoughts are with you.  Mend soon. US pro Nader forces NEED YOU.

I must take exception with the comments that "capitalism" is NOT the problem with health care.  It IS.  You have no "proof" of your claim - it's speculative.  Until such a system is tried, how can you say the alternative doesn't work?

The big problem is the way that Big Medicine doesn't provide sufficient medical training by SCHOLARSHIPS.  Medical schools reward RESEARCHERS and doesn't provide enough incentives to those who wish to try to learn general practice.  SURGEONS are the top of the heap.  

Corporate Medicine hands out PILLS and other ridiculous answers rather than learning from perfectly good OLD answers.  Lately, there have been increasing attacks on Big Pharma, CME and so on, though, on blogs (and on OpEd News, too).

Preventive medicine in America is a joke ; it's rarely advocated by Big Medicine.  

The numbers of America's young who are on Big Pharma drugs after eight years of BuZh is staggering.  The number of addictions grow and grow yet you don't see tons of rehabs springing up or places that are healthy for young people to go .. and often this is the cause of alot of suffering and the high medical costs .. 

Every durn thing has turned CORPORATE, including America's schools !  How are young people supposed to learn how to build a healthy lifestyle?  I had a rare medical disorder and it took until I was 35 years old before it was even detected !  To me that says it all .. Feminists have fought for a better medical for 40 years now.

I've been learning "natural" techniques for over 20 years as a result; I am delighted that the ideas are finally catching on in Murka on a widespread level; but sure took a heap of time (the UK and Europe it was much faster.)

The healthcare system here in Ontario is NOT perfect; that's just media spin.  It is definitely two-tiered here.  But it does make a huge difference in the quality of people's lives.  The cost of prescription drugs is just one real advantage as we have more generics available to everyone.

The AMA lobby undoes all the progressive legislation .. that's one reason that OpEd News readers will continue to push for BETTER and more humane ways to deliver healthcare, imho.  IF, and I mean IF, the new SPP/NAU comes in; the FOR PROFIT HMO's are investing heavily in lobbying up here.  The problem with capitalism is that it needs greater and greater profitability and will EAT UP all the resources that are needed to keep the normal citizens healthy.  LOTS of money for war - no money for the middle class which is rapidly disintegrating - and their health care goes with it.  (How many vets with no good health care - to defend an INSANE economic system?)

by ladybroadoak (38 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 391 comments) on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 7:46:23 PM
 

I'm Sorry

But I am going to publicly declare that your overlyanalytical comment on my article is pure bunkum.

Aside from the get well soon, which I thank you for, all I can think is "What?" 

by Kevin Gosztola (230 articles, 127 quicklinks, 72 diaries, 895 comments) on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 7:47:43 PM
 

Speedy recovery, Kevin

close encouters (with a health care unit) of the 3rd kind are usually very moving, in both directions. As with most anything else, you usually have your good and bad experiences. The sum of all of my experiences taught me a couple of things : people are people and you have to invest as much as you possibly can in helping them help you. Sometimes you have to chase them down to get them to help you, but that's to be expected, even here where I live where we still have a universal health care system. Imagine this: you don't have to worry about being admitted to hospital once the need arises but you pay dearly all the time you don't need medical care. Without exaggerating, more than 50% of my earnings go straight out the door, taxes, insurances and universal health care. Is it worth it? You can bet your elbow it is. Some costs are minimal. Some would break the (piggy) bank with one swipe. Universal health care is worth fighting for. It's a right all should have. We shouldn't have to worry about what an operation is going to cost...in case we survive it. In the same token, health care centers shouldn't have to whisk us in and out to save money. My impression is that that is what it's like in the USA.

Take it easy and take care of yourself, nobody else will! Or so the saying goes.

by Tony Forest (7 articles, 18 quicklinks, 166 diaries, 1429 comments) on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 3:47:05 AM
 

GET WELL SOON!

I was sorry to read about your serious illness and also hope you get well soon.  Hopefully this is the last operation you will need or medicine will advance to the point where you wont need repeated surgery.

To reply to the previous post claiming it is capitalism that produced all the medical marvels you depended on, why does he assume that socialism couldn't do it.  Conservatives like to pontificate about how it is the "private sector" that produces all the wealth.  But in a socialist society, the public sector could just as easily research and develop the technological advances that are responsible for wealth.

I live in Minneapolis where the media conference will be.  I can't afford the fee to get into the conference but I hope I'll be able to get into the building long enough to meet you and introduce myself.

Robert Halfhill

by rhalfhill (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 307 comments) on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 10:29:02 PM
 

Indeed, even in this "capitalist" country ...

much of the funding for clinical research and most of the funding for pharmaceutical research has been provided by taxpayers through grants to universities. It's a little fact that the patenters of such research are loathe to admit, since it puts the lie to the free market mythology and removes their standing to rake us over the coals in the drug store. It also gives "We the People" standing to regulate those corporations in ways that will bend them to the service of the society.

by John Sanchez Jr. (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1266 comments) on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 8:32:16 PM