I’ve mentioned many times that amongst the myriad of reasons why I do NOT want “Universal” (Socialized) Health Care, and why I thought all women should not, is because:
a) I don’t trust the Government with a Speculum
b) I don’t want a bureaucrat deciding if my epidural is really “cost-effectively necessary”
While the above were said somewhat tongue in cheek, I suppose I now should move my tongue out of my cheek (maybe place it in front of my tonsils to guard them!) as if the following can happen, so could denial of epidurals. And, you know, actual life-saving procedures.
Woman gives birth on pavement ‘after being refused ambulance’
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:56 PM on 17th August 2009A young mother gave birth on a pavement outside a hospital after she was told to make her own way there.
Mother-of-three Carmen Blake called her midwife to ask for an ambulance when she went into labour unexpectedly with her fourth child.
But the 27-year-old claims she was refused an ambulance and told to walk the 100m from her house in Leicester to the city’s nearby Royal Infirmary. [snip]
‘They said they were not sending an ambulance and told me I had had nine months to sort out a lift.’Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207151/Woman-gives-birth-pavement-refused-ambulance.html#ixzz0OZO34aMb
Read full article here.
Yeah, um… no thanks! Bad enough we are now supposed to let the fathers of the babies watch the delivery, I refuse to put on a (traumatic) show for the entire neighborhood.
‘They said they were not sending an ambulance and told me I had had nine months to sort out a lift.’
It’s a funny thing, that … babies actually don’t come at a set date and time! They arrive on their own accord, with no rhyme or reason. I’m sure Dr. Obama will fix that, though… NO BABIES BORN, unless between the hours of 9 and 5 and only if you’ve arranged a ride. That’s probably how it should be, but nefarious doctors have fiddled with women’s bodies to make babies come at odd hours so they can make more cash money. I’m just surprised that any babies at all leave the hospital with their tonsils and limbs intact!
Worse; read the entire article and you’ll learn that the cord was around the baby’s neck. If not for the sheer luck of having the aid of a passer-by, the ending could have been quite different.
And tragic.
(h/t thingie to Aaron Gardner)
(cross-posted at snarkandboobs)
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Before our illustrious leaders take over health care
itrytobenice (Diary) Tuesday, August 18th at 5:36PM EST (link)I’d like to see some evidence of success in another area of the economy.
They’ve already failed at Medicare and Medicaid, the Post Office, and the VA, but now they own a couple of car companies. Let’s give them a year or five and see how that works for us before we decide if we’re still interested in giving them authority over our health and lives. Deal?
Proper grammar saves lives.
Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.
While I sympathize...
fmaidment (Diary) Tuesday, August 18th at 6:31PM EST (link)…I have to admit, they were right that she could have found alternate transportation. She could have called a taxi service or a neighbor or something to come help her.
~holds up old text book to block objects thrown in my direction~
That said… She lives in the UK. The NHS is supposed to provide the care people need. The care this woman needed was a midwife or doctor capable of safely delivering the child of a woman in labor. Instead, she got, “Take two of these and don’t bother us.”
Boneheads.
Bear in mind, I am in no way defending their “nine month” statement. That was callous and stupid. At 100 meters, they could easily have come to her to see how she was doing damaging their ability to conduct the business of the hospital. But no, she was told to take a bath.
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“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
– - Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791
I do understand your point, Fred
Lori Ziganto (Diary) Tuesday, August 18th at 7:04PM EST (link)about the ambulance, so no book throwing, heh.
However, as a woman who has experienced child birthin’ stuff, sometimes it is an emergency .. she *knew* (having already borne 3 children) that the baby wasn’t waiting for a taxi or for her to ring up or knock on a neighbor’s door.
That said, I do dislike when people call up ambulances unnecessarily and that *does* happen often.
The hot bath thing annoys me as well.. often, that is the worst thing to do, especially (and sorry here guys… “woman stuff”) if her water had already broken. There is real risk of infection if you sit in a bath after that happens.
Also known as SnarkandBoobs
BTW, there were neighbors helping her
Uma Richie (Diary) Tuesday, August 18th at 7:43PM EST (link)according to the article.
I wonder why many OB/GYN personnel don’t trust experienced moms. Here in the US, I had a similar experience with baby number four. When it was time to push, the labor room nurse told me I merely had to go to the bathroom. When I refused, she said something sarcastic and then said that my problem was that I wasn’t doing my breathing. She left the room and less than five minutes later, my daughter delivered herself. At least it happened in a sterile environment.
Uma, (Warning: sorry fellas, more girly talk)
Lori Ziganto (Diary) Wednesday, August 19th at 8:33PM EST (link)Similar situation here .. but it was my 1st (and only). Told them I felt “something’ and they simply added more epidural stuff (I’d only been in labor 5 hours, I suppose they figured that was too short of a time for a 1st baby)
Maybe 10 minutes later the nurse checked me and started screaming at me DON’T push. Mad scramble to get the doctor and rest of the crew in.. *maybe* 10 minutes later, she was born.
Also known as SnarkandBoobs
The government running my healthcare...frightening!..
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Tuesday, August 18th at 10:53PM EST (link)I like the way my healthcare is run I like my plan and I love my doctor. That the government of the United States which cannot run the postal service now wants to get in between all that I love just angers me to no end!
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Lori Ziganto (Diary) Wednesday, August 19th at 2:06PM EST (link)According to Dr. Obama, at least.
Also known as SnarkandBoobs