Doctors watching patients die

[Luddly Neddite]

A Galveston Med Student Describes Life and Death in the "Safety Net"

The first patient who called me “doctor” died a few winters ago. I met him at the St. Vincent’s Student-Run Free Clinic on Galveston Island. I was a first-year medical student then, and the disease in his body baffled me. His belly was swollen, his eyes were yellow and his blood tests were all awry. It hurt when he swallowed and his urine stank.

I saw him every Thursday afternoon. I would do a physical exam, talk to him, and consult with the doctor. We ran blood counts and wrote a prescription for an antacid—not the best medication, but one you can get for $4 a month. His disease seemed serious, but we couldn’t diagnose him at the free clinic because the tests needed to do so—a CT scan, a biopsy of the liver, a test to look for cancer cells in the fluid in his belly—are beyond our financial reach.

He started calling me “Dr. Rachel.” When his pain got so bad that he couldn’t eat, we decided to send him to the emergency room. It was not an easy decision.There’s a popular myth that the uninsured—in Texas, that’s 25 percent of us—can always get medical care through emergency rooms. Ted Cruz has argued that it is “much cheaper to provide emergency care than it is to expand Medicaid,” and Rick Perry has claimed that Texans prefer the ER system. The myth is based on a 1986 federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which states that hospitals with emergency rooms have to accept and stabilize patients who are in labor or who have an acute medical condition that threatens life or limb. That word “stabilize” is key: Hospital ERs don’t have to treat you. They just have to patch you up to the point where you’re not actively dying. Also, hospitals charge for ER care, and usually send patients to collections when they cannot pay.

Granted, its Texass - one of several assholes of the US but what's important is that this is nothing new.

Our medical system is incredibly wasteful. That's a given. And a lot of posters here would want people to just go die in some alley.

But, what if this was your loved one?

Isn't the US better than this? For that matter, aren't human beings better than this? Why don't we take care of our own species? Why is one political party in favor of letting children, the elderly, our vets and families go hungry, live on the street?

How did humans get to be so inhuman and inhumane?

 

[Vox]

I read the article. And half of it is a BS or an intentional lie.

Some of the described patients can be treated because they are straightforward disability cases - and that is medicare on the spot. Now, why their social workers won't take care of the issue - is the question of social workers in the hospital.

I was the resident in the teaching hospital as well. Not in Texas, but in a state where the laws are similar.
It is absolutely not true that the patients with cancer or needed surgery were just dumped into hospice - gosh, during my intern year a HOMELESS man got a liver transplant - which is against any possible rules of transplantology because transplant is not the end of the story and the strong support family system is needed in order to continue with immunosupression.
I even remember his name to this day.

There are many ways to obtain the needed help and to be enrolled either to medicaid or Medicare or any low-cost network EVERY state had ( now everything is ruined because of obamacare) - people who did not have insurance were ab;e to get financial help with the resources the socila workers have had a t hand.

Now everything went down the drain.
Now people are not going to be able to AFFORD obamacare and the low-cost insurance coverage which was available in those instances is deemed "substandard" by this pbamacare crap and if people won't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid - they will die.

 

[koshergrl]

Mark Halperin: Obamacare Contains "Death Panels" | Video | RealClearPolitics

 

[Luddly Neddite]

vox, this is the same conversation/argument that has been going back and forth for months and will continue to go back and forth. I'm in no shape to do it again now and really, why bother?

I disagree with some of your points, agree with a couple of things but will say this -

In some ways, its better now than before EMTALA. Don't know if you're old enough to remember when no money and no insurance meant a trip to the county hospital that was overloaded and understaffed.

What we have now does not work. It needs to be changed. I believe that its a good start and when the dust settles and the law is tweaked, changed, added to, subtracted from and/or whatever, the US has a chance of getting the caliber/quality of health care other countries take for granted.

One thing for sure, the Rs have not helped the situation in any way. They don't want Americans to have good health care and they will continue to work against it.

 

[Vox]

vox, this is the same conversation/argument that has been going back and forth for months and will continue to go back and forth. I'm in no shape to do it again now and really, why bother?

I disagree with some of your points, agree with a couple of things but will say this -

In some ways, its better now than before EMTALA.
I agree
Don't know if you're old enough to remember when no money and no insurance meant a trip to the county hospital that was overloaded and understaffed.

What we have now does not work.
It does. It just needs additional modification, but not what we have got.
It needs to be changed. I believe that its a good start and when the dust settles and the law is tweaked, changed, added to, subtracted from and/or whatever, the US has a chance of getting the caliber/quality of health care other countries take for granted.
no, this law has actually ruined the chances of better care almost for anybody and, unfortunately if it stays - it is going to ruin all research and innovation we have now( because the way it is being set)
One thing for sure, the Rs have not helped the situation in any way. They don't want Americans to have good health care and they will continue to work against it.

Now, I will stop discussing as you need to rest and for now there is no point in arguing.
After you regain strength we will continue our duel

 

[koshergrl]

His statements are ridiculous on the outset, and at the end.

His moronic claim that Republicans just want Americans to be unhealthy gives you a little insight into his feeble little mind.