Death in an immigration detention center. Just a terrible story on many levels. Note that the feds were quick to count the guy among their anti-terrorism statistics (despite no evidence of actual terrorism), yet overlooked the fact that he had died.
Alcohol inspection at Fort Worth gay bar turns into police raid, which turns into allegations of harassment and abuse.
“They’re selling postcards of the hanging….”
V.A. hospital botches 92 of 116 prostate cancer procedures, most by the same doctor, after V.A. bureaucrats allowed him to cover up his mistakes. In most cases, irradiated metal seeds ended up in the wrong organs. One cheer for government-run health care!
Eugene, Oregon police officer who reported “several ‘negligent and unintended firearms discharges by SWAT team members’ that put the SWAT team, other police officers and the public in ‘extreme danger’” says he was subsequently subjected to harassment and retaliation by his superiors and other officers.
Biden: Obama administration “misread” the economy. Won’t rule out a second stimulus package. Or, put another way: The all-knowing politicians who said “just trust us” got it wrong, and me may have to “just trust them” while they get it wrong again.
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TheAgitator.com
From the VA article about the “doctor”
“and an absence of malpractice lawsuits underscored that point.”
Well of course he has an absence of malpractice lawsuits, his guinea pigs IE: patients have to sign paperwork that they wont sue any government doctor that’s been assigned to them. Its not as if malpractice lawsuits on VA doctors is the easiest thing in the world to do, no matter how badly they screw up.
A couple of years back I had a brief period of considering going into the military. One of the selling points a former friend had was that medical care was free. I pointed out that while free it was also crap and even if the doctor knowingly screwed up, a person had no option of any form of legal retaliation. Pretty much all you could hope for if a doctor took off the wrong leg is that they’d done it enough times that a newspaper would write a story about it resulting in public outrage. If this is what public health care is you can keep it.
Of course in with private healthcare there are never mistakes and coverups.
As a vet, I have had my share of run-ins with incompetent doctors:
An OB/GYN as the ship’s medical officer on a vessel with men only (a doctor who didn’t know the universal donor/recipient blood types when casually asked)
I have a slightly disfigured hand because it took 6 months of head scratching to determine I had actually broken my hand. 6 months before anyone thought to take an X-ray of a severely swollen hand.
Misdiagnosed colon cancer and rectal bleeding (gross, right?) as “constipation” and “hemorrhoids”.
From what I know, the military trolls medical boards, looking for people who fail. They offer a commission and instant “doctorhood”. Don’t know if it is true, but does make sense….
We had one Army doctor in Bad Kreuznach Germany, Colonel Pittman. Every morning you would see him ordering patient’s into his examining room. Nobody wanted to see this guy. There were four docs on duty and it was just the luck of the draw who you got. If you got Pittman most people would beg not to go in and wait for another doctor. It didn’t matter what was wrong with you, Ibuprofen and back to work full duty was his universal cure-all.
Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead defended his officers, saying they entered a hostile environment and were taunted by patrons with “sexually explicit movements.”
Oh. Well, then. The violence was completely justified. I mean, “sexually explicit movements” in a bar – a gay bar, at that – that’s gonna have any well-trained officer of the law shaking in his jack boots.
Gimme a f’in break.
Re:” One cheer for government-run health care! ”
Pretty sorry and unfair criticism of single -payer by equating it to the military system. I’m sure not all military docs are bums but many of us who have been enlisted men know some of them are military because they can’t cut it elsewhere.
From what I can tell, the difference between military healthcare and private is that now I have a co-pay, and I guess I might have the option to sue. Aside from that, I don’t see much difference in competence levels. I’d go so far as to say that the more doctors I meet (private or otherwise), the less respect I have for the profession in general.
It always amazes me that Texans will tolerate the TABC’s “public intoxication” raids … then amazement turns to worry and resignation that eventually, neo-prohibitionists and other state regulators will notice the lack of uproar and decide to follow TX’s lead.
And as a military family, our health care experiences have run the gamut; most of them have been extremely good while a handful were hopelessly poor. Of course, my son and I at least have the option of seeking a different provider within the system, whereas my wife (the military member) usually does not.
Most of our bad experiences have come at the hands of the insurance contractors DOD hires to administer the health plans — I could almost believe that their goals are to hide information from beneficiaries and deny care, but that would imply that they have any goals whatsoever.
There’s one huge difference your overlooking Chance. In the private sector you can choose your own doctor. Don’t like the one your seeing now, find another one who’s more competent. In the military you don’t really have that option. Workman’s comp isn’t much better for that matter. Husband went for 7 months with completely torn muscles in his shoulder before they finally decided to authorize surgery to fix it.
I’m with #8. I’ve seen both sides. The local VA in Indy has taken great care of my dad, a DAV and I have a close friend who had to have a cornea replacement after getting shrapnel in his face. Both have received great care while a cousin who came back with some minor injuries just seems to get the aspirin treatment. His knee is screwed, aspirin isn’t going to cut it.
The Eugene cop should just be happy to be alive. Doesn’t he know who he’s fuckin’ with? Is he still living under the naive assumption that cops are the good guys?
My son was delivered by a Navy doctor on the Nato base in Iceland. The degree of incompetence exhibited by that guy was nothing short of astounding. My wife is lucky the guy didn’t kill her or paralyze her in his repeated failed attempts to do the spinal block. Finally he gave up, but when he rushed her out of the labor room, the IV bottle crashed into the top of the door frame. Ultimately, she wound up having the baby on the gurney as the doctor and nurses all stood around panicking and shouting at each other. No episiotomy, no anesthetic, and no help from the medical staff.
We found out this guy had had problems like this before. I wouldn’t take my dog to a military doctor.
And I wouldn’t trust Arlen Specter to solve any real problems even if the answer sat in his lap and called him mommy. He’s all grandstand and zero substance. He’s like a used car salesman except without the ethical integrity.
“There’s one huge difference your overlooking Chance. In the private sector you can choose your own doctor.”
Not overlooking it at all. The problem is that when they all suck, all the choice in the world doesn’t matter (yes, I know I’m exaggerating). And as great as the internet is, medicine remains a highly techical field; that makes it difficult for us layman to evaluate how a doctor is doing. By the time it becomes obvious that the care is substandard, and you need to excercise some choice, you’re often in a deep hole. And since both private sector and VA docs have killed a fair number of my relatives, I don’t trust either one.
I have heard from a few Iraq vets that military care is just awful. The one veteran I talked to the most (granted, I was in a bar and we were both very intoxicated. Maybe he embellished) said that the horror stories of military care started around 2004, a few months after servicemen started encountering IED’s on a regular basis.
He had a theory behind this that I think makes sense. In WWII, if you got wounded, you usually died. Starting in Vietnam, if you got wounded, you usually lived. The military has been more concerned with getting more tanks and planes rather than increasing the number of medical staff to deal with this change in modern warfare. That, and during peace time it’s costly to have combat surgeons on the payroll. So of course that creates a sudden shortage when war does break out. Preventing supply from meeting demand…par for the course.
What is a million times more possible is that the government read the economy perfectly but that their policy actions (from TARP to the Stimulus) has created regime uncertainty and stalled the recovery.
Joe Biden, the Democrats answer to Sarah Palin.
Dave Kreuger “He’s like a used car salesman except without the ethical integrity.”
lol, I swear Dave, somebody needs to start collecting these and issue a best of Dave Kreuger book. You’d make a fortune!
“My first thought was, ‘Someone must be hurt. They’re going to help somebody,’ ” said Goldberg, 31.”
Texas cowboy cops *helping* somebody?
Are you fucking kidding me?
“But we have to do something!” (Accompanied by much waving of arms and running in circles.)
“First, do no harm.” – Hippocrates
the elephant post card is horrible.
#2 | Lee | July 6th, 2009 at 8:19 am
‘Of course in with private healthcare there are never mistakes and coverups.’
I love the facetious attack comments about private health care made to defend govt run healthcare. All I want for Christmas is for someone to show me a business model that has worked under this socialist system.
“You’re touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar; that’s offensive,” Halstead, the police chief, told Dallas-Fort Worth TV station WFAA. “I’m happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that.”
Gotta love the restraint involved in slamming someone’s head and causing brain injury.
There seems to me to be a lot of confusion in this thread between the VA and military medicine. The various branches of the military have medical divisions (or corps or whatever) but they are run by those branches, and while there have been moves of late to consolidate (for example closing Walter Reed which is Army and joining it with the Bethesda hospital which is Navy) they are all under the Department of Defense. VA hospitals are under the Department of Veterans Affairs and the medical staff are not in the military, or don’t have to be and most aren’t.
I am just an interested amateur, but my understanding is that VA care is worlds better than military care, even a model in some areas such as medical records and geriatric care. There was an interesting article in the Washington Monthly not too long ago on this topic.
Not saying this VA doctor wasn’t a quack, just that the two systems are different and anecdotes for one don’t apply to the other any more than anecdotes from BC/BS apply to Etna.
“V.A. hospital botches 92 of 116 prostate cancer procedures …”
Where’s Chet?
Oh Chet!?
Hmm.
“Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead defended his officers, saying they entered a hostile environment and were taunted by patrons”
I don’t know what people expect in these situations. It’s not like it’s at all possible to hire people who understand, or train (or fire) people who don’t, that even if someone calls you a name you don’t like, it’s not OK to hit him. It’s been awhile, but I don’t think I’ve heard that since elementary school, and we can’t believe that the police, with all the intense preparation required for them to perform their official duties, have time to reflect back on grade-school nonsense.
In all seriousness, though, when I read that sentence by the chief, for me it might as well have been an admission of guilt on several levels. Firstly, if the chief really thought that his officer had been assaulted by the bar patron, and that’s why the bar patron ended up with a brain injury, that would have been the focus of the statement. Not this weak-assed ” *sniff* People were teasin’ us! *sniff*”. When I was a child and got in trouble for hitting my brother, that was the kind of crap I said to justify it when I knew I shouldn’t have done what I did–if I had hit him back because he hit me, believe me, that would have been the first thing out of my mouth. Secondly, the chief is tacitly admitting that he thinks that teasing/taunting a cop is sufficient grounds for him to assault you. And this isn’t some private belief he is joking about around the water cooler with his colleagues–he obviously believes the general public ought to support him on this; otherwise why make that part of your statement to the press?
Alcohol inspection at Fort Worth gay bar turns into police raid, which turns into allegations of harassment and abuse.
Arresting people for being intoxicated in a friggin’ bar!
Nanny state, thy name is Texas.
The Ft. Worth story gets worse: NYT reports a second victim had broken ribs, a third had a broken thumb, and a fourth sustained “severe bruising.” No witnesses corroborate that any cop was touched or advanced upon.
V.A. hospital botches 92 of 116 prostate cancer procedures, most by the same doctor, after V.A. bureaucrats allowed him to cover up his mistakes. In most cases, irradiated metal seeds ended up in the wrong organs. One cheer for government-run health care!
DMV clerks with scalpels. Get used to it.
Just wanted to comment on the hanging elephant postcard. I live about 10 minutes away from Erwin and have heard this story many,many times. First of all,the elephants trainer was drunk and basically picked a fight with her. Then when he got squished,everyone wanted to kill the elephant but realized that might kind of sorta ruin the circus that night…so they let her live till after the show. Then they had to get a crane and figure out how to hang an elephant…it took them a couple of tries till they got it right and killed her. I often wonder if the last thing that went through Mary’s mind that night was “C’mon…the show wasnt THAT bad”. And then a few days later,the fine folks of Erwin went back to hanging black folks,and continued to do so well into the 1970′s. You gotta love living in the south….
I believe trials and executions for animals used to be fairly common. Here are a couple of links on the topic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_trial
http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2149/History-Human-Animal-Interaction-MEDIEVAL-PERIOD.html
Well, step one is to point guns at everyone who happens to be on your turf and demand a bunch of money, and step two is to then give them something resembling health care.
What’s that? It doesn’t work in places where it’s been tried? But you’d be wrong. It does work – for the people in charge.
#30 | Zargon-
I was hoping to hear from someone arguing for govt healthcare, not from someone I agree with! well said, though…
I would love to hear someone show me where ‘this idea is so good, it’ll work with automobiles, banking…’ oh, wait- that’s what they’re trying to do.
“Postcards of the hanging”
Damn great Dylan allusion.
Anyone here worked at a VA? I have and the care was excellent. You can sue the government. If found your way you can receive up to 100% disability which is very fair. The VA was one of the first groups to establish quality care and improvement and best practices. We have one rogue physician who also worked for the U of Pennyslvania, who was incompetent and who lied. He was found out through quality standards. You are all making judgements with little or no facts- does not sound like a group I would want judging me.
radley, come on. there are no doubt lots of good arguments against government run health care, but this is a cheap shot. not worthy of you, my friend.
The hanging of an elephant made me sick to my stomach. Elephants are highly intelligent animals, she did what was natural to her under the circumstances, she was defending herself. Every living thing has the natural right to self defense.
Where’s Chet?
I’m right here, reminding you that one bad apple in the system doesn’t indict government-run health care.
Speaking as a physician who works at a community hospital, has cross cover obligations at a VA hospital and is a Tri-care patient at a military hospital, I may be able to offer some insight.
First, Military medicine and VA medicine are very different systems, with only their inefficiency in common. Military physicians and post graduate support staff are generally competent and dedicated but somewhat inexperienced. The bulk of the military physicians, nurses, PT, OT… serve a four to seven year obligation to the military right out of their training or residency, and then separate for well paying positions on the outside. They are not rejects, they are often top students, and many are more mature having families which they had to support through medical school which led them to the military for support. I have high confidence in my military physicians, and military medicine has a strong dedication, an esprit de corps in taking care of the troops.
In contrast, the VA is filled with incompetence. The attitude of the nursing staff is dismal, the contract physicians are either older and looking to take it easy, foreign medical graduates who can’t find jobs, or physicians who have been unable to keep up anywhere else. When a patient codes at the VA, nurses don’t run to the patient’s bedside to offer help, they run to their computers to make sure they crossed all the T’s… Medical personnel are not fired from the VA for harming a patient or failing to properly care for a patient but for screwing up paperwork (and even that is rare). None of the VA shortcomings are due to a lack of funding. They have great equipment at the VA, the support staff are far better paid than the staff at the community hospital and have better benefits.
The community hospital is by far the most efficient and cost conscience of the three (And pairs in comparison to private hospitals in these measures). The competence of the physicians are on par with the military, however are generally more experienced. Nursing is generally caring although not quite as supportive as the military, but very efficient, knowledgeable and attentive.
In short, the VA is a miserable place in which I would never want to be a patient. The attitude of the employees, the care, and the bureaucracy disgust me.
The attitude of the employees, the care, and the bureaucracy disgust me.
And yet by every metric it beats the private sector. Funny how that works – how conservo-libs never allow their bad experiences with the private sector to sour them on the whole idea. No, that sort of reasoning is relegated to considerations of government, where one bad doctor means that 40 million Americans can’t be allowed to have health care.
Weird historical artifacts: interesting. Linking to dead animals w/ no warning: uncool.
Radley, you need to check your comments more often. I posted a link (I’m pretty sure it’s the same one) about the Eugene, Oregon cop a couple weeks ago on another post. :)
“Or, put another way: The all-knowing politicians who said “just trust us” got it wrong, and me may have to “just trust them” while they get it wrong again.”
Well, it might have helped if half the stimulus hadn’t been turned into non-stimulative tax cuts by the Congress.
“And yet by every metric it beats the private sector.”
I am first to admit that data is not pleural for antic-dote, but I would be interested in seeing the peer reviewed study that supports your statement.
“Plural”