Pensioner Forced To Chop Off Rotting Finger Due To Surgery Delay (Ah,yes,socialized medicine)

A New Zealand pensioner chopped off one of his rotting, gangrenous fingers with a pair of scissors because he could no longer stand the pain after waiting 20 months for surgery, it was reported yesterday.

The plight of Ted Matthews, from Timaru in the South Island, made headline television news, with gruesome footage shown of his hand with one blackened finger and thumb still dangling and two middle fingers gone.

The story drew the attention of Health Minister Annette King, who has asked health officials to brief her on the case.

Matthews is suffering from dry gangrene following cardiac surgery 20 months ago in Christchurch Hospital and his fingers are rotting and dying as a result.

Two of his fingers have already rotted off and he is desperate for surgery to amputate two remaining fingers.

He told Television One News he had been taking the strongest painkillers available since January last year to combat the often unbearable pain.

He used a pair of kitchen scissors earlier this year in desperation to chop off one of his rotting fingers.

Christchurch Hospital general manager Jim Magee said Matthews had been scheduled for surgery in the first week of September.

However, Matthews said he received a letter yesterday from the hospital telling him he would have to wait a further six months at least.

Magee said Matthews had a history of severe coronary artery disease, heart disease, renal failure, diverticulitis and diabetes, and had suffered three strokes.

Staffing shortages are endemic throughout most New Zealand public hospitals which complain of underfunding. Many patients increasingly opt for private health care if they can afford it.

And in news from England:

A JAILED child strangler has been rushed into hospital for a live-saving op—while other patients have been forced to wait EIGHT MONTHS for the same surgery.

Russell Bishop—once accused of the infamous Babes in the Woods murders—is in a bed in a private ward ready for a heart bypass only a few weeks after complaining to prison doctors of chest pains.

The fiend's speedy treatment has infuriated patients who had their vital ops CANCELLED by the same health authority earlier this year because of a cash crisis.

Ray Wheatland—who suffered EIGHT heart attacks— stormed: "It is astounding that a paedophile can get this op so quickly when I was left to beg for it, fearing every day that my heart was going to pack in.

"Perverts like Bishop do not deserve to live, never mind taking up hospital beds needed by innocent people."

Bishop, 35, is serving life for the kidnap, attempted murder and sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl in East Sussex in 1990. He was jailed three years after being acquitted of the murders of nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway who were strangled and sexually assaulted in Wild Park woods, Brighton.

The monster has been transferred from Full Sutton maximum security prison in North Yorkshire to York District Hospital to prepare for the op at Leeds General.

His father, Roy, told us last night: "He's only been waiting a matter of weeks. After all, it's an emergency."

But only six months ago 40 patients at death's door were told in a North Yorkshire Health Authority letter that their ops were "postponed" because "we do not have the money to fund the procedure".

Ray Wheatland, 50, of York, was one of them. "I gave up on life," he said. "Thankfully I had my op in June—but only after a dreadful wait."

Fred Storr, 57, also got the letter—and it was only after his wife Sue dialled 999 when he collapsed that he got his op.

"It seems to me you are more likely to get medical care if you are the worst type of criminal than a normal law-abiding bloke like me," said Fred, of York. "If I was still waiting I would be straight down to that hospital and telling doctors to give me Bishop's bed." Bishop is now chained to that bed and has a constant guard. Others in nearby wards are unaware who their notorious fellow patient is.

After being cleared of the Babes in the Woods murders, Bishop even joined the campaign to find the killer, visiting the murder scene and declaring that paedophiles "should be strung up".

Then he was caught after a kidnap that shocked the nation, leaving his little victim for dead, battered and naked in a gorse bush at South Downs landmark Devil's Dyke.

"After what he's done why are they giving him an op?" said Fred. "He should have been put to sleep forever."

Paedophile Bishop at the spot where Babes in the Wood Nicola and Karen died. He attacked a seven-year-old three years later

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