Across The Universe In A (Health Care) Handbasket

Mark Steyn and Jonah Goldberg over at National Review's "The Corner" have been playing dueling health care horror story posts (HT Powerline). Mr. Steyn started off with this story from the Daily Mail....

After 12 years cleaning care homes and private houses, Tereza Tosbell has a keen eye for a dirty room.

But the last place she expected to need her skills was in hospital - where she was a patient.

The sick 48-year-old was so disgusted at the conditions after three days on a 'filthy' ward that she grabbed the antibacterial fluid dispenser at the end of her bed and some hand towels from the bathroom.

She set about cleaning her four-bed ward, even going down on hands and knees to sanitise the floor as she dragged her drip trolley behind her.

Jonah followed with this lovely story from the BBC...

A search for the source of a maggot infestation at the Royal Children's Hospital in Aberdeen will continue over the weekend.

The discovery has caused the closure of three operating theatres, and postponements of procedures.

Which lead Mark to quip...

Jonah, you're missing the point. Those maggots are part of the treatment:

The treatment for the cancer appeared to be working, but the bedsore continued to get worse despite attempts to treat it with "maggot therapy" in which maggots are used to clean out the wound.

and then he doubled down....

This is the story of a decades-long cancer survivor who survived the cancer but died of an NHS bedsore:

During four weeks of what her family describe as "torture" in a bed in East Surrey Hospital, the sore resulted in a fatal blood infection and she died on October 27.

Her son Adrian Goddard, who lives in the US, said: "She survived cancer for 40 years, then died from a bedsore.

"It is just beyond belief that they could let a bedsore develop to the point where it actually kills someone from septicaemia."

He said the nurses seemed largely unconcerned by the growing size of the sore and his mother's increasing pain...

"The level of crisis that attracts their attention has to be very high for them to put down their biscuits."

...and relayed a very personal story...

My father is currently ill, and the health "system" is doing its best to ensure it's fatal. When an ambulance has to be called, they take him to a different hospital according to the determinations of the bed-availability bureaucrats and which facility hasn't had to be quarantined for an infection outbreak. At the first hospital, he picked up C Difficile. At the second, MRSA. At the third, like the lady above, he got septicaemia. He's lying there now, enjoying the socialized healthcare jackpot - C Diff, MRSA, septicaemia. None of these ailments are what he went in to be treated for. They were given to him by the medical system.

On a side note, I know what it takes to treat MRSA after dealing with my mother's bout with that particular "super-bug"...it ain't a pretty sight!

Jonah followed with a link to a story that I had heard of before but never gotten around to writing on...

A former soldier pulled his own teeth out with a pair of pliers because he could not find a dentist to take on NHS patients.

Iraq War veteran Ian Boynton could not afford to go private for treatment so instead took the drastic action to remove 13 of his teeth that were giving him severe pain.

He said: 'I've tried to get in at 30 dentists over the last eight years but have never been able to find one to take on NHS patients.'

Emphasis mine.

Meanwhile, individual doctors who are actually trying to HELP the uninsured are being shut down by the government because they dared to do it on their own.

The state is trying to shut down a New York City doctor's ambitious plan to treat uninsured patients for around $1,000 a year.

Dr. John Muney offers his patients everything from mammograms to mole removal at his AMG Medical Group clinics, which operate in all five boroughs.

"I'm trying to help uninsured people here," he said.

His patients agree to pay $79 a month for a year in return for unlimited office visits with a $10 co-pay.

But his plan landed him in the crosshairs of the state Insurance Department, which ordered him to drop his fixed-rate plan - which it claims is equivalent to an insurance policy.

Muney insists it is not insurance because it doesn't cover anything that he can't do in his offices, like complicated surgery. He points out his offices do not operate 24/7 so they can't function like emergency rooms.

Which just goes to prove that those driving health care "reform" are not interested in real reform and real choice. It goes to prove that the ONLY solution that they have for this problem is a government take over of health care.

It is a lesson that Americans need to learn before it is too late.