All you need is a figure skate and a mallet.
I was thinking more along the lines of a string tied to a doorknob...
Posted on 02/28/2007 6:59:16 AM PST by montag813
WASHINGTON - Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday.
A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.
If his mother had been insured.
If his family had not lost its Medicaid.
If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.
If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.
By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.
Deamonte's death and the ultimate cost of his care, which could total more than $250,000, underscore an often-overlooked concern in the debate over universal health coverage: dental care.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This mother of the year could have also taken him to a local dental school. You can get dental care for a small fee or for free. If she was in the Washington area, there should be one around somewhere.
This is absolutely TRUE. I once had to have an emergency Root canal, much more expensive than an extraction. I was only able to come up with 1/4 of the money, but I was able to find a dentist to help me out, and I paid him off over the next few months. An extraction? Those are pretty cheap last I checked, unless the tooth is impacted, like a wisdom tooth or something.
And a heads-up to Freepers like myself who tend to put off dental work. Bad teeth can lead to a host of other problems, including CARDIOVASCULAR disease. Bite the bullet and get those teeth fixed!
Somehow we can be critical of how our governmental units prioritize their spending. However, it is not acceptable to criticize citizens for how they prioritize their spending. How are people considered intelligent enough to vote but too stupid to be able to manage their money? When the media can explain that one to me, I'll begin to pay attention to their opinions.
But if she had gotten him help, he would be all better and she would not be a grieving, poor, helpless mother.
She would be a normal responsible mother and thats not the way these people live.
Wow, that is horrible indeed. That happened to my parents while they were in Mexico. Also a nightmare, and then some.
I just wonder how many free or low cost dental clinics there were within cab or bus distance from their home?
Excellent point. I had not thought about that, but even on a fixed income, no doubt they could afford care at a dental school.
All you need is a figure skate and a mallet.
I was thinking more along the lines of a string tied to a doorknob...
"I bet if the cable company was going to disconnect her, she'd of found 85 dollars....bunch of cr#p."
You nailed it.
You beat me to it. Darn.
IMHO this is just another reflection of the destruction of the black family due to the implementation of the "great society" in the 1960s.
Don't expect to read that anywhere in the MS/DB media
Sounds like the Dept. of Families screwed up again.
And if his mother had taken him anywhere, he would have received help. The mother was negligent and accepts no responsibility. There was a time in this country when that was frowned upon by society. Now we should embrace the negligent mother and blame everyone else?
10-4. But it's not my fault if a kid I never heard of needs help and his mother doesn't get it for him. PMSNBC is suggesting that the kid died because of some inadequacy in the way the children of the poor are treated.
And you are falling for it - - responding to the tragedy, or rather pathos, and criticizing those who, being attacked by PMSNBC, respond by putting the blame where it belongs.
Where was the father? Is the Mom married or a widow? YES the kid needed help. But NO, we did not kill him and we are not heartless or morally wrong because he died, or because we understand better than PMSNBC where the blame should go.
Because he would have had to wait in line behind the illegals from south of the border who routinely use emergency rooms for non-emergency medical care.
Among American women diagnosed with breast cancer, only one-fifth die from it. Compare that to one-third in France and Germany and nearly half in the UK and New Zealand.
As for prostate cancer, fewer than one-fifth of Americans diagnosed die. That numbers grows to one-fourth in Canada, half in France and MORE THAN HALF in the UK.
The problem with government-run health care is that since everyone gets so-called "free" health care, they flood the system with trivial cases. The real cases get pushed back in favor of the ones that don't cost as much and wouldn't happen under a free market. It's the same phenomenon we're seeing in ERs, where illegals get "free" health care.
If we move to national dental insurance, that boy would be put on a years-long waiting list (the UK has nearly a million names on its waiting list to get into a hospital -- which have 15% of their beds empty) and prohibited from getting private insurance. He would have died without even getting into a hospital bed.
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