Well, here's a real example of how well such a system works:
An English woman named Lyndsey Scott (28) died five months after receiving a double lung transplant. The donor had been a smoker for 30 years. This fact had not been given to the recipient or her family prior to the procedure. She died of pneumonia, a direct result of the lung's condition. To be accurate, she suffered from cystic fiberosis which had led to her natural lungs failure.
What's scary is that this is considered normal practice. The director of national transplant services is on record as saying that there was nothing at all wrong with giving such diseased lungs to a transplant patient, without disclosing it and allowing the patient to make a choice. The hospital that carried out the transplant stated that it had followed published national healthcare guidelines to the letter.
Folks, if I needed a double lung transplant and was told the only donor was a 30 year smoker, I'd decline - to go through the hell of a transplant and its aftermath for a handful of months of agony - NO THANKS.
For those of you who think this is just an aberration, an English soldier named Matthew Millington (a Corporal in the Queen's Royal Lancers), veteran of the Iraq War, was given a lung transplant in 2007. The donor had smoked 30-50 hand rolled cigarettes a day. Again, the recipient and his family were not apprised of this until after the transplant had taken place. It wasn't found until shortly after the transplant that the lungs had a cancerous tumor inside. He died in less than a year. The hospital and other officials stated that there wasn't anything wrong with using smoker's lungs, that they had been rigorously screened, and they'd follow the same procedure again. The hospital declared his death to be from complications from transplant surgery, to thwart a lawsuit.
This is what happens when faceless bureaucrats take over healthcare. This is what happens when government officials run healthcare, and decide what care you will and will not qualify for. This is what happens when government agencies reduce our healthcare to a spreadsheet analysis.
Under current transplant guidelines in the US, I do not believe this could happen - for now. When the government is running everything, it not only can, but will happen here. Obamacare - law of the land. This is our future reality ...
Update - I heard this one in the news today. An English gentleman, a cancer patient, was referred to a government agency for approval for a certain treatment. He was denied, and sent back to the doctor. Why? Because government records indicated he was dead, and the agency had no mechanism to correct the mistake.
3 comments:
I know I end up sounding like a broken record, but these are the things I think about:
[sarcasm]
1) Medicare/Medicaid - properly funded, no fraud, works great, right?
2) US Postal Service - still turning a profit, right?
3) IRS - streamlined and efficient - never screwed a single taxpayer, right?
[/sarcasm]
The list can go on, but that's pretty representative. Yeah, I really want these folks that have done such a wonderful job elsewhere running my healthcare...riiiiiiight.
While this very sad situation occurred...it happens.
I had a double lung transplant due to Cystic Fibrosis, 13 years ago. My sister also with CF had her lung transplant 9 years ago.
My sister received lungs from a 30 year smoker...and not sure if you understand PFT's - Pulmonary Function Tests - Pre tx her FEV1 - the amount you can blow out in the 1st second, was about 22%. That means only 22% of her lungs were working. Damage from CF had destroyed her lungs. Most healthy adults and children have 100% FEV1. After she got the lungs from the smoker, her FEV1 was 208%!!!!
Our surgeon checked the lungs thoroughly before giving them to my sister. He did not tell her, or her family they were from a smoker... could you imagine us saying "no, thanks... hope I live for another set of lungs". That is the problem with saying NO, to lungs that supposedly have been checked, and look good - you may not get another chance. Our surgeon said after transplant (when he told us they were smoker lungs) -"they are great lungs, from a 51 year old woman, perfect".. This reminds us, that many of us know smokers who smoked till they were 101 and no lung damage. Or then again someone who smoked for a couple of years, and got cancer....pre disposition and genetic can play into it.
Why did this young woman die? Pneumonia is common - that is what I am told - for those who have CF to get it post transplant. My sister never had pneumonia. I never had pneumonia, but I do have friends who have gotten it, did fine, others died.
Could these doctors of not checked them well enough? Maybe...Was it the terrible health care system they have in UK? Maybe... I scare at the thought of Universal, Socialized Obamacare. We lung recipients and those waiting will be out of luck paying for a retransplant, transplant, medications to keep us alive, when all Obama and Nancy wants is us dead. Also research will leave this country...as Obama will limit dollars towards research, towards the number of lung tx's one surgeon can do in a year, their pay, and no doing it for free....those great surgeons will leave this country. My surgeon and the surgeon that trained him, born, raised and educated in Toronto. They both left when they were told - you will be limited...they were smart...and I think Canada for getting rid of them...now they are United States citizens, and do wonderful work, research for those who need it.
Okay said my bit.
Joanne Schum
luckylungsforjo@aol.com
Joanne, thank you for your comments. You are certainly a lot closer to the situation than I.
My big problem with this is that the recipients were not told ahead of time. Someone else made the decision, and their very lives depended upon that decision. That, in my opinion, is very wrong.
My father was a life long smoker. He passed away from emphysema. I saw firsthand what the results of a lifetime of smoking can do to a set of lungs. I also have seen my mother develop lung cancer from his second hand smoke. If I was in a position to need lungs, and someone told me the only set available were from someone like my father, I'd refuse. The minimal chance they'd work fine for me would be far outweighed by the agony of the transplant process and a few months of being miserable.
My main point in this posting is that this is symptomatic of how our healthcare will change under Obamacare. All of our health decisions are going to be taken from us - decided instead by some bureaucrat, some government agency, or some inches thick book of guidelines written by some egghead 'experts'.
I've been trying to help my mother through the nightmare of Medicare - I am absolutely appalled by the mountain of regulations and legalese that senior citizens are supposed to understand and make sense of. They have to, in order to make decisions that affect how Medicare covers them. They can't for a lawyer can't decipher all of that crap!
Take this and multiply it by a thousand, and that's what Obamacare is going to be. An absolute bloated, budget breaking, infuriating government mess.
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