December 30, 2007
COUNTER-NARRATIVE:
Letter from America (Richard Bernstein, December 30, 2007, NY Times)
Fixing the large problem of medical care is a matter of complicated, multi-page, somewhat abstract proposals put out by senators and presidential candidates, but getting cared for is a matter of individual patients and individual doctors, and the experience can be highly satisfactory.I write this lying at home in the borough of Brooklyn in a rented hospital bed, seven days after an orthopedic surgeon at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan performed these procedures on me:
He sawed off the top of my thigh bone, stripped away one by one the layers of muscle and cartilage around the joint, smoothed the pelvic socket above the leg and installed a precision-machined titanium and plastic prosthesis to replace the discarded joint. Then the surgeon reassembled the whole upper leg, reattaching muscle and cartilage as necessary.
It took roughly two hours to do all that while I lay unaware on the operating table. He did it all through a modest five-inch incision, with so little resulting bleeding that I didn't need a drop of the blood I had donated a week or so earlier, just in case.
And while I am still in recovery mode, walking on crutches and the like, if I am typical of other recipients of total hip replacement, I am soon going to be enjoying the full use of my right leg. And this was a leg damaged enough by osteoarthritis that for the last few months it was hard for me to put my socks on in the morning - much less play soccer with my son or even take a pain-free after-dinner stroll in my neighborhood.
Moreover, except for a private-room supplement at the wonderful St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, the entire cost - probably in the neighborhood of $25,000 to $30,000 - is going to be covered by my health insurance company. This includes not only the hospital treatment itself and all medications but post-operative physical therapy, and even the little "hip kit" you get with devices to help you put on your socks while still in the laid-up phase.
Since Red Smith died, Mr. Bernstein has been the best thing about the Times. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 30, 2007 8:28 AM
My sister-in-law's parents live in Calgary, Alberta(?), Canada. The father is 96, the mother 92. Both in good health, no medication or health crises of any kind, until recently. Coming home after shopping by herself, she fell and fractured her collar bone and hip. She was sent to the emergency room, and was given a high dosage of morphine to ease the pain. The doctor told the family that because she was in a coma (induced by the doctors), and was in pain, she should be given morphine and be allowed to pass on "painlessly". He added, helpfully, it takes at most five days.
The family stopped the morphine, the mother woke up from her coma, and returned home. She still has excruciating hip pain, but she is safe with her husband.
Yep, Canada's health cost is lower than the US, Canada has "universal" health care. Just don't get sick, especially if you are old.
Posted by: ic at December 30, 2007 2:16 PM