the Waterdown, Ontario, woman with a brain tumour ...

[iverglas]

No, not that one. ;)

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/671001

Shona Holmes is not the only Waterdown woman to have been diagnosed with a brain tumor. But I disagree with her completely. I can't recall a single case of people dying because they have had to wait for a surgery to be scheduled, unless an organ donor couldn't be found.

In my experience, priority cases receive attention. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery at Hamilton General four weeks ago to remove it. It took place in a reasonable amount of time and with an exceptional quality of care and to my utmost satisfaction.

From personal experience, I know our health care system works and if Holmes didn't have a problem with her physician what exactly are her motives for taking part in this media spectacle?

<name>, Waterdown

Of course, Shona Holmes had a "brain tumour" only in the most disingenuous way.


Do have a click on the link above -- it's today's crop of letters to the editor in the Toronto Star from Canadians (and others) about the Canadian health care system. (Yeah, there is the odd oddball -- let's offer discounts for non-smokers and people of normal weight ... and make our system as administratively top-heavy as in the US while we're at it -- but you won't find many people wishing they lived somewhere else.)

[iverglas]

1. and a couple of letters to the Star from last week

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/669700

When I first saw the ad Shona Holmes made, I thought, here we go, U.S. factions politicizing their stances on health care. We are a great target for the anti-universal-heath-care contingent because we have something that many countries do not have – and something that works.

I am part of a family that has had seven life-threatening illnesses that were dealt with swiftly and with world-class efficiency thanks to the health care system available to all Canadians.

Aside from what looks like the "me" stance of Ms. Holmes, we are all sickened by the hypocrisy of her selling out, probably for monetary gain, while no doubt expecting our system, which she is vilifying, to pay for her bills.

Ms Holmes, please do us all a favour, and move to the United States.

<name>, Scarborough

edit -- and more comments from real "brain tumour survivors" in response to the story about Shona Holmes in the Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/668284#Comments

Compare apples and apples, please

I too am a "Canadian brain tumour survivor", and my experience couldn't be more different from that of Ms Holmes. Upon receiving an alarming MRI result, I was immediately sent for emergency surgery with a top neurosurgeon (as if there's any other kind). My elderly mother underwent three surgeries within a 24-month period, and in each case was scheduled within a matter of weeks. While I don't deny Ms Holmes' story (although the Ottawa Citizen article mentioned below does raise an interesting point about a "benign cyst" versus a bona fide tumour), I think we would all like further details of her case. As mentioned, it's unfortunate that this one bad example gets U.S. airplay, but the other 99% of successes don't.

And remember, of course, that on-line comments sections do attract the right-wing cretins, of which we do have our share up here. You oughta see comments on articles about gun control. ;)

[iverglas]

2. someone has actually "unrecommended" this thread

One minute it had 1 rec, the next it had 0 ...

C'mon, stand up and be counted!

"Unrecommending" a thread containing information. Amazing.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. could be by accident

I did that one time, not to this thread, but to another.
I just now recommended this thread, by the way.

[iverglas]

4. true enough ;)

I don't know how many times I've gone to reply to a PM and deleted it instead. ;) Thank my stars for that back button!

I thought the links to an assortment of non-DU-member Cdn opinion might interest.

Also, for anyone interested in the whole Shona Holmes tale, do a search for her name at youtube; the lies by her and her puppetmasters seem to be fairly well exposed at this point. I'm curious whether anyone has seen any more about the tale in the US mainstream media since the facts came out - I haven't noticed anything on CNN, but then I'm a sporadic watcher. And when that ad comes on, I hit the button back to CBC Newsworld!

[friendly_iconoclast]

7. also recommended by me

And, don't ask me WTF is up with the winger aversion to public health care in the States. I do not understand it
AT ALL.

[madrchsod]

5. this was a condition that was she was born with.....

i doubt she`d be covered under any insurance company in the usa.....

http://unrepentantoldhippie.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/the-shona-holmes-blowback-begins/

the woman is a fraud and a shill.......

[iverglas]

6. I hadn't put those 2s together

I've read numerous people pointing out that having had the surgery, she would never be insurable in the US again.

And I've read up on her condition, and how it is a result of a failure during fetal development.

So there it is, indeed. It would have been a pre-existing condition from the moment she was born!

[drm604]

8. Ms. Holmes had a Rathke's Cleft Cyst.

I did a journal post about it: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/drm604/45

I also made a post about "Patients United Now", the right-wing front group that made her video: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/drm604/44

[SidDithers]

9. She's also suing the Ontario government...

to recover the costs of her treatment at Mayo. Without the single payer system she's so against, who would she sue to get her dough?

Sid

[iverglas]

10. just a little comic relief

From the Canadian blogger's post here:

http://unrepentantoldhippie.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/the-shona-holmes-blowback-begins/

where she refers to this blogger on the tale as well:

http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/2009/07/real-story-on-canadian-healthcare-hater_24.html