Let's Not Let This Sad Story Become More Common

This is a truly sad story but one that may become more commonplace in the future.

Lisa Strong had a history of kidney stones. She felt sick one day, developed a fever of 106, and headed to the emergency room. That is where her real troubles began.

Different people tell different stories, but what is agreed upon is that she went to the ER, told them she thought she had kidney stones, was treated by the ER staff, and then waited 16 hours for emergency surgery to remove the kidney stones.

The cause for the delay is what people can't agree upon. The ER doctor had to call another doctor, appointed by Strong's health care insurance company, to confer with for treatment. This doctor handled everything by phone. Yep, the smartest move when treating a patient is to let the person on the phone decide what to do instead of the person actually there.

The ER doctor swears she told the phone doctor about the kidney stones and infection. The phone doctor says, uh uh, did not. The ER doctor did nothing further because she says she assumed the phone doctor would come down and treat the patient in person. The phone doctor gave instructions over the phone and went back to whatever he was doing at the time, maybe a game of golf or a nice dinner out. And they point fingers at each other while the patient wonders what will happen to her.

You see, Strong developed a bad staph infection from waiting for so long for the surgery. A month later, she wound up losing both arms and legs to amputation.

Strong sued, but the jury inexplicably ruled against her. Lawyers say they could not figure out who to blame. The judge said they were all goobers, so he overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial. Strong is not sure she can withstand another trial so she might let it go. This ordeal has cost her marriage. She now shares custody of her children, and she collects disability payments because she can't work. Her hospital bills are almost $1 million, and she is in constant pain.

I want you to put yourself in Lisa Strong's place. You are sick. You go to the hospital for treatment. Because of government regulations and red tape, they have to call some bureaucrat or a doctor somewhere else and let them order treatment.

Do you want this type of regulation? Do you want your healthcare decided by some number cruncher in DC, who is just as likely to say nope, that person is too old for this treatment to be cost effective?

This is a rare case, but could become much more common under Obama's health care reform. Sure, Obama is out there yammering about how we who oppose his plan will use "scare tactics and fear-mongering" to try and wake people up. Damn straight. If the truth is scary, then I guess we can be guilty of fear-mongering, although it's more accurate to say we are using "truth tactics and reality-mongering."