Sunday, March 7, 2010

What we can look forward to under Obamacare - Hospitalized kid has to call police to get a drink of water

Go to Google and type in healthcare and "civilized nations".  You'll come up with an array of editorials and blog posts sniffing that it's time for the U.S. to adopt the socialized medical systems of the other civilized nations.  (Canada, Cuba, China, etc.)  Just hit this link for a sampling.  It doesn't matter which one you open, the message in each will be similar.  The general theme is that all the really cool, you know, civilized countries let their governments run their healthcare system. 

And now for something completely different.  This is from The Daily Mail (U.K.):

A man of 22 died in agony of dehydration after three days in a leading teaching hospital.

Kane Gorny was so desperate for a drink that he rang police to beg for their help.
They arrived on the ward only to be told by doctors that everything was under control.

I want to be sure you understand this.  The kid had to call the freakin' police from his British Civilized Nation hospital bed to get some water. 

The next day his mother Rita Cronin found him delirious and he died within hours.
She said nurses had failed to give him vital drugs which controlled fluid levels in his body. 'He was totally dependent on the nurses to help him and they totally betrayed him.'


....The death certificate said Mr Gorny had died because of a 'water deficit' and 'hypernatraemia' - a medical term for dehydration.

.....The tragedy emerged a week after a report into hundreds of deaths at Stafford Hospital revealed the appalling quality of care given by many of the nurses.
This week a task force called on nurses to sign a public pledge that they will treat everyone with compassion and dignity.

Or at least sign a statement that you're willing to get up and get a kid a glass of water. 

I know, I know.  This happened in England, not the U.S. 
The people who run our Post Office, Department Of Motor Vehicles, and Department Of Health And Human Services will be much more compassionate and efficient. 

5 comments:

NickM said...

The Staffordshire NHS disgrace is...

I'm speechless.

Hundreds died needlessly. Not for lack of drugs or equipment or even staff - or more "resources" but out of sheer neglect. It really sounds medieval. But they had targets to meet. None of those had anything to do with patient care - just numbers to satisfy the number-crunchers at the NHS. If that meant reducing admission times to a ward by quite literally placing someone in an unchanged bed just warm and soiled from the previous incumbant who had literally pissed his last in it then so be it.

It's the lack of the small picture - the patient. The NHS really is Soviet tractor production stats.

I can't say anymore. I'm too angry.

Except. America, please don't follow us down this road. For your own sakes and so we have an exemplar when sense once more takes hold over here.

And no, I don't mean iDave.

Andrew said...

Right, I imagine our private sector health care never makes mistakes...

You just have to pay more for neglect in the United States.

TarrantLibertyGuy said...

Andrew... That's a pretty stupid statement. If I was in a hospital and I was neglected, I'd call to get transferred to a hospital of my choice and ask the ambulance drivers who would be transporting me to bring me a nice cold glass of water.

That's how it works here in the US. Even in our county hospitals or our VA hospitals, well you can... well, actually, yes, you could easily die of the same thing there. Yep, Government run care seems to be working great.

EdgyJuneCleaver said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
EdgyJuneCleaver said...

Oh crikey! You don't usually fall to the level of Fox Spew. Patients call 911 all the time when they are pissed at the nurses. So everyone put your hair out and iron the wad out of your panties.

The biggest drain on the health care system? 90 year old Greatest Generation members who are demanding cardiac surgeries, joint replacements and eternal life through medications.

We have a bankrupt public option in our country: Medicare.

I can't get to the 22 year old's bed to give him a glass of water because I have a case load of patients in their 80's-90's who think they should live forever.