Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Sheer evil.

There can be no other words to describe a world where whether or not you or your loved ones are allowed medical treatment depends on how much it costs. As it tends to happen in countries with socialized medicine.

A particularly egregious example happened recently in Britain, where a baby born at 21 weeks 5 days' gestation--who was somehow breathing on his own, moving on his own, and managed to make it for two hours on his own--died because he was denied medical care. It's simply too expensive.

The doctors told the mother, when they refused to even look at the baby (probably would have made their hearts overrule their heads--a pic is included), that, had he been born two days later, at 23 weeks, they'd have treated him. Likely a lie: "In fact, the medical guidelines for Health Service hospitals state that babies should not be given intensive care if they are born at less than 23 weeks."

2 comments:

  1. 23 weeks?

    Medicine is not black and white--age is a chronological point and has nothing to do with much of anything.......every person (new born, old person, etc) must be evaluated on their specific medical condition.

    "Take 2 asprin and call me in the morning" doesn't work for every BODY!

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  2. Actually, age does have a lot to do with treating preemies. My son was breathing on his own, but there was a very good chance he wouldn't have been able to at 32 weeks, since he was a boy (girls develop faster). He couldn't even try nursing or a bottle until he was two weeks old, because the swallow reflex isn't set until then. At 22-23 weeks, the inhale/exhale reflex is barely set.

    But this is still evil. A baby born that early has a good chance of surviving with treatment. They denied treatment because it's too expensive to keep the baby in the NICU for 14-15 weeks. The five weeks my son spent in the hospital cost our insurance $150,000, and he didn't need any surgeries or special therapies. The government wouldn't be willing to pay the sometimes-bordering-on-$1 million that babies born earlier than 23 weeks can rack up.

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