Its also something I sure as hell don't want to see here in the United States, I'll take the bill, if it gets me quality.
Orthopods generally have surgery days at a hospital (or their office if so equipped) and generally schedule several cases in a morning. The tools are quite good, and if the doc is good, it may not take the doc more than 20 minutes to complete the repair of a couple tears, inspect the joint for arthritis and ‘debris’, clean up the work, put a single stitch in each incision and call it done. It’s not really assembly-line or ‘drive-through’ medicine, it’s just good business.
The pity is that this guy had such a poor patient pre-op experience and his post-op is likely to be equally poor because he has so little idea of what to expect, how to care for his knees, when to begin physical exercise and therapy, etc., etc. His surgery may indeed have been quite skilled, but his prospects for a good outcome seem shaky.
They held a very useful information session for him but for some reason they neglected to tell him why he needed this substantial cloth strap with a buckle ~ secret ~ promise you won't tell anyone, but that's for the use of someone else to assist you in going up and down stairs, or a step, or to stand in the toilet while you urinate someother place than down your neatly wrapped leggs. Do not say "no" to that strap. It's about $16 and is difficult to find later on. (We spent 2 hours and visited about 15 drugstores and medical supply shops in Northern Virginia before finding one.)
You should also buy this "helps you go toilet" kit before the surgery too.
Anyway, he got information pre and post op that was fairly comprehensive.
If he'd had to wait 20 more months his knees would have gotten so bad he'd spent a good while getting around in a wheelchair.
Wrestling Ping
After month 14 of waiting (with me raising hell, trying to get them to come to the US and get it done and then wrangle out a tax write-off from the ordeal), they told her it could be another year before treatment...so after some back and forth with government idiots, they managed to fight their way into a (new at the time) program which sent cancer patients from Canada to the United States if they agreed to cover the cost difference (it worked out to $700).
As soon as they got approval, they contacted a hospital in Michigan and set a date for treatment 9 days later.
My parents pay an obscene amount in Canadian federal and Ontario income taxes for what they make. Plus they pay an additional provincial "health-care fee" every year to supplement government health revenue to the tune of around $2400 for 4 people, and their employers deduct from their salary a certain amount to pay an Employer Health Tax. Oh, and there is a sales tax, both federal and provincial amounting to 13% (down from 15% thanks to the current Conservative Party in power).
It is great if you are a welfare bum or other variety of social parasite, but if you work hard and make enough to pay taxes, the Canadian health-care system is enormously inferior to the American system. I've had direct experience with both, and everyone who actually pays for it comes out behind.
I had knee cartilege trimmed to fix wear and tear from a lifetime of basketball, running, and bike riding. Great care, excellent information. I had the surgery 2 weeks after the doc determined that there was no alternative. I hope this guy gets better info. on the follow up visit, because taking care of the knee for the first few weeks is pretty important. Actually, no way he should have been hobbling around on it the first day.
At least he survived. Could have gone much, much worse. And it was “free.”
We saw the surgeon on a Thursday. He told my wife that she had to have the GB taken out. On Tuesday of the following week, we went in for the blood work. On Thursday after that Tuesday, she went into the hospital ON WHAT THEY CALL DAY SURGERY. In by 6:30 a.m., gone home by 1:30 p.m., minus a body part.
We arrived at 6:25 a.m. Reported to the day surgery ward. My wife was met by a nurse, who identified herself, and turned and told us the names of the other three nurses in the nurses station. She then told my wife what was going to happen next. She took us down to a regular type hospital room. She gave my wife the gown to put on and told her that she would be back shortly to start the IV's and stuff. My wife changed, and got into the bed as instructed. Within 10 minutes the nurse came back, did the IV, then told my wife step by step what was going to happen.
About 30 minutes later, the group from the surgery room came up. They put my wife on the gurney. And away they went. The nurse told me to stay in the room and pointed to the telephone. She said that the operating room would call me when my wife went into the procedure and that after the procedure the recovery room would call and let me know how it went. This happened. The operating nurse called me and said that the procedure had begun. Later the same nurse called and said all went well and that she was off to recovery. Later recovery called and said she is doing well and will be in the room shortly.
My wife came back to the room and the nurse came in and started her work. She told my wife she would stay till clear headed and after she could do Number One in the bath room!! :-) My wife was in the room approximately 2-3 hours recovering further. The doctor came by. Told me everything about the surgery. He went in and checked my wife. Came out and said she was doing fine.
After the recovery time. We went home. The nurse came in and gave my wife detailed instructions on what to do if certain things happened. She gave me a pain med prescription to have filled. Off to CVS to fill it and home.
Three days after the surgery, we got a get well card in the mail. It was signed by everyone who worked on my wife that day. From the doctor, nurses, recovery and operating rooms. We have never ever seen a hospital do that, ever.
My wife has recovered fine. Today we are going for her check up with the surgeon. All seems fine. She feels great. And the discomfort and pain she had before are gone.
Thus, the difference between a hospital that seemed to give a damn and that of socialized medicine, where a doctor and hospital crew don't care because of government interference.
Man that is scary! Like an episode from The Twilight Zone! I want the federal government to STAY OUT OF MY MEDICAL TREATMENTS!
My husband had double bypass heart surgery 3 months ago and I must say his experience with the surgeon was pretty much like this mans experience.
The BIG difference and I have to say it was HUGE is that his cardiologist told him he needed to have the bypass and it was done the next day, not 2 years later.
Posted on 11/20/2003 3:15:45 AM EST by Lancey Howard
November 19, 2003 -- DAN Aykroyd is no fan of the bureaucratic bungling and cut-rate care of socialized medicine. "One place you don't want to get sick is Quebec," the Canadian actor advised us after a screening of Denys Arcand's 'The Barbarian Invasions.' "It's all socialized. Believe me, you don't want to go to a hospital there."