- Joined
- Jun 25, 2008
- Messages
- 8,080
- Reaction score
- 3,918
- Location
- Canada
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
Just thought I would post this anecdote about a recent experience with Canadian health care.
Yesterday afternoon, following a chicken sandwich lunch, I came down with food poisoning. The feelings of queasiness started at school and by the time I was on the train headed home I felt really out of it. At home, I started to vomit and have diarrhea (a couple of times simultaneously, yuck) every 15 minutes for the next 5 hours. If I drank a teaspoon of liquid, I would throw it up immediately after. I had a high fever and was becoming delirious.
At that point my roommates called an ambulance. They arrived and gave me an IV, and took me straight to the emergency room where I was given blood, urine, and stool tests to confirm the identity of the culprit: salmonella.
The paramedics gave me an IV and an attending physician augmented it with some gravol to stop my stomach spasms (I was throwing up bile at this point and it was extremely painful). That was just the stop gap measure. The physician didn't return to check on me for the next 4 hours or so because apparently there was a huge pile up in Mission (a nearby city) and the injured were being redirected to Vancouver's main hospital. This is what's known as priority sequence.
The lab tests revealed that my white blood cell count was through the roof which meant my body was heavily on the offensive, and this explained the high fever. A nurse came to check on me every half hour or so, bringing a cold cloth and a fresh bag of fluids. The ER bed was bloody uncomfortable and the lights felt blaring but I managed to get in a few hours sleep.
By morning I had gone through 4 IV bags of fluids yet had not urinated - that's how dehydrated I was - but I was well enough to send home with some anti-spasmodic medication for my GI. Just as an aside: although I am in the natural health field and don't favor western medication, I think western medicine is second to none when it comes to emergency situations; thus, in this scenario, I was grateful.
Here was my bill: $0
The cost of the ambulance, IVs, medications, a bed in the ER, and the attention of a nurse and an on call physician was nothing.
I am a student. I don't have much money. My situation was critical. I would have ended up at the hospital anyway, but with no way to pay the bill. I too am a health care provider (mostly for chronic conditions), so how would it affect my service to society to have an additional debt and crediting agencies knocking at my door?
I am thankful today for Canada's health care. I don't care that I had to wait 4 hours. I was in pain but I wasn't dying, and thanks to the health care system I went home in much better shape than I arrived.
I would rather that than still having to wait 4 hours but have a ludicrous hospital bill, and I would rather pay taxes towards UHC and know that other fellow countrymen in my circumstances or worse can get care without the bill ruining their lives, families, or degrading their communities.
Yesterday afternoon, following a chicken sandwich lunch, I came down with food poisoning. The feelings of queasiness started at school and by the time I was on the train headed home I felt really out of it. At home, I started to vomit and have diarrhea (a couple of times simultaneously, yuck) every 15 minutes for the next 5 hours. If I drank a teaspoon of liquid, I would throw it up immediately after. I had a high fever and was becoming delirious.
At that point my roommates called an ambulance. They arrived and gave me an IV, and took me straight to the emergency room where I was given blood, urine, and stool tests to confirm the identity of the culprit: salmonella.
The paramedics gave me an IV and an attending physician augmented it with some gravol to stop my stomach spasms (I was throwing up bile at this point and it was extremely painful). That was just the stop gap measure. The physician didn't return to check on me for the next 4 hours or so because apparently there was a huge pile up in Mission (a nearby city) and the injured were being redirected to Vancouver's main hospital. This is what's known as priority sequence.
The lab tests revealed that my white blood cell count was through the roof which meant my body was heavily on the offensive, and this explained the high fever. A nurse came to check on me every half hour or so, bringing a cold cloth and a fresh bag of fluids. The ER bed was bloody uncomfortable and the lights felt blaring but I managed to get in a few hours sleep.
By morning I had gone through 4 IV bags of fluids yet had not urinated - that's how dehydrated I was - but I was well enough to send home with some anti-spasmodic medication for my GI. Just as an aside: although I am in the natural health field and don't favor western medication, I think western medicine is second to none when it comes to emergency situations; thus, in this scenario, I was grateful.
Here was my bill: $0
The cost of the ambulance, IVs, medications, a bed in the ER, and the attention of a nurse and an on call physician was nothing.
I am a student. I don't have much money. My situation was critical. I would have ended up at the hospital anyway, but with no way to pay the bill. I too am a health care provider (mostly for chronic conditions), so how would it affect my service to society to have an additional debt and crediting agencies knocking at my door?
I am thankful today for Canada's health care. I don't care that I had to wait 4 hours. I was in pain but I wasn't dying, and thanks to the health care system I went home in much better shape than I arrived.
I would rather that than still having to wait 4 hours but have a ludicrous hospital bill, and I would rather pay taxes towards UHC and know that other fellow countrymen in my circumstances or worse can get care without the bill ruining their lives, families, or degrading their communities.