Posted on 07/05/2014 3:07:42 AM PDT by Rummyfan
The Toronto Star has one of those heartwarming miracle-operation hospital stories that newspapers run from time to time, whose meaning for American readers is something else entirely.
A 33-year-old Oklahoma man called Jon David Sacker (right) urgently needed a double-lung transplant after his body rejected the ones he'd received two years ago. So he went to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, but was too weak to undergo the operation.
The only possibility of saving him was something called the Hemolung Respiratory Assist System, which would stabilize his condition and buy time for the body to re-strengthen and for new lungs to be found.
There was no Hemolung RAS at UPMC, so they dialed around and found one at Novus Medical in Oakville, which is on Lake Ontario just south of Toronto. Murray Beaton of Novus agreed to loan the Hemolung to UPMC, and, given the urgency, offered to shorten the distance by driving down the Queen Elizabeth Way to meet the Pittsburgh guys in the wee small hours at a crossroads at Fort Erie, just across the Niagara River from Buffalo.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
"He closed his little cabin door," DeComo said. "He made a call and he came out and said, 'Okay, he can live...'"
Whether it is a guard at a border, a policemen sorting people into rail cars, a soldier standing by a ditch on the side of the road, or a bureaucrat at the Independent Quality Review Board, we are becoming more and more comfortable with letting petty government functionaries make this kind of decision.
Not possible. Canada’s socialized healtbcare system couldn’t possibly be doing procedures we can’t.
Permission to steal your tag line?
Absolutely. That’s why it’s there.
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