A tragic story here in Ohio that got me to thinking. God rest that child and her grieving parents. I don't even like to think about it. But here's the thing.
Most who ignore the news media are aware that death from medical malpractice is no small thing, and hasn't been for decades. Whether it's getting worse proportionately or not, I don't know. As much as we like to imagine that there is some treasure vault out there with a stat for everything that needs proven, it doesn't always work that way.
Especially when something, like the medical community, is what I call the Priesthood of Privileged Professions. Like academia in general, or education (public or higher), or the scientific community at large - at least the scientific community that toes the line. Ever notice that these are professions or vocations that the news media will promote, but seldom if ever critique, no matter how bad things are or how many failures stack on failures?
So that there is no small number of Americans who die from medical malpractice each year, though it is seldom mentioned, is not surprising. Likewise, there are the growing problems with medical care in general. We've seen it ourselves in recent years.
The last time my mom had a stroke while she was still living with us, my oldest son and I took her to the emergency room. By then it was not the first stroke she had, and we were fast learning the symptoms. But you couldn't get anyone there to say she was anything other than just old. Maybe a UTI. Both of us fired back and said dig deeper, it's a stroke. My normally introverted oldest became almost angry, telling them we've seen stroke, we know stroke, this is a stroke. After about ten minutes of back and forth the ER doctor, she finally agreed to run some tests in that direction and, would you believe it?
But then a year earlier, she had a stroke, they knew she had a stroke, and she remained in her ER bed for over a day, because there was no room at the inn. Or the hospital in that case. And this isn't some Billy Bubba's Hospital and BBQ medical place either. It's one of the premier hospitals in Ohio. Yet they just didn't have the beds. Finally they discharged her because, well, that was that. They set up some homecare visits instead. There simply were no rooms.
This is happening more and more as well. Even critics of America's healthcare who pine for good old socialized medicine have conceded that the one area American healthcare did shine was speed of service. While the legendary wait times in more socialized environments is a thing, in America it's one problem we didn't have. Until now.
My third son had a health emergency a year ago. He went to the ER, and they patched him up, but told him to call his primary care provider ASAP. So next day he did. He explained the problem, what the ER said, and his provider's office said sure, they can get him in. In about three weeks. He explained he actually needed seen, you know, now. But that was that. They told him to go to a clinic or wait. It made me think of this scene from Caddyshack:
Or, are you sick? I'm afraid we can't see you. What? That's what you're there for!
I've experienced the same thing. As have others. I know some who have said it seems like the medical offices are just not invested in things like making you better anymore. I'm sure it's not all like that. But there comes a time when you start thinking it can't just be our little corner of the world and everything else is just peachy.
But it's this sort of thing that is under reported, if reported at all, that so many don't want to talk about, that more and more people are seeing and getting fed up with. I know it's tough to think things are as bad as they seem. We love the ones who say 'Democracy isn't collapsing, America isn't unraveling, why things always seem that way but it always works out!'.
Yeah, they often do seem that way in this fallen world. They always seem to be falling apart, going from bad to catastrophic, or on the edge of collapse. And often it turns out things finally cross a bridge and pick back up. But sometimes they don't. Sometimes those yelling the sky is falling loud enough turn out to be vindicated when, in fact, the sky finally falls. And we know from history, the sky will fall. And if the good guys don't admit things are unraveling fast, the bad guys will be happy to step in and do something about it, even if it's all the wrong things.
Dave’s daughter in law here :)
ReplyDeleteI am firmly of the belief that we are living through a sort of Decline and Fall of the American Empire. Like it or not, my generation (Gen Z) and my children’s (Gen Alpha and Gen Beta) will be forced to relearn a great deal of basic skills forgotten in our technological age (growing and preparing food at home, home remedies + herbal medicine, etc.) as well as generally recenter the home as a place of production rather than mere consumption. We must also seek to build and support new cultural institutions (schools, libraries, colleges, newspapers and publishing houses, perhaps even medical centers) that run parallel with our failing mainstream institutions and can continue into the future after those institutions finally crumble. These don’t need to be formal institutions necessarily (home libraries and home schools will be vital) but some of them certainly should be. If we do not do this hard work, we will slip into a new Dark Age; I fear many parts of the country will anyways. But my generation will have the difficult work of seeking to pass on as much of our cultural wisdom as possible into the future amidst the decay of our civilization in its current form.
Hey! Hope your book business is going well. I keep finding some old books of mine and family's I debate about sending you all.
DeleteI have reached the age... I begin to think that every civilization is always falling - they are all in perpetual decline. (This seems to be seen in literature and art - throughout time it feels like everyone was always complaining about how much better it used to be, and things are rotting now.) The only thing that stops it, is the citizens, constantly and everywhere working to push it up. To keep having kids, and instructing them to keep things going. Again, and again, and again. Or like you said, new cultural institutions (or at least, new life into old ones).
Like it or not, my generation (Gen Z) and my children’s (Gen Alpha and Gen Beta) will be forced to relearn a great deal of basic skills forgotten in our technological age (growing and preparing food at home, home remedies + herbal medicine, etc.) as well as generally recenter the home as a place of production rather than mere consumption.
That does make me sad though. It does feel like an entire generation of parents completely dropped the ball on passing down knowledge. I'm trying to do better myself but sometimes it feels like nobody's listening...
(You're kids are just too cute, and does give me some hopes for a future..)
Hello. Yes, it is awfully difficult to look at things today and draw an entirely Pollyanna style conclusion. I believe sometimes it's not just that things are struggling or doing bad or getting worse. It's the growing suspicion that those who we once could count on to step in and work to set things right have somehow left the building. That many institutions and companies, for instance, no longer even to pretend about concern for the broader consumer base, much less they're own employees. Not that corporate interests were all about the heart and soul of virtue. But at least they had to put on a good front. But not now. Same with the press. It was always bias, but at least once in a while it had to put on the appearance of objective analysis of important stories. Not now. It almost flaunts not carrying about endless suffering if it can't be exploited. Or even our medical establishments. Like pulling an entire maternity ward out of a local hospital that serves an entire region north of Columbus. Why? Money. They don't even apologize that now all the women in that region will have to huff it. That, I think, is the big problem. They don't even feel they need to pretend to care. And that can't be a good development.
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ReplyDeleteWe lost Dad (almost 91) May 23 to heart failure and for the past 18 months he had been in an out of medical care, include EMT visits, a rehab home and transport, etc. His issues included a heart attack and COVID. Yet all the services here in California near San Francisco ran quite smooth, in my view, although driving to see specialists was once in a while an issue. Maybe you're seeing a local problem.
We know folks in other states and we've heard similar stories. Of course it isn't always and everywhere. My wife has had some health issues these last couple years. Generally it's been about two hits and a miss. Much seems to be business as usual. But there have been cases where clearly something has gone awry. For instance, she got some tests last year the indicated there might be a serious problem. She was told to get in to see a specialist in the network. She called, and they said she could get in - in about four months. Fortunately, however, someone canceled at the last minute and she could get in within the week. But that is far more common. I have seen exactly one news story about this, which is more than I have about the deaths from medical mistakes and malpractice. But that is all. Which is even more noteworthy I think.
DeleteCivilizations decay because their people do first. For every example above, I am willing to bet there are the same or even more examples of people abusing the very systems set up to help us, including illegal aliens who cannot be refused care at the ER but never pay in. Also, how many resources do we spend on immoral practices under the same guise of "healthcare?" How many appointments get taken up because some people need pretty regular appointments to get their prescriptions written. How many people who don't have to pay for their healthcare just use it for everything under the sun without a thought of actually taking care of themselves? How many people are on meds who might just need a good friend or confession? Or how many beds get used up in urban areas due to gun violence? Also, for every genuine and necessary malpractice suit, how many frivolous suits are there that insurance requires doctors to settle instead of going to trial? Unscrupulous lawyers find unscrupulous patients and tell them they "deserve" something.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree we have institutional rot of course. We don't have enough beds in general due to corporate hospital clauses, and Obamacare pretty much shut down most private practices where your regular doctor might squeeze you in on a moment's notice. And since most doctors are corporate now, they have to follow corporate rules care. The good doctors really do hate it also.
I do shudder to think about what kind of society is being formed for my children and grandchildren though, as the quality of American continues to devolve. If Fulton Sheen's observation that, "To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood... The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women." is correct, just watching the Clancy trial reactions makes me see the outlook is fairly bleak at the moment.
I think Covid likely had something to do with it too. The stark difference in care between 2019 and 2024 has to account for what happened in between. But you bring up the morality issue. Yes, the second AIDS was identified, the medical community should have rushed out and said 'wait everyone, it's time to pull the plug on the sex revolution and treat a debauched lifestyle like smoking -- it's bad for your health.' But it didn't. It still doesn't about an array of lifestyles and moral choices that are known to be wrecking balls for one's health. Of course it has dropped the hammer on things like the health crisis of racism. But that almost makes it seem easier to realize that the medical field, as we saw during Covid, is quite willing to follow just what the powers that be say to follow. Like a fellow I knew who was a physicist in one of my churches used to say. The one undeniable fact about science is that at any given time, the majority of scientists will make sure the science tells those movers and shakers of the day what they want to hear.
DeleteFor sure Covid was a watershed moment. A rather eye-opening experience for me was that in the spring of 2021, my elderly dad had open-heart surgery. As he was recovering, he requested all sorts of extra vitamins and supplements, and he was given everything he asked for or at least not denied. Four months later, my mother was in the hospital for Covid induced pneumonia, and they wouldn’t even up her dosage of vitamin D when HER OWN DOCTOR requested it. (At this point she’d been transferred to a more metro hospital) The reason given was, “It’s not protocol. “ 🙄
DeleteTo me, this was the culmination of Obamacare fallout. When the program was first rolled out our beloved family practice doctor had to close his private practice and incorporate into the local hospital network Because of all the regulations. Not long after that, The hospital corporation fired his longtime receptionist for some minor violation or something… because now they ran his office and staff, he was just an employee. Soon after, he shut his practice down entirely and moved to Florida to work for the VA. That didn’t last super long because of all the bureaucratic nonsense that really interfered with actual care, and he went back to a small healthcare provider setting. Anyway, I’ve been a little salty about the corporatizing of doctors and offices over the years. 100% has paved the way for socialized medicine.
On the morality side, AIDS is a good example. Also, I always marvel at how much money we spend trying to prevent pregnancy, or end it, and then on the flipside, how much money to create it after the fact. It’s just so wasteful to play God.
It’s just so wasteful to play God
DeleteDamn, girl. That's quote of the day right there. I need that on a plaque.
I agree with Nate, that's the money quote. And yes, now that you mention it, I think of things like the hospital - owned by the mega med corps Ohio Health - just shutting down the only maternity ward in this area of Ohio. Because money. Perhaps that did arise after Obamacare. But whatever the reason, it has arisen.
DeleteBut the news media told me that Obama and co fixed healthcare....
ReplyDeleteIt did. That's why there are no problems. Unless, wait. Trump is president. Are you kidding! It's a global catastrophe now and it's the [latest GOP president's] fault! See the press's same approach to the economy for another example.
DeleteWhich is why I've started saying Marx is wrong - religion isn't the opiate of the masses, the media is.
DeleteBecause it's hard not to talk to people and start to realize that they don't actually want the problem to be fixed, they just want the media to stop talking about it so they can resume ignoring it.
I think the media is now about giving marching orders, not even falsehoods. Those on the Left can rest assured that the press won't focus on anything that makes the Left look bad, so they don't have to address it. See those on the Catholic Left happily ignoring the ongoing persecution of Nigerian Christians. The press isn't covering it so they needn't address it either. It's a bit like showing up to the big game and having the refs and officials tell you not to worry, they bet on your team so they'll cheat, lie, steal, ignore fouls and make all the bad calls to help you win.
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