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My Sudden Trip to Hell

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Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#61

Post by bitL »

flr03 wrote: post #54
saiya-jin wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider it a mandatory equipment of the household. Primarily I take them on trips to remote 3rd world countries where you can't rely on quick quality health care, even though most of the time I come back home with them untouched. For me its usually Sumamed, plus whatever specific for destination (malaria pills, stomach/throat, eyes etc.). Just beware of the expiration - they may lose potency and better renew…

You really don't want people to have ready to use antibiotics at home. It's already very difficult to contain bacteria resistance to antibiotics. Very soon people would not only die from rare bacteria related decease but any kind of random bacteria infection.

Your points are valid, people are irresponsible with antibiotics, however consider that e.g. 1 hour drive to emergency would cost you an arm, literally, whereas quickly eating 5 pills of wide-spectrum antibiotics would keep the infection at bay and give you time to drive to ER without any adversarial effects on your future life. What would be your choice?

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#62

Post by barbecue_sauce »

narcindin wrote: post #59
corry wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't want to spark a healthcare debate, but want to mention that I bet NONE of the non-US readers on HN would have given a single thought about the costs involved if this was happening in their countries. It's wild to me that the potential financial impact of this was part of the picture for many of the US people reading it (especially the startup founders who are probably without insurance right now, and this would…

"Don't want to spark a healthcare debate..." but you do want to get in your jabs under the pretense of "not starting a debate". How do I respond to this comment without "starting a debate"?

How are these "jabs"?

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#63

Post by Ididntdothis »

udkl wrote: post #50
twoquestions wrote: post #42

Considering the bills for a condition like this, I'd be wondering if it's even worth it to go to the doctor. My life isn't worth the destitution visited on everyone I know necessary to keep me alive, and I can't imagine the moral calculus his family had to go through. I'm glad this guy could get the care needed to survive, and I wish him the very best in his recovery.

Can anyone make a good guess on how much this would have cost here in the US and if it had happened in Canada ?

In the US the cost must have been in the millions. I know people who ran up several million dollar bills during cancer treatment.

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#64

Post by Ididntdothis »

aantix wrote: post #53
kerkeslager wrote: post #47

It's a sign of what it's like to be an American that the following stood out to me: The timing of his illness is rather unfortunate, as it caught him in New York, rather than Toronto, which probably cost him a lot of money.

Pay for it with taxes, pay for it with premiums and bills. You’re paying for it. No one works for free, the medicine costs money. The money comes from somewhere.

The doctors’ and hospital administrators’ sports cars aren’t cheap either.

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#65

Post by Sean1708 »

aantix wrote: post #53
kerkeslager wrote: post #47

It's a sign of what it's like to be an American that the following stood out to me: The timing of his illness is rather unfortunate, as it caught him in New York, rather than Toronto, which probably cost him a lot of money.

Pay for it with taxes, pay for it with premiums and bills. You’re paying for it. No one works for free, the medicine costs money. The money comes from somewhere.

And when you make healthcare a for-profit business, everyone pays more.

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#66

Post by C1sc0cat »

madaxe_again wrote: post #10

I was going to say “I recall when I had sepsis in my teens”, but the truth of it is that I don’t - there’s a six week hole in my memory, that skips straight from lying in a pool of blood and puss on the floor of the kitchen at school, having a mop thrust in my face, to lying in a bed in hospital with tubes snaking out of me. The weird thing is, despite being unconscious for over a month, I woke up feeling like I hadn…

Wow - when I read that article and your experience my brush with sepsis seems quite tame.

I went from feeling fine to I might need a repeat prescription, to having to get a taxi home.

The next day I ended up doing an end run around A&E and went from the lower risk renal ward to the high risk to the ic ward and spent two weeks in Lister.

I am surprised that the US hospital didn't recognise it though - senior Nephrologist who saw me after said its "bloody easy to diagnose"

And yes I did get a blocking for not calling 999 (911) when it happened

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#67

Post by [deleted] »

10122018 wrote: post #51
realshowbiz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. You have one life, and it’s worth living with or without money.

Spoken like somebody who has money. Do you have any idea how much pain and suffering a person can endure due to having no money? I don't think it's your place to say that person's life is worth living.

[deleted]

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#68

Post by corry »

narcindin wrote: post #59
corry wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't want to spark a healthcare debate, but want to mention that I bet NONE of the non-US readers on HN would have given a single thought about the costs involved if this was happening in their countries. It's wild to me that the potential financial impact of this was part of the picture for many of the US people reading it (especially the startup founders who are probably without insurance right now, and this would…

"Don't want to spark a healthcare debate..." but you do want to get in your jabs under the pretense of "not starting a debate". How do I respond to this comment without "starting a debate"?

Wasn't intended to be a jab... just a reflection on my own reaction reading it. Up until reading the parent comment, not once did I think about the potential financial ruin of this family (whereas the comment suggested that that was one of the immediate thoughts in his/her mind).

I personally find it interesting and worthy of discussion that different developed nations can have such different "risk profiles" for entrepreneurs. If anything, it makes me respect US founders even more... since when they set out (and presumably don't have insurance yet), they are risking far more (i.e. their family's long-term financial destitution) vs. a founder in a country with public healthcare.

Not an expert on this, just my reflections.

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#69

Post by saiya-jin »

flr03 wrote: post #54
saiya-jin wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider it a mandatory equipment of the household. Primarily I take them on trips to remote 3rd world countries where you can't rely on quick quality health care, even though most of the time I come back home with them untouched. For me its usually Sumamed, plus whatever specific for destination (malaria pills, stomach/throat, eyes etc.). Just beware of the expiration - they may lose potency and better renew…

You really don't want people to have ready to use antibiotics at home. It's already very difficult to contain bacteria resistance to antibiotics. Very soon people would not only die from rare bacteria related decease but any kind of random bacteria infection.

Obviously, this is a long known issue. My stash mostly just expires or gets used while travelling in places like Himalaya or remote tropical jungles where it really makes a difference. My wife is a doctor so that helps.

A single guy having strict antibiotics discipline doesn't mean anything when you have 1 billion+ countries like India where strong generic antibiotics are sold to anybody over the counter (at least that was the case in 2010).

Once I didn't have them on Kilimanjaro and I went from being perfectly OK to almost passing out within 1 freakin' hour from extremely strong gastro infection. Luckily peace corps members of the team had some and they almost immediately helped a lot (I still had what one can call a shitty experience of the peak, albeit successful). In situations like these you don't care about long-term good of the mankind, you just want to survive, far from any professional help.

Re: My Sudden Trip to Hell

#70

Post by gamblor956 »

corry wrote: post #48
corry wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's Canadian I believe; so while I'm not sure how his care in NYC would be billed, I think it would be still covered by OHIP (the public health insurance in Ontario Canada) or maybe travel insurance. Certainly all the care he received in Toronto would have been covered, assuming he's Canadian.

Don't want to spark a healthcare debate, but want to mention that I bet NONE of the non-US readers on HN would have given a single thought about the costs involved if this was happening in their countries. It's wild to me that the potential financial impact of this was part of the picture for many of the US people reading it (especially the startup founders who are probably without insurance right now, and this would…

Universal Healthcare is generally only a thing in Canada and the EU. It's great if you need to wait a few months to see a doctor, but I know plenty of Canadians and Europeans who come to the US for medical care so they don't have to wait.
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