Current United States medical protocol

I'm very angry lately about how medical issues are handled in our great country. It's either doctors knowing nothing or the insurance company giving you the runaround. I'm having good mind to blame the way our medical system works on killing my grandfather, almost killing my grandmother, and now putting my uncle in great danger to his health. Back in July, my grandfather died in the hospital at the ripe age of 69 from what started as Leukemia. Before he got his diagnosis of Leukemia in the ER a couple weeks before, doctors had been telling him on regular blood tests before then that his results were fine and that there was nothing to do about it.

They were obviously way wrong because he was pretty much dying when we took him to the ER, they gave hi ma transfusion and told him his white cell count was extremely high and told him he probably had Leukemia (which he did). If he had gotten help sooner, he may not have been as ill and would've had a better chance of fighting off the pneumonia he got after his first cancer treatment (and then he died not much later of total organ failure while in the ICU ) .

My grandmother had a blood clot in her lung just at the end of December and was in the hospital over Christmas. Not only did they delay treatment of something that serious, but she'd also had a heart attack (which she survived somehow. She's a very tough cookie) . While she was in there, they also didn't take into account that she had diabetes and were serving her starch filled meals and giving her SUGAR with the meals. If a hospital has someone's medical record, wouldn't they notice something that stands out such as diabetes? She actually had to TELL them she had it so that they would start taking better care of her and stop giving her starchy foods.

My recent grievance is with my uncle. He got a blood sugar test from my grandmother a couple weeks ago because he's been feeling really weak and sick lately. She said his blood sugar was up to 400 and something and so my aunt took him to multiple doctors. The doctors said he has a gull stone in the duct of his gull bladder along with diabetes. The thing that angers me? They delayed any further action for two weeks to "review" test results. During this time he's JAUNDICING, and they still ignore it and put him off for weeks until he can get treatment. If something were wrong with someone's liver as well, wouldn't they rationally say they need to act right away?

Just from personal family experience, I think something needs to be done to improve healthcare. I mean, why the bad test results? Why the delays in treatment in this country? Go to the doctor, get tests done, wait multiple weeks to find out what's wrong with you even if it's highly serious and needs to be taken care of ASAP. I just don't get it. Come on America, step it up enough people have died now because of things like this.

You ain't seen nothing yet. We are still in the very early stages of obamacare. Just wait, it will get much worse.

Act too fast and you're wrong ...you get sued. Act too slow and you're wrong....you get sued. Limitations on what you can and can not do or have from insurance companies executives. Its either fear of litigation or insurance denial of payment that is tying all of healthcare hands.

As for your grandmother....just because she had been to that hospital before doesn't mean they know she's diabetic. If it was a different physician treating her and it was private practice as opposed to a hospitalist physician or a different private practice doctor this time....there is no sharing of information. HIPPA laws were developed to protect patient privacy, but it can cause issues like she had because information isn't shared without filling out forms and other red tape.

You almost have to tell whoever is treating you your full medical history each time if its a different doc than before.

But I agree. Care is not improving. And it should be.

reply to post by Myomistress


I completely understand where you're coming from and I sympathize with you and your family as I have been through similar situations personally with my father who passed of Prostate Cancer at the Veterans Medical Center in 2007.

But, as the poster further up said, "You ain't seen nothing yet".

Check this out:

A crucial medicine to treat childhood leukemia is in such short supply that hospitals across the country may exhaust their stores within the next two weeks, leaving hundreds and perhaps thousands of children at risk of dying from a largely curable disease, federal officials and cancer doctors say.

Shortage of Cancer Meds for children

I wish the best for your family and I sincerely hope that you find the competent medical care you and your family deserve and need.