SHATTERED LIVES: 100 Victims of Government Health Care
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SHATTERED LIVES: 100 VICTIMS OF GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE By Amy Ridenour and Ryan Balis Copyright © 2009 by The National Center for Public Policy Research All Rights Reserved. The National Center for Public Policy Research 501 Capitol Court, N.E., Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20002 phone: (202) 543-4110, fax: (202) 543-5975 Internet: http://www.nationalcenter.org e-mail: [email protected] Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ridenour, Amy. Shattered lives : 100 victims of government health care / Amy Ridenour and Ryan Balis. p. ; cm. ISBN 978-0-9665961-0-6 1. National health services. 2. Health care reform 3. Health services accessibility. I. Balis, Ryan. II. National Center for Public Policy Research. III. Title. [DNLM: 1. State Medicine. 2. Government Regulation. 3. Health Care Reform. 4. Health Services Accessibility. 5. Universal Coverage. W 225.1 R544s 2009] RA412.R53 2009 362.1’0425--dc22 2009027068 ACKNOwledgments The authors wish to express their thanks to the following organizations and individuals who provided valuable information or assistance. Lauren Bean, Jack Bloom, MPL, Tom Blumer, Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D., Castanet (Kelowna, Canada), David R. Henderson, Cerere Kihoro, Mark R. Levin, Paul Mirengoff, On The Fence Films, Congressman Ron Paul, M.D., Vicky Ringer and Val Ringer of Levi’s Star, Salisbury Journal (Salisbury, UK), Richard Sementa, Biljana Silke, Norman Singleton, Victoria Strokova and Mark Valenti’s Liberty Page. A special thanks is due to David A. Ridenour and Stephen Saunders for developing the resources to make this book possible, and to David Ridenour for contributing the title of this book and for his assistance during every stage of production. A further special acknowledgement is due to Deroy Murdock, who first conceived the idea of collecting the stories of victims of government-run health care into a book. An extra special thanks is offered to the approximately 100,000 individual supporters of The National Center for Public Policy Research, without whose concern for our nation and generosity of spirit this book would not have been possible. To all these individuals, we offer our grateful appreciation. Table OF COntents Introduction by Mark R. Levin . 1 Preface by Amy Ridenour . 3 Great Britain Engineer Left Blind for Three Years Awaiting 20-Minute Operation . 9 NHS Nightmare: Repeated Surgery Cancellations Kill Elderly Cancer Patient . 10 Ex-British MP and Longtime National Health Service Supporter Denied Sight-Saving Drug . 11 Death by Bureaucracy in Britain’s Government Health Service . 13 Do-It-Yourself Dentistry in Britain . 14 National Health Service Denied Sight-Saving Medicine to Its Own Employee . 16 Some British Doctors Couldn’t Offer Expensive Life-Saving Cancer Drug . 18 Centenarian Told to Wait 18 Months to Get Hearing Aid . 20 Eight Hospital Visits Later, Six-Year-Old Dies of Long-Undetected Brain Tumor . 21 Small Boy Told to Wait Six Months to Get Painful Teeth Removed . 23 Mother Delivers Baby in Hospital Bathroom With Only Her Own Mother to Help . 25 Mom of Choking Baby Told to Wait 35 Minutes for Ambulance . 27 Thanks to Nurse Shortage, Baby Born in Parking Lot . 28 All the Socialized Medicine You Won’t Get . 30 Doctors Refuse Foot Surgery on Man Because He Smokes . 31 No Beds at Hospital, So Baby Born at Home . 32 Four-Hour Wait for Burn Victim . 33 No Hospital Beds for Mother’s Baby . 34 Six Percent of Britons Resort to Do-It-Yourself Dentistry . 35 Long Dentist Wait or Pull Seven of Own Teeth? . 37 Refused Emergency Care, Woman Rips Out Agonizing Tooth With Fingernails . 39 “In Britain... I Felt Like a Lump of Meat on the Production Line” . 40 “An Animal Would Have Been Treated with More Compassion” . 41 Elderly Man Spends Life Savings for Private Hip Replacement After NHS Cancels Four Appointments . 43 12-Minute Ambulance Ride Takes Nearly Three Hours - Every Time . 44 Hospital Treats Elderly Man Like an Animal . 45 Hospital Admits New Patients while Current Ones Suffer . 47 Do-It-Yourself Childbirth – In the Hospital . 49 Dad’s Cancer Undetected Despite 50 Hospital Visits . 50 NHS to Patient: Come Back When Blind . 51 NHS Penalizes Woman for Supporting Her Own Cancer Treatment . 53 Hospital Turns Away Woman in Labor . 55 Four-Inch Step Prevents 98-Year-Old from Returning Home . 56 NHS Leaves Cancer Sufferer to Fund Her Own Treatment . 57 War Veteran Waits Two Years for Hearing Aid; Gives Up and Goes Private . 59 Patient Flies 5,000 Miles to Escape NHS Wait . 61 Terminal Cancer Sufferer’s Mixed-Sex Ward Misery . 62 NHS Tells Disabled Man with Fist-Size Hernia to Wait for Surgery . 64 Man Endures Eight-Hour Delay for Hospital Treatment . 65 Government Tells Cancer Patient: We’ll Take Away Your Health Care If You Pay for Supplemental Care Yourself . 66 Unattended Woman in Labor Drowns in Hospital Bathtub . 69 After Mom is Twice Turned Away from Overcrowded Hospital, Father Delivers Baby at Home . 70 Sick Grandmother Waits 24 Hours for a Hospital Bed . 72 All Night on a Hospital Gurney . 73 Third Time’s the Charm in Getting Ambulance for 81-Year-Old . 75 Elderly Man Left on Cold Hospital Floor . 77 Ambulance Refuses to Take Wheelchair-Bound Eight-Year-Old Home . 79 Canada Canadian Told To Wait 4½ Months to Learn If Brain Tumor is Malignant . 81 In Canada, “Free” Care is Nice – If You Can Get It . 82 Woman With Three Clogged Arteries Dies After Waiting Three Years for Heart Surgery . 84 Canada’s Refusal to Fix Hole-in-Head a Real Life ‘Humpty-Dumpty Gone Wrong,’ Says Member of Parliament . 85 In All of Canada, No Space for Quadruplets . 86 Sorry, No Beds for Woman in Labor . 87 Child with Cancer Put on Two-and-a-Half-Year Waiting List for MRI Scan . 88 Inside Canadian Hospital, No Food While You Wait . 90 Senior Citizen Abandons Canada, Receives Lifesaving Surgery in U.S. 91 Bed Shortage in Canada Strands Patient in U.S. Hospital . 93 Five Hospitals Turn Away Appendicitis Patient . 94 Canadian Hospital “Messing with My Daughter’s Life” . 95 In the Nick of Time, Canadian Cancer Sufferer Turns to U.S. Doctors . 96 Skier with Severely Fractured Shoulder Told to Wait Four Days . 98 Delayed Surgical Op Patient Flies to India for Immediate Care . 99 Cancer Patient Takes on Canadian Health Care Bureaucracy in Desperate Fight to Live . 101 Immigrant Returns to Native Country for Cancer Treatment . 103 Hooked on Prescription Medication While Waiting for Surgery . 104 You Can’t Eat, You Can’t Talk, You Can’t Move Your Jaw at All – But You Must Wait Three Months for Treatment . 106 Brain Cancer Patient Denied Last-Chance Drug Despite Specialists’ Recommendations . 107 Canadian Doctors Hold Lotteries - “Winning” Patients Lose Their Doctors . 109 In Canada, Protesting Waiting Lists Can Get You Bumped from Surgery . 110 Canadian Shunned at Home Opts for Surgery Abroad . 113 Australia Painter’s Ailing Hands Not Reason Enough for Speedy Surgery . 115 82-Hour Agony for Elderly Hospital Patient . 116 Boy Suffers Hearing Loss Because of Ear Surgery Delays . 117 No Beds to Deliver Stillborn Baby . 118 Public Hospital Ignores Woman, Who Miscarries in Hospital Bathroom . 119 Elderly Woman Waits Nearly Four Years for Cataract Surgery . 120 Busy Midwives Elsewhere as Husband Catches Baby Born in Hospital Bathroom . 122 Child Waits Hours in Pain Inside Hospital, Only to Be Sent Elsewhere . 123 Woman in Labor Stored in Hospital’s Storeroom Until a Bed Became Available . 125 Wait Prompts Cancer Sufferer to Spend $10,000 for Private Treatment . 126 Four-Year Wait Prompts Do-It-Yourself Dentistry . 127 Teenager’s Severed Fingers Put on Ice, As Was His Surgery . 129 Child Waits Two Years for Tonsil Removal . 130 Arthritis Sufferer Forced to Wait Nearly Three Years for Ankle Surgery . 132 Australian Children Wait for Heart Operations . 133 Government Guidelines Say Crushed Hand Should Be Treated in Eight Hours; Hospital With Waiting Line Makes That Four Days . 134 Young Mother on Waiting List Left Unable to Swallow for Two Years . 135 Baby Falls to Hospital Floor in Humiliating Miscarriage . 137 SOuth Africa Blood-Drenched Woman in Labor Loses Baby After Seven-Hour Wait for Doctor. 139 Two Hospitals Fail to Treat Five-Year-Old After Major Car Crash . 140 Government Health Official Says Woman in Labor’s Frantic Search for Emergency Room “Not an Emergency” . 142 Nurses Leave Mom to Give Birth Alone in Dirty Hospital Bathroom, Then Scold Her for Not Giving Birth at Home . 144 Japan Fourteen Hospitals Turn Away Critically-Injured Elderly Man . 146 Pregnant Japanese Woman Dies After Eighteen Hospitals Reject Her . 147 Russia Fifth Time’s the Charm in the Russian Health Care Bureaucracy . 149 Sweden Prime Minister’s Long Wait for Surgery Typifies the Health Care Experience in Sweden . 152 New Zealand Colon Cancer Symptom? The Line for a Colonoscopy Lasts Two Years . 156 Mother Learns a Lesson about State Hospital Care . 157 Waiting List and Half-Completed Surgery Leaves Woman Infertile and in Pain for 18 Months . 158 Man With Suspected Stroke Left Overnight in a La-Z-Boy . 159 1 IntrOductiON “I’ll be honest; there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well,” assured President Barack Obama in a speech before the American Medical Association. The 100 worldwide victims of government-managed health care featured in this book would take issue with the President. The reality is that wherever experiments in socialized medicine exist, the same misery follows: long wait- lists for lifesaving treatment, unequal access to health services – particularly, advanced medical technology – and an overall lack of choice in making one’s own health decisions. In Britain, the Department of Health considered it a welcomed improvement that the number of people on hospital waiting lists dipped below 800,000 in 2005.