Another American medical care horror story...

[Ineeda]

I read onehandle's thread -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2130143 about his father-in-law who was in the hospital for three weeks, fighting an infection. To reiterate, his hospital bill, which did not include surgery, came to a million dollars. He has insurance with a six thousand dollar deductible, but doesn't know what or how much will be covered. Naturally, in addition to being sick, this man has the added stress of potential financial ruin.

This made me think of my late sister. She had no assets, no insurance, and puzzling symptoms. After exhaustive testing (at no cost to her,) she was diagnosed with a condition that has no known life-extending treatment and is not survivable. This was never made clear to her; instead hope was dangled in front of her nose, like a carrot in front of a mule.

The bad news was accompanied by supposed good news, depending on your point of view. She lived in the Boston area, with its world-class hospitals and government health care system. My sister spent five horrifying months in the hospital, mostly in intensive care. She underwent many painful and frightening procedures, including harvesting and transplanting her own stem cells, and she received the absolute best of care. Her caregivers were attentive and profoundly competent. My sister died, as was inevitable.

I have mixed feelings about my sister's care. Naturally, I'm grateful that she was treated with gentle hands and brilliant minds and cutting-edge medical technology. The other side of that coin, though, presents ethical questions. I believe my sister was used as a guinea pig -- frankly, tortured at the State's expense. Clearly, the government health care program was used carte blanche, and was a crucial factor in her extensive, yet futile treatment. I'm convinced the doctors, labs, and hospital used her for the advancement of science (and their coffers) on the pretext of hope. If that were the case, shouldn't she have been informed honestly and been given the opportunity to make an educated decision whether to undergo treatment or not?

The facts are that her disease was undeniably fatal and that the cost to her was zero. Compared to the man whose three weeks of non-surgical care cost a million dollars, how much did my sister's inevitably unsuccessful care cost Massachusetts? If you extrapolate his three weeks to her 21 weeks, the cost would be at least seven million dollars (considering she was in ICU almost the entire time, it would most likely be considerably more.) This is insane on several different levels. Would I feel differently if she had survived? Probably.

[Ian David]

1. Have you considered the possibility that she WAS informed...

... but withheld that information from you to spare your feelings?

I am sorry for your loss. This sounds horrible.

[izquierdista]

2. Have you considered the possibility

That in cases as described in the OP, the patient is the last to know the details of their own condition, which doctors relate to the family so they "won't get their hopes up"?

[Ian David]

3. Yes. n/t