Only weeks to live: Terminally ill RAF hero Bernard Warren who spent a year in a World War II PoW camp has been denied NHS nursing care because he is 'not ill enough'
Posted on 09/22/2010 2:45:23 PM PDT by Stoat
A terminally ill RAF hero who spent a year in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp has been denied NHS nursing care because he is 'not ill enough' - despite having just weeks to live with three cancers and dementia.
Former RAF sergeant Bernard Warren, 86, was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach, liver and lungs two weeks ago and given two months to live.
His wife Tricia, 69, has dutifully nursed him at home for six years as he fell victim to dementia but is now unable to cope with his failing health.
(edit)
Bernard's son Simon, 37, said: 'They told us there were just not enough ticks in the boxes. He is not classed as being ill enough.
'My dad's dying. He fought for his country, and was a prisoner of war and never asked for a penny from his country.
'Where is the justice, where is the reward? Especially as this country celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Only weeks to live: Terminally ill RAF hero Bernard Warren who spent a year in a World War II PoW camp has been denied NHS nursing care because he is 'not ill enough'
Coming soon to America thanks to Pelosi’s, Reid’s, and Obama’s “Obamacare.”
Here in the USofA, the ObamaCare Death Panels will be a Final Solution to the Social Security crisis.
Fn<* that pisses me off. These men should really reside in a palace.
My daughter loves to visit the VA hospital with her great grandmother. I hope these men will someday know how much the rest of us appreciate them.
Welcome to your future, my fellow Americans.
I don't know, Simon, but I hope you are actively working to change things in your little socialist corner of the world.
This is both a “teachable moment” AND a “second amendment” issue.
Prayers up. For all of us.
Indeed....the treatment of our Best and Bravest given shabby treatment, which I'm sure doesn't bother Zero one little bit.
If you fought the communists, you’re probably STILL an enemy to the Obamacare crowd.
Soulless Socialists, Marxists and other vermin here in the USA would love to be able to follow Stalin's example and 'purge' the country of our very best citizens, for both economic as well as cravenly political reasons.
Prayers for him.
Stoat, your tagline is...priceless. Just wow.
"...I'm sorry sir...we cannot schedule that appointment for you in November 2010 to have that melanoma removed because you have not undergone your mandatory annual EOL (End of Life) counseling after age 65...oh, of course you are right. I know you are only 62, but they did move the age down again this year...we have an opening in three months with the counselors office...after you fulfill your mandatory annual EOL, we can then proceed with scheduling that appointment to have someone look at that melanoma...would you like that? Well, I am sure it has gotten a lot bigger in the past month, but rules are rules, and as soon as you get your counseling out of the way, we will get you in to see a clinician. How long? Well, there is, let's see...a eleven month wait, and then after they see you, if you need surgery, they will get you in the queue for that. Sir, I'm not a doctor, and I don't know what the expected life span is for someone with a fast-growing, untreated melanoma, but we can't just put in in ahead of everyone else. Really, sir, I am just doing my job here...no need to speak to me like that..."
This conversation above between the recalcitrant elderly patient and the 'Death Counselor' is only the tip of the iceberg. But when they begin to pay cash benefits to the families of elderly people who take the government up on their offer of an 'early exit' like this Death Counselor below who is speaking to Jan, the daughter of the man who doesn't want to talk to 'some damn government merchant of death", well, that is when you really see what the system is all about and how they will do this:
"...Hi Jan, how are you? I heard your father is resisting counseling. It must be difficult, I know. There just seems to be so much of that lately. I know I am only 40 years old, but I don't understand why people like your father are so opposed to this.
I went with my mother to her counseling session, and while she was angry because she was supposed to have another five years before she had to go but they moved the age down again, she went anyway. I thought she was really rude to the counseling agent, who was just a young woman only doing her job. Hm.
Someone told me they are only hiring young women as counselors now, because the men who were doing it just got angry too easily and shouted at people to just "sign the damned papers". Hm. I tried to tell my mom why they have to do this, but she said they do it just to get rid of old people to save money.
The counseling agent gave my mom a copy of the book "Death is Joy". I read it, and it makes a lot of sense to me. Of course, when I was going to school, we didn't have to read it, but now they have required classes they take every year beginning in first grade.
Suzie is in third grade and is taking the course this year that deals with the chapter on keeping birth rates down, and Tommy is in his senior year where they cover the financial aspects of care for the elderly. My little Tommy was so excited, he said that since they have implemented this national care program, the number of elderly people has dropped dramatically, so they can spend more money on programs such as monthly equality checks for the economically disadvantaged and reparations for the descendants of slaves. I think it is wonderful.
He asked me why so many elderly people are so selfish and refuse to accept counseling...I didn't really have an answer for him. Hm. Now, don't be defensive, I am not criticizing your parents.
I am just saying, it is a problem.
They had an hour-long program on PBS about this the other night, and they were saying how the people who are being selfish about this and refusing to take advantage of early exit programs that pay cash to their children are being so self-centered because they grew up in a time where everyone was self-centered and were interested only in money. You know, they showed films from the days of the capitalists where there were people who had what they called 'gas-guzzlers", and they used to make so much more money than they needed to live comfortably, so many people were going without health care because they were taking all the money..."
****
If the Mail is guilty of publishing a misleading headline, then they are certainly not alone as this story is being carried by several other media outlets, all with similar or even more dire-sounding titles. Here are just a few examples:
The Press Association- Veteran 'not ill enough for care'
Bristol war veteran ‘not ill enough’ for care cash - Bristol News
Bernard has now been admitted into Westbury Care Home in Bristol, where he is paying his own fees, using up his state pension, private pension, war pension and his life savings.
Dying WW2 hero 'not ill enough' - mirror.co.uk Bernard is now too sick to be looked after by wife Tricia, 69, at their home in Henleaze, Bristol. But her NHS Trust refused to cough up to move him into a care home for his final months. Instead, he is having to pay ALL his £3,500-a-month fees for 24-hour nursing at Westbury Care Home. It is eating up his pensions and savings. ****************************************************
If you read through the article, you find that the NHS does contribute substantially to his care, but under another scheme.
********
I don't believe that FReepers are so naive to infer from the title that the NHS has cut off 'all' funding and have pushed him out of the hospital and set him by the side of the road in the rain. All healthcare is of course a matter of degree, but it seems that the degree of care offered by the NHS in this particular case is not sufficiently 'substantial' to provide care for him in a manner that causes his family to be in any way pleased. Not only are they displeased, they are so very unhappy that they feel the only way to get an appropriate level of care for him is to pay for it entirely on their own.
All of the published articles on this matter offer a very similar story, some with a bit more detail here and there, but the common thread running through them all is that any Government-run healthcare scheme is going to be run much like any other Government operation, where the customer is definitely 'not' the king.....not even in the case of a man who should, as Freeper Pennyfarmer pointed out in post #4, be given the utmost consideration due to his brave sacrifices for the Nation.
HHere in the USA, many stories have been published attacking the care standards of our Veterans Administration hospitals. How true they are I don't know but they combine to paint a picture of Government-run healthcare systems that most people here in the USA who are accustomed to private hospitals would not want to see expanded at all.
Thank you for your gracious compliment ;-)
Although it paints a rather violent and graphic picture, I feel that it manipulates the original quotation in a manner that quite accurately portrays the road that our great Nation is headed down, unless we turn things around soon.
Imam ObamaCare BUMP
That is precisely why I thought it was so powerful.
A Birkenstock...
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