1. Mary Gesiorski wrote:

Hi Dr Hill. Just wanted to let you know that the government health care is not going to be better for your cousin. It sure isn’t for my brother. My brother, Dave, is a veteran. He served and fought for his country. He us now 69 years old. He became ill a few months ago. He went to his local hospital and because he is a veteran, they told him he would have to go to the VA hospital in Clarksburg WV. They did some tests on him and found he had developed a liver disease and would need a liver transplant BUT because of his age they could not do the surgery. They told him that he had lived a very long life and was no longer a productive person and that his surgery would cost the government a lot of money. But they told him that he should be thankful that they had drugs that would make him comfortable in his last days. He did not believe this, that the government that he had so much faith in would do this to him. He went to the Va hospital in Pittsburgh PA, At first, they told him the same things but after going back several times and begging and pleading with them, they finally said they wourl do the surgery but he had to find his own donor. His family is being tested to see if one of his children will be compatable but the only thing is, he is now so weak, even if he has the surgery, he may not make it and the government has won. So don’t thnk your cousin would have faired much better with her cancer. I don’t know how old your cousin is but that might have made a difference since it looks like they want to get rid of us older folks. I don’t say this because of some politician, I am saying this because my family is living it. If you don’t believe me, I will give you my brothers full name and address and you can contact him. Thanks for listening
Mary Gesiorski
Chicago

2. Brenda wrote:

My elderly father is also in the hospital, I came to this article because a few days after being admitted into the ICU he was spouting off about how the hospital is owned by the Mafia, he was quite wild-eyed and frantic in his insistence. The nurses explained to me that frequently patients in the ICU get “ICU psychosis” but after 5 weeks (he has since calmed down) in ICU and step-down, I was still curious enough to find out if anyone else has had this same theory.

We have a great intensivist working with my dad, But when that doctor is off rotation, it seems that any doctor in the hospital can look at Dad’s chart and pick a “symptom” (which may or may not be a side effect of a drug he is being treated with) and diagnose a new illness and course of treatment. Of course this requires visits by more specialists, who seem to have less familiarity with my dad’s case and no idea why they were called in. . During his early days in step-down one doctor came in and asked me “He’s on dialysis 3 days a week now?” – Dad was not. The doctor didn’t even look at his chart before coming into the room. I haven’t actually checked the bill yet to see if we were charged for a “family consultation” for that conversation or not. He’s had drugs prescribed to correct the effects of drugs he was prescribed in error because the doctors were not talking to each other.

It seems ludicrous to me that we are shouting at each other in town halls about what type of insurance we are going to use to pay for all this “health care”. What we ought to be demanding as consumers is more oversight and controls to make sure that the health care that we are actually receiving, and that we are paying for as taxpayers under the current system or the proposed one, is QUALITY health care that actually treats an illness, not a symptom or side-effect, or lines the pockets of doctors, specialists and pharmaceutical manufacturers.