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In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

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Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#131

Post by sgjohnson »

kube-system wrote: post #88
ada1981 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubtful. Do people go bankrupt by medical debt in other countries? Seems unlikely to get judgment and collect.

I think it’s simply unlikely because debt is always preferable to a life threatening emergency. That being said, from a global perspective, “bankruptcy” is not a good measure of economic burden. There are worse debt outcomes than bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is actually quite a piece of cake in several US states. In fact most of them even let you keep your home.

Bankruptcy is not some sort of a financial death sentence. In fact you’ll even be able to get access to credit almost immediately, because the default risk just after bankruptcy is extremely low due to the fact that you can’t declare bankruptcy for another 2-3 years.

Yes, your credit score is trashed for the next 6-7 years, but it’s also trashed with an insufferable amount of medical debt.

I would be much more upset about a 6 figure medical bill if I had 6 figures in liquid assets than I would be if I owned nothing besides some home equity.

If I have 6 figures of liquid assets, I’m wiped out, but if I own nothing, I declare bankruptcy and have a clean slate.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#132

Post by sgjohnson »

FabHK wrote: post #115
Maken wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe she didn't have any kind of health insurance in any country except the one she was traveling to. So when the doctors told her she could endure the rest of the flight, she chose to do so instead of going bankrupt by the medical fees. It would be also insteresting to know if she hid her injuries before boarding for the same reason.

I wager to say that to most people in the developed world such thoughts would not occur, and almost certainly not to Brits (that are used to the NHS).

The NHS is garbage. After experiencing them once I took on a private health insurance that cost me £300ish per month.

So now my taxes paid for the garbage public healthcare system that I didn’t want, and then I had to pay for the private insurance.

Unfortunately most people aren’t that fortunate to be able to easily justify spending extra £300 a month on health insurance so they just cope with the NHS.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#133

Post by marcodiego »

sjmm1989 wrote: post #127
kmano8 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened to me in college. Driving home from the movies, chest started to hurt on inhale .. I decided to "sleep it off", which obviously didn't work. Went to the ER in the morning. Got the chest tube and spent about a week seeing if it would heal naturally, then they removed the offending part of my lung, and did a mechanical pleurodesis (a procedure that sticks your lung to the chest wall so it can't collapse).…

I've gotten similar for a long time while growing up. Still get this now and then on my left side. Always my left side. I just stretch, breath deep despite the pain and sleep it off. It... usually goes away within a day or two. The reason why I've always taken this approach is because it was always just growing pains or my ribs pinching me somehow. (Apparently that's a thing.) That all said and done, the last time it…

Beware that even a spontaneous primary pneumothrax can turn into a tension pneumothrax, a condition when a natural one-way valve forms and continuously increases pressure inside the chest eventually compressing heart and arteries.

Even a spontaneous primary pneumothrax must be handled seriously. It can become life threatening.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#134

Post by digisign »

marcodiego wrote: post #86
vocram wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the surgeon was pointing to the left side of OP, they just answered “it’s the right side” meaning that the right side was the right side … Guess what the surgeon did.

English... what a language! The right side was actually the left side. Fortunately the talk was in Portuguese.

direito has the same issue in Portuguese, does it not?

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#135

Post by kube-system »

sgjohnson wrote: post #131
kube-system wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s simply unlikely because debt is always preferable to a life threatening emergency. That being said, from a global perspective, “bankruptcy” is not a good measure of economic burden. There are worse debt outcomes than bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is actually quite a piece of cake in several US states. In fact most of them even let you keep your home. Bankruptcy is not some sort of a financial death sentence. In fact you’ll even be able to get access to credit almost immediately, because the default risk just after bankruptcy is extremely low due to the fact that you can’t declare bankruptcy for another 2-3 years. Yes, your credit score is trashed f…

That’s what I was alluding to. Part of the high bankruptcy rates in the US are because we have very liberal laws about bankruptcy.

Not only do you get to keep your home, but the majority of people who file Chapter 7 keep everything.

That’s not to say we don’t have issues with medical costs… I’m just speaking generally about using bankruptcy rates as an indicator.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#136

Post by adastra22 »

Yajirobe wrote: post #7

'the doctors successfully released the trapped air from the patient's chest, and she spent the rest of the flight uneventfully eating and watching in-flight movies'

I’m not sure which one was more badass, the surgeon or the patient.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#137

Post by lostlogin »

saary wrote: post #122
hammock wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't help if the doctor's question was "Am I cutting into the right side?"

When I've practiced as a paramedic the best practice was to ask the patient to point to the pain and not just verbally confirm

Two confusing ones I hear are:

“It’s my right, your left” (not common but has occurred multiple times).

The more frequent one is where someone is trying to say “medial side of left leg” and say “it’s the right side of of my left leg”.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#138

Post by marcosdumay »

digisign wrote: post #134
marcodiego wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English... what a language! The right side was actually the left side. Fortunately the talk was in Portuguese.

direito has the same issue in Portuguese, does it not?

Not exactly. "É o lado direito" is unambiguous, as the meaning of "correct" can not be used on this context.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#139

Post by Symbiote »

MPSimmons wrote: post #109
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it was: > They sterilised their equipment in cognac Is there a % alcohol requirement for using spirits to sterilize equipment?

eau de vie has an ABV of 72%, according to [1]. That's high enough to kill coronavirus, according to [2] [1] - https://blacktailnyc.com/wh at-is-the-abv-of-cognac/ [2] - https://www.marthastewart.com/7796118/isopropyl-alcohol-perc...

It says it was cognac, which is typically around 40%. That was probably the strongest alcoholic drink on the plane.

(70% in the maximum strength passengers are allowed to take, anything stronger is considered a flammable liquid.)

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#140

Post by vlovich123 »

kmano8 wrote: post #94
marcodiego wrote: post #14

I've had an spontaneous pneumothorax when I was a teenager. Had to undergo emergency surgery with only local anesthesia. The surgeon while cutting my chest asked: "You're sure it is this side, right?", which I confirmed. He then said: "Ok, if you're wrong I'm not going to jail alone."

This happened to me in college. Driving home from the movies, chest started to hurt on inhale .. I decided to "sleep it off", which obviously didn't work. Went to the ER in the morning. Got the chest tube and spent about a week seeing if it would heal naturally, then they removed the offending part of my lung, and did a mechanical pleurodesis (a procedure that sticks your lung to the chest wall so it can't collapse).…

I’d think you were my good friend in college except the height is wrong. Didn’t realize this was so common.
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