Our #@%$x profit based health care system

[d-ray657]

I don't even know the person to whom this happened, but I'm majorly pissed about it. An 84 year old man was working when he suffered an emergency health condition. He was hospitalized, and his stay was extended. By the time reached the 21st day of his hospitalization, he had developed serious bed sores - this was a man who had been healthy and active until the event which caused his hospitalization. Also by the time he reached the 21st day, he was in the latter stages of the dying process. The insurance company, with the apparent acquiescence of the hospital demanded that the man be out of the hospital by midnight that night. He and his family had to endure the check-out process, and had to move him despite his sores and his condition. He reached my wife's facility in the evening, and had to go through the process of physical assessment. By 12:40 a.m. he had taken his last breath.

With the current level of medical knowledge, there is no excuse for a person to develop bedsores. The hospital just was not sufficiently staffed to turn the patient regularly. He had not had a bowel movement for ten days (sorry for the detail here, but it's part of the story. If you have ever been constipated, you would know that ten days into that condition would be agony). That was also preventable. But WTF would get into people that they would kick him out of the hospital when he was literally on his death bed. Whatever bean counter was responsible for that decision should be forced to eat a pound of cheese and anything else that would clog his pipes so that he would understand what real pain is.

The hospital is as much in cahoots with this situation as the insurance company. Not only did they provide abysmal care, they wouldn't let him complete his life cycle in peace, even if the insurance company was not going to pay for it. They probably wanted him to die on someone else's watch, anyway. (If they were really smart though, they wouldn't have shipped him to a facility where other medical professionals could observe the results of their neglect.)

Death with dignity??? The world's best medical system????

[Boreas]

Don, don't you know that the US has the best health care system in the world? What's wrong with you anyway?

I'm 65. In my lifetime I've seen this country go completely and utterly to Hell. But you know what? I just don't give a shit anymore. We are a country of hate-filled fear-ridden sociopaths. We deserve this.

John

[Charles]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

I don't even know the person to whom this happened, but I'm majorly pissed about it. An 84 year old man was working when he suffered an emergency health condition. He was hospitalized, and his stay was extended. By the time reached the 21st day of his hospitalization, he had developed serious bed sores - this was a man who had been healthy and active until the event which caused his hospitalization. Also by the time he reached the 21st day, he was in the latter stages of the dying process. The insurance company, with the apparent acquiescence of the hospital demanded that the man be out of the hospital by midnight that night. He and his family had to endure the check-out process, and had to move him despite his sores and his condition. He reached my wife's facility in the evening, and had to go through the process of physical assessment. By 12:40 a.m. he had taken his last breath.

With the current level of medical knowledge, there is no excuse for a person to develop bedsores. The hospital just was not sufficiently staffed to turn the patient regularly. He had not had a bowel movement for ten days (sorry for the detail here, but it's part of the story. If you have ever been constipated, you would know that ten days into that condition would be agony). That was also preventable. But WTF would get into people that they would kick him out of the hospital when he was literally on his death bed. Whatever bean counter was responsible for that decision should be forced to eat a pound of cheese and anything else that would clog his pipes so that he would understand what real pain is.

The hospital is as much in cahoots with this situation as the insurance company. Not only did they provide abysmal care, they wouldn't let him complete his life cycle in peace, even if the insurance company was not going to pay for it. They probably wanted him to die on someone else's watch, anyway. (If they were really smart though, they wouldn't have shipped him to a facility where other medical professionals could observe the results of their neglect.)

Death with dignity??? The world's best medical system????

Don, I've been around enough to this to make me puke. I won't even touch on nursing homes. Wife spent 20 years in one, and I even spent 7 or 8 as Maintenance Supervisor, or the renovation dummy, or whatever you want to call it.

I've watched them murder my father in law, who all he wanted to do was die anywhere besides in a hospital. Watched my poor old Uncle Hutch, who DID live 87 years on whiskey, chewing tobacco, and fried pork (eulogy by my Dad...and he got it right), finally tell the doctors and the nurses,"Goddammit, get out of here and let me die." He wanted to die at home as well.

I'm watching my Dad die in the VA from alzhemiers, long and slow, and from what he told me, against his wishes.

But that's the way the system works. Myself, I wouldn't treat a dog like that.

Now the way I look at it, whenever the big man upstairs calls your hand, it's time to go. And I for sure don't want a bunch of blood suckers trying to drain the last dollar out of my insurance policy.

It's a rigged game. Either they loot your insurance, or steal everything you have ever worked for. And, by and large, keeping you alive against your wishes in order to do so.

And it's the law!!!

If there is any doubt that all we are is a commodity for our government/corporate masters, please explain it to me. Bastards won't even let you crawl off and die unless they can turn a buck on it.

Myself, I'm going back to Plan A. I'm gonna handcuff a .357 to my wrist when I can see the end coming. Don't taze me, bro!!!

Perhaps I should handcuff a Kalashnikov to my wrist instead.

Maybe we're not quite on the same page, but something really stinks here.

Chas

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Charles

Don, I've been around enough to this to make me puke. I won't even touch on nursing homes. Wife spent 20 years in one, and I even spent 7 or 8 as Maintenance Supervisor, or the renovation dummy, or whatever you want to call it.

I've watched them murder my father in law, who all he wanted to do was die anywhere besides in a hospital. Watched my poor old Uncle Hutch, who DID live 87 years on whiskey, chewing tobacco, and fried pork (eulogy by my Dad...and he got it right), finally tell the doctors and the nurses,"Goddammit, get out of here and let me die." He wanted to die at home as well.

I'm watching my Dad die in the VA from alzhemiers, long and slow, and from what he told me, against his wishes.

But that's the way the system works. Myself, I wouldn't treat a dog like that.

Now the way I look at it, whenever the big man upstairs calls your hand, it's time to go. And I for sure don't want a bunch of blood suckers trying to drain the last dollar out of my insurance policy.

It's a rigged game. Either they loot your insurance, or steal everything you have ever worked for. And, by and large, keeping you alive against your wishes in order to do so.

And it's the law!!!

If there is any doubt that all we are is a commodity for our government/corporate masters, please explain it to me. Bastards won't even let you crawl off and die unless they can turn a buck on it.

Myself, I'm going back to Plan A. I'm gonna handcuff a .357 to my wrist when I can see the end coming. Don't taze me, bro!!!

Perhaps I should handcuff a Kalashnikov to my wrist instead.

Maybe we're not quite on the same page, but something really stinks here.

Chas

I bet you got a real kick out of that Terry Schiavo fiasco. Up to that point, I thought Bill Frist seemed like a reasonable type for a politician. After his silly telepathic diagnosis, I realized he was as big a dick as the rest of them.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Don, don't you know that the US has the best health care system in the world? What's wrong with you anyway?

I'm 65. In my lifetime I've seen this country go completely and utterly to Hell. But you know what? I just don't give a shit anymore. We are a country of hate-filled fear-ridden sociopaths. We deserve this.

John

John, we're all on the same page. And personally, I don't know how we've arrived at this sorry state of affairs.

I'm only 57, but even I can remember when it wasn't like this. No where close.

Guess it always works out. Guess it just takes enough blood in the gutters.

Perhaps the way it was, the way it is, and the way it will always be.

People haven't really evolved.

Whenever it happens, I hope they kill me first. Once I take a couple of them along to light my way to the new world.

I don't see so good any more, I need all the help I can get.

Chas

[Charles]

Originally Posted by finnbow

I bet you got a real kick out of that Terry Schiavo fiasco. Up to that point, I thought Bill Frist seemed like a reasonable type for a politician. After his silly telepathic diagnosis, I realized he was as big a dick as the rest of them.

I didn't really follow that. But, from what little I know about it, I would have pulled the tubes.

And I'll tell you, or anyone, me bucko, I would have returned from the grave had you not.

Perhaps I'm making light of the subject. But whenever you can no longer feed yourself, you're dead. Death happens to everyone and everything.

Fucking people get real nutty about this kind of shit.

Chas

[d-ray657]

My wife was in a for-profit nursing home for about five years. Now she works for one rund by a foundation. She hated the time at the for-profit place; it was all about saving a dime, understaffed, chintzy with supplies. She had it when the HR nazi got on her about staying overtime to finish the paperwork she was not able to finish while she was running all over the place trying to take care of patient needs.

Now she says she feels guilty about how much she enjoys her current employment. The focus of the facility is to provide the residents as much of a home-like lifestyle as possible. They can choose their mealtime, they can stay up all night if they want to, there's no mandatory breakfast call in the morning. The folks retain some control over their lives. They made my wife a night supervisor in order to justify adding another nurse to the night shift. She still does patient care, but floats around the facility to where she is needed. They have worked with her to let her take care of her mother when she needs to.

They have to do fundraising to retain the level of care that they achieve, but they have waiting lists to get in. My wife tells me the irony is that they receive more people in bad condition from hospital care than from home.

My point is that it doesn't have to be the way is was for this unfortunate gentleman. When there are people who care, there are people who need help but still live in dignity.

Chas, sorry to hear about your dad. If you ever have any questions about it, or just want to bitch about it, let me know. I saw my mother live her final years with alzheimers, and now my wife's mom has been diagnosed with it (we really could have done the diagnosis ourselves.) My mother was fortunate to live in the KC area for her final years and have my wife to evaluate her care. We are also fortunate here to have long term care facilities who specialize in dementia. (My mother made it clear that she would not agree to live with any of us.) Her mother will at least have the benefit of our experience with the process.

Thanks for letting me have a rant tonight folks.

Regards,

D-Ray

[BlueStreak]

Going through the whole "nursing home" thing with my Mother was one of the worst experiences of my life. (And there are still tensions in my family over it, two years later.)
Mom had Alzheimers, but as you may know Alzheimers patients can have lucid periods when they realize exactly where they are and why they are there. She would throw tantrums, cry and scream at us for "sending me off to die." Then the staff would just pump her full of drugs and zombify her. It was just plain sickening. Many a time I just wanted to take her out of there, but what do I know about caring for an Alzheimers patient? In the end, during one of her lucid moments she told my sister she was done. She wished they would just let her go. She refused to eat, refused medication, and within a week, she was gone.

Three months later my father did the same. Although he was not in a nursing home, he told us he wanted to be wherever she was. Stopped eating, stopped medications.............

The whole experience has definitely affected my views on old age and dying. I always wondered if their comes a point when it's better to just stop fighting and go. My parents have taught me that there is.

And I did learn that all those people care about is getting paid. Oh, they have THAT part down pat, yessiree.
Oh, some of the staff were great. But going to deal with the money people at the home and at Medicare........
All I can say is make damn sure you have a good lawyer. Those people are the worst kind of vampire.

Dave

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Charles

I didn't really follow that. But, from what little I know about it, I would have pulled the tubes.

And I'll tell you, or anyone, me bucko, I would have returned from the grave had you not.

Perhaps I'm making light of the subject. But whenever you can no longer feed yourself, you're dead. Death happens to everyone and everything.

Fucking people get real nutty about this kind of shit.

Chas

Don't get me started on Teri Schaivo. That poor woman is one of the reasons I absolutely despise that weasel Sean Hannity. He is an EVIL, EVIL man.

Dave

[merrylander]

My older brother is in a home near Toronto with Alzheimers and Parkinsons, from what his wife tells me he is treated well, she sold the house and moved into an assisted living home. They are looking for an opening in assisted living for my sister, both are older than me.

Mom died peacefully in hospital in North Vancouver at 91, she asked that no heroic measures be taken and they honored that. But of course that is all socialized medicine.