Sunday, March 7, 2010

Single-Payer Hell: Neglected by ‘lazy’ nurses, British man dying of thirst rang the police to beg for water. Later died at age 22

Make no mistake that this is always going to be the end result of a nationalized system run by uncaring bureaucrats. The story of government-run healthcare has a common thread - rationing. Rationing leads to lower quality as there is no incentive to produce expensive life-saving medicines and techniques. No government-run system embodies all that is wrong and unholy with the very concept of Obamacare more than Britain's barbaric, medieval, hellhole the National Health Service (NHS), the 3rd largest employer in the world with more bureaucrats on the payroll than doctors. In Britain, under the draconian NHS, cancer patients are denied life-saving drugs to save money, Alzheimer's patients are denied coverage because the disease is not classified as a health condition, deny patients life-extending drugs because of the expense, broken arms sometimes take up to 10 months to fix, babies born prematurely are left to die if they come out before a certain date, terminally ill patients, and some that are not ill at all, are put on a fast track to death, grandmas are left to die of starvation, patients with chest pains are sent home with pain pills only to die later that same day, women give birth on the pavement, and in hospital toilets and hallways, and prisoners eat better than NHS patients. More than 1 million people are subject to neglectful care and surgeries have failure rates up to 33%, with some surgeries done or not done in error, the infirm are routinely neglected and patients die routinely due to filth and blood-splattered equipment. The horror stories go on and on, such as the one's I have written about at the end of this post. BUT... NHS does have money to have violent child predators put on Viagra, and to irreversibly mutilate 12-year olds. Oh yeah - the bureaucrats exempt themselves from NHS and instead get private coverage. Natch. Add to those horror stories this one from the U.K. Daily Mail via Instapundit: Neglected by 'lazy' nurses, man, 22, dying of thirst rang the police to beg for water
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.

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.'

A coroner has such grave concerns about the case that it has been referred to police.

Sources say they are investigating the possibility of a corporate manslaughter charge against St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London.

...His 50-year-old mother says that he needed to take drugs three times a day to regulate his hormones. Doctors had told him that without the drugs he would die.

Although he had stressed to staff how important his medication was, she said, no one gave him the drugs.

She said that two days after his hip operation, while Miss Cronin was at work, he became severely dehydrated but his requests for water were refused.

He became aggressive and nurses called in security guards to restrain him.

After they had left, he rang the police from his bed to demand their help.

Miss Cronin, who is divorced from her son's father Peter, said: 'The police told me he'd said, "Please help me. All I want is a drink and no one is helping me".

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

The hospital did an internal investigation and found nothing wrong, although they changed some of their procedures and made the nurses sign a public pledge that they will treat everyone with compassion and dignity. They have to sign a pledge? Isn't that like rule 1 of a nurse? For those that are proponents of nationalized healthcare, explain these statistics and tell me how Obamacare will be different:
Average cancer survival rate in U.S: 68%
Average cancer survival rate in Canada: 55%
Average cancer survival rate in Europe: 45%

Average prostate cancer survival rate in U.S: 81%
Average prostate cancer survival rate in Britain: 43%

Average breast cancer survival rate in U.S: 83.9%
Average breast cancer survival rate in Europe: 73.1%
Average breast cancer survival rate in the U.K: 69.7%
Our system is not broken. It is the best in the world. It costs more money, but that cost can be reduced by passing tort reform that would lower ridiculously high malpractice insurance rates. Also, with a stroke of a pen Congress can break down the barriers that currently preclude insurance companies from competing across state lines. All of a sudden, every citizen will have 1,500 choices for their care. Nationalizing our healthcare will only lead to medieval treatment such as that in the NHS system.


Previously:
Single-Payer Hell: 1,200 needless deaths, elderly patients mistreated, routinely neglected, left unwashed in their own filth for up to a month in state-run ritish NHS hospital
Single-Payer Hell: British NHS sends 500,000 patients home too early every year
Single-Payer Hell: Drug that extends life for terminal liver cancer patients 'too expensive'
Single-Payer Hell: Bleeding Pregnant Woman Refused Scan, Lied To, Sent Home, Loses Baby Boy
Single-Payer Hell: 70 Patients Dead Due To Neglect, Filth, Blood-Splattered Equipment
Single-Payer Hell: In Britain While Millions Suffer Under NHS "Healthcare," NHS Staff Get PRIVATE TREATMENT!!!
Single-Payer Hell: British NHS kills grandfather anyway after he beat cancer
Single-Payer Hell: Daughter saves mother, 80, left by doctors to starve to death
Single-Payer Hell: British NHS Takes 10 Months To Fix Badly Broken Arm
U.K. healthcare epiphany: You know, we should really be encouraging old people to kill themselves
British NHS doesn't have money to treat cancer patients, but has money for sex change of 12-year old boy
Single-Payer Hell: Life-Saving Drug Nixed In U.K. To Save Cost
Single-Payer Hell: A mother in the U.K.: 'Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby'
Single-Payer Hell: Patients With Terminal Illnesses Made To Die Prematurely Under British Health Care System - NHS. Death Panels are real!
Single-Payer Hell: Prisoners Eat Better Than NHS Patients
Single-Payer Hell: British patients sue over 33% failure rate for operations
Single-Payer Hell: In Britain, 'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed
Single-Payer Hell: Man collapses with ruptured appendix... three weeks after NHS doctors 'took it out'
Single-Payer Hell: Babies In The U.K. Born In Hospital Corridors, Toilets
Single-Payer Hell: British NHS Deny Alzheimers Funding Because "Alzheimer's Is Not A Health Condition"
Single-Payer Hell: In Britain, Unincarcerated Child Molester Being Given Viagra!
Single-Payer Hell: Woman in U.K. Denied Ambulance, Gives Birth On Pavement
The British National Health Service is the 3rd largest employer IN THE WORLD! Behind Chinese army, Indian rail
British National Health Service Sends Patient With Chest Pains Home With Pain Pills, Patient Dies

2 comments:

  1. I suggest that you read a paper other than the Daily Mail. You are choosing to condemn a system that works for 99% of the population and focus on the mistakes that happen, they happen even in the US. I beleive no system is perfect. However the Nhs is an inclusive rather than exclusive method of providing health care for all. You can choose to opt out rather than have to pay to opt in.

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  2. In the US, you won't have a choice to opt out. The stories mentioned here shouldn't happen at all.

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