“When I was admitted to the emergency room at midnight, I used the world malaise to describe my condition to the doctor. My head ached, my hands and feet tingled, I was coughing, and I could barely move….I had an abscess the size of a baseball in my liver and the infection had spilled into my blood. I did not know this at the time, but I knew something was deeply wrong.” (p. 3)
Timothy Snyder tells the story of how he almost died because of our dysfunctional medical system. Even when Snyder got to the hospital in New Haven, Connecticut he was pretty much ignored for 8 hours! Even when doctors and nurses stepped in to examine him, they were wrong in their diagnosis and their “treatment.” Somehow, the doctors decided Snyder needed TWO spinal taps. They missed the fact that Snyder was suffering from sepsis and was on the edge of death.
Timothy Snyder is a professor at Yale University, but because he arrived at the hospital in New Haven with a Black friend, the medical staff pretty much disregarded them.
If you’re as concerned about the state of our medical system as I am, you’ll find reading Snyder’s brief but powerful book an eye-opener. Snyder’s suggestions for improvement should be debated…and implemented! How’s your health? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue: Solitude and Solidarity — 3 Introduction: Our Malady — 13 Lesson 1. Health care is a human right. — 19 Lesson 2. Renewal begins with children. — 61 Lesson 3. The truth will set us free. — 81 Lesson 4. Doctors should be in charge. — 111 Conclusion: Our Recovery — 135 Epilogue: Rage and Empathy. — 143 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 147 NOTES — 149 |
Yes! We were just discussing how bad our medical system is over the weekend. We’ve been pretty lucky in general, but we’ve heard way too many stories from way too many people about incompetence, shoddy care, misdiagnoses, you name it. No one noticed Jackie’s father had liver cancer, even though the first thing you noticed when you walked into his room was that the man was YELLOW! An aide in Jackie’s school was dismissed and refused a biopsy. Six months later her breast cancer had spread and it eventually killed her. I absolutely do not trust the system. Yet Republicans sneer about “socialized medicine” and claim that WE have the best system in the world. We don’t, not even close. I wish I knew a practical answer of how to make it better.
Jeff, the Pandemic has exposed a lot of weaknesses in our medical system. I was supposed to have my yearly urological appointment a few months ago. Someone from the doctor’s office called me and said that because of Covid-19 rate, all appointments were going to be virtual or a teleconference. I opted for the teleconference. So at the appointed time, my phone rang and it was the Physician’s Assistant. She asked me how I was feeling (good), if I had any problems (no), and a few minutes later she said good-bye.
Yes, our system is horrible. But my friend who is back and forth to Canada with a sick grandchild has horrible experiences there. Her daughter had to wait weeks and weeks to be hospitalized for postpartum depression. And some of the better medications are not available for her grandson’s problems. Some of it is our horrible way of treating the sick but some of it is also overburdened systems everywhere. We are a very ill society and there is not enough medical care to cope with it. Very scary.
Patti, wait times for medical care in Canada are horrendous. Before the International Bridges were closed, many Canadians came to Buffalo for medical treatment. On the flip side, many of my friends used to take the bus to Canada to buy prescription drugs there for a fraction of the prices charged for them in the U.S.
Which, it turns out, is part of why some drugs simply aren’t available in Canada, or not as much as should be–the “ethical” drug companies resent Canadian price control, and often won’t distribute nor certainly manufacture certain drugs to the country…which is part of the reason Canada has a woeful lack of Covid-13 medications now. (There is apparently also a severe disconnect in their federal system–the national government does most of the procurement of drugs, but the provinces and sometimes further down do most of the medical administration).
A more coherent centralized system would benefit both the northern North American countries, but certainly the long run of the Harper administration in Canada didn’t do the medical system (nor the country) any favors, and the Trudeau admin hasn’t helped enough since. Rather as what we face here, and probably will continue to.
Todd, many Canadian (pre-Covid) used to love to shop in the U.S. because so many items they wanted were not available in Canada. That includes prescriptive medicine.
Face it: Going to the ER is basically a crap shoot. Maybe you get looked at in a reasonable time, maybe you don’t. Maybe your attending physician is alert, competent, and has time enough to pay attention to you, maybe not. I’m at an age where if I fell over dead tomorrow the consensus would be “Well, he had a nice long life.” which gives me a certain amount of detachment.
Dan, I live five minutes away from a hospital. But, going to the ER can be chancy. Long wait times, reduced staffs, possible exposure to all kinds of viruses. Scary stuff!
True. I was lucky when I went to the ER last year after Florida. They had already separated all the Covid patients into a separate area and I was taken quickly and competently. People were just starting to wear masks then, but the hospital was on top of things and very careful. I was only there for a few hours, about half my pre-Covid previous visit. But that time I had hit my head and they had to make sure there was no consequences.
Jeff, you lucked out with your ER experience. A friend of ours went to the ER and wasn’t seen by a doctor for 8 HOURS!
I was in an the local most prestigious hospital’s ER for about 13 hours with what turned out to be a gall bladder blockage, which had been causing raging fevers whenever I ate for the previous several days.
Todd, my brother and one of my sisters have had their gall bladders removed. I might be next…
If so, I hope the run-up won’t be as painful as mine was. For whatever reason, the blockage (stone or otherwise, though probably not a stone, I was given to understand) was cleared during my more than half-a-day at the ER, before I received actual medical attention…from my description of the events, I was told it was probably mucus plugging.
Todd, I’m glad your gall bladder issues got resolved.
I live 5 minutes from a hospital, too. And only 3 minutes from a cemetery, so I’ve got it covered.
Dan, the cemetery is a little farther away from the hospital…but I’m leaving my body to Science (actually the SUNY at Buffalo Medical School) so I’m in a different category.
Interesting comments about the Canadian medical system. Yes, there are delays for some surgeries such as knees, but all in all I think our system is very good at least from my personal experience.
Kent, my niece lives with her elderly mother in Mississauga (just outside Toronto) and we hear their complaints. Right now, they are not happy about the Covid-19 vaccine situation. The mother got her first shot in March but won’t get her second shot until June. My niece got her first shot today, but won’t get her second shot until August.
As the late, great Molly Ivans used to say, the problems begin with allowing healthcare to be a for-profit endeavor. When it’s your health versus an insurance company’s profits, guess who comes out on top?
Deb, you are so right! So many unnecessary tests. So many useless appointments/checkups. At least once a year I have to deal with my insurance company changing my medications (to less expensive alternatives). So far, I’ve won about 80% of the battles, but why do insurance companies get to overrule your doctors???
Because doctors were stupid enough to throw in with them, or at lest the AMA was, till it was too late for the doctors as well as the rest of us in the Reaganite ’80s.
Todd, my friend who does taxes for “professionals” told me that most doctors don’t make that much money. Between paying for insurance and staffing, most of the docs he does taxes for only clear about $100,000.
Exactly. The AMA was noting that medical doctors’ salaries were going up and up through the ’60s and ’70s in the US, as health insurance became more common, and the AMA wasn’t going to allow their cash cow to be harmed…failing to note the change of climate with the Fee Market (intentional) Reaganite sorts, and so the AMA continued to throw in with insurance companies against any sort of socialized medicine…not bothering to note that the insurance companies were allowed to take over medicine as a result of the changes legislated in the ’80s and since in this country.
As someone who just had open heart surgery, I can tell you that everything went swimmingly and I received excellent care, and quickly.
Bob, but surgery of all types is costly.
I’ve also read some horrible stories about the health system in the USA – but the same goes for every country …
Hungary is in a terrible situation there – many docs and nurses are fleeing for greener pastures in Western Europe.
Germany is quite ok, I’m there now and had my first Covid vaccination yesterday at my home doc’s office – very nice and efficient people btw.
PS:
I just calculated/estimated that on around 20 business and holiday trips I must have spent more than half a year in the USA – but never needed a doc, lucky me …
Wolf, there’s a spectrum of healthcare quality. You can get marvelous doctors…but at a price.