There is a shocking report out of Brazil where an elderly woman reportedly died after being given an injection with soup. Yes, soup. The stories sent to me remain in Spanish or Portuguese only though the image of this hospital on television reports in Brazil does not fill one with confidence. [Warning graphic description below]
This story follows an equally horrific account of doctor pulling off the head of a baby in delivery — requiring a Caesarian to remove the rest of baby’s body.
Brazil is an interesting legal system because the Brazilian legal system adopted the Federal Constitution enacted in 1988 made the defense of consumers into a constitutional right. Pursuant to Article 5, the Constitution states, “The Brazilian State will promote, in the terms of the law, the defense of the consumer.” Accordingly, the court play a much more direct and active role in addressing such cases of malpractice. However, problems remain including what Eduardo Dantas refers to serious problems with basic concepts of informed consent. Eduardo Dantas, A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: The Development of Medical Malpractice Litigation in Brazil , 87 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 3 (2012).
It is not clear whether the hospital intentionally injected the soup under some primitive notion of nourishment or it was done by mistake. I am not sure whether would be scarier: the notion that they would believe this would work or that they could confuse a soup container with a medicine.
Karl Friedrich 1, October 11, 2012 at 8:34 pm
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They saved her life. If you’re male, they will kill you.
NOTE TO SELF: Never, ever, ever get health care in Brazil.
Rejane Moreira Telles, Student Nurse, Allegedly Injects Palmerina Pires Ribeiro, Patient, With Coffee
Somehow Im willing to wager that George Bush is to blame.
Yeah and the Iraqis didn’t even send Jessica Lynch or her employer a bill! Gotta love it!
Hey Bruce. Got news for you. The average 50 year old small business owner with zero health care coverage for him & his employees because it’s way too unaffordable, who are all a mild heart attack away from financial ruin & bankruptcy, would love to have the free doctors & medicine & hospitals that Cuba manages to provide all its citizens despite being a tiny, poor, isolated island nation that has endured 50 years worth of Uncle Sam’s blockades & economic strangulation.
No body’s made the argument, like you seem to be doing, that 3rd world health care matches 1st world health care. That’s not the point. The point is if you cannot afford 1st world health care, and bankruptcy awaits those in the US who get sick with no coverage, then something that should be a right (for what good is life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness if an unfortunate sickness bankrupts hard working people) should not leave so many millions in so precarious a position, especially when so many other industrialized 1st countries (like all of them except the USA) have figured out a better way.
To Moore’s credit he sure did make quite an ass of all the flag waving 911 blowhards when he showed how screwed all the 911 rescue volunteers were, so much so that Congress had to belatedly & begrudgingly pass a law.
Contrary to the mindless chants of: USA #1 — we’re the best!” Fact is — what a pathetic embarrassment this country’s health care system is!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lynch
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nick spinelli 1, October 11, 2012 at 11:06 am
Bruce, In 1987 I was in a Medellin hospital w/ my adopted son for some blood work. I felt like I stepped back into the 1950′s.
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The Iraqi’s saved Jessica Lynch.
Bruce….why do you say that?
Brazil…..Who would have thought…..
Bruce said:
“Healthcare in the U.S. is the best.”
Bruce –
Please do yourself & your loved ones a big favor, and do some homework. It just might save your life
The correct answer is, the BEST of U.S. health care is indeed exemplary, and often is among the best in the world.
Unfortunately, not every citizen gains access to the best we have, and what they often get in return is mediocre at best, and homicidal at worst.
No healthcare system in toto, could possibly rank as the “best,” when it kills 400+ citizens each day. Wouldn’t you agree?
“People go to foreign countries for health care as a last resort.”
Many folks do indeed seek out alternative treatment in other countries, and the results run the gamut, from interesting, to awful.
But considerably more seek treatment – especially surgical & dental – because it is not only equal or superior to, what they might have gotten under their own health plans, but considerably more affordable.
As a simple example, I suggest you take a look at the small Mexican border city of Los Algodones, (near Yuma, Az) where hundreds of thousands of Americans go for dental work.
Why? The 300+ dentists and oral surgeons in that tiny town are affordable, and their work is outstanding.
chicken soup may be good for the soul, just not intravenously.
Gene,
Facts have no place in discussing US health care. You should know better.
Also, you ever notice how claims like ” I could give you a couple myself, ” never seem to get followed up on?
“World Health Organization Assesses the World’s Health Systems
The World Health Organization has carried out the first ever analysis of the world’s health systems. Using five performance indicators to measure health systems in 191 member states, it finds that France provides the best overall health care followed among major countries by Italy, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan.
The findings are published today, 21 June, in The World Health Report 2000 – Health systems: Improving performance*.
*Copies of the Report can be ordered from bookorders@who.ch.
The U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of GDP on health services, ranks 18 th . Several small countries – San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.
WHO Director-General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland says: ‘The main message from this report is that the health and well- being of people around the world depend critically on the performance of the health systems that serve them. Yet there is wide variation in performance, even among countries with similar levels of income and health expenditure. It is essential for decision- makers to understand the underlying reasons so that system performance, and hence the health of populations, can be improved.’
Dr Christopher Murray, Director of WHO’s Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy. says: ‘Although significant progress has been achieved in past decades, virtually all countries are under- utilizing the resources that are available to them. This leads to large numbers of preventable deaths and disabilities; unnecessary suffering, injustice, inequality and denial of an individual’s basic rights to health.’
The impact of failures in health systems is most severe on the poor everywhere, who are driven deeper into poverty by lack of financial protection against ill- health, the report says.
“The poor are treated with less respect, given less choice of service providers and offered lower- quality amenities,” says Dr Brundtland. ‘In trying to buy health from their own pockets, they pay and become poorer.’
The World Health Report says the main failings of many health systems are:
Many health ministries focus on the public sector and often disregard the frequently much larger private sector health care.
In many countries, some if not most physicians work simultaneously for the public sector and in private practice. This means the public sector ends up subsidizing unofficial private practice.
Many governments fail to prevent a ‘black market’ in health, where widespread corruption, bribery, ‘moonlighting’ and other illegal practices flourish. The black markets, which themselves are caused by malfunctioning health systems, and low income of health workers, further undermine those systems.
Many health ministries fail to enforce regulations that they themselves have created or are supposed to implement in the public interest.
Dr Julio Frenk, Executive Director for Evidence and Information for Policy at WHO, says: ‘By providing a comparative guide to what works and what doesn’t work, we can help countries to learn from each other and thereby improve the performance of their health systems.’
Dr Philip Musgrove, editor-in-chief of the report, says: ‘The WHO study finds that it isn’t just how much you invest in total, or where you put facilities geographically, that matters. It’s the balance among inputs that counts – for example, you have to have the right number of nurses per doctor.’
Most of the lowest placed countries are in sub-Saharan Africa where life expectancies are low. HIV and AIDS are major causes of ill-health. Because of the AIDS epidemic, healthy life expectancy for babies born in 2000 in many of these nations has dropped to 40 years or less.
One key recommendation from the report is for countries to extend health insurance to as large a percentage of the population as possible. WHO says that it is better to make “pre-payments” on health care as much as possible, whether in the form of insurance, taxes or social security.
While private health expenses in industrial countries now average only some 25 percent because of universal health coverage (except in the United States, where it is 56%), in India, families typically pay 80 percent of their health care costs as ‘out-of- pocket’ expenses when they receive health care.
‘It is especially beneficial to make sure that as large a percentage as possible of the poorest people in each country can get insurance,” says Dr Frenk. “Insurance protects people against the catastrophic effects of poor health. What we are seeing is that in many countries, the poor pay a higher percentage of their income on health care than the rich.’
‘In many countries without a health insurance safety net, many families have to pay more than 100 percent of their income for health care when hit with sudden emergencies. In other words, illness forces them into debt.”
In designing the framework for health system performance, WHO broke new methodological ground, employing a technique not previously used for health systems. It compares each country’s system to what the experts estimate to be the upper limit of what can be done with the level of resources available in that country. It also measures what each country’s system has accomplished in comparison with those of other countries.
WHO’s assessment system was based on five indicators: overall level of population health; health inequalities (or disparities) within the population; overall level of health system responsiveness (a combination of patient satisfaction and how well the system acts); distribution of responsiveness within the population (how well people of varying economic status find that they are served by the health system); and the distribution of the health system’s financial burden within the population (who pays the costs).'”
Who beats the U.S.? Find out here.
” I tell people, if you love someone don’t leave them unattended in the hospital.” (Nancy Parris)
There are 4 RN’s, 3 MD’s, and 1 DO in my immediate family and every single one of them repeat the above like a mantra along with “ask questions” and “demand answers” and “surgery is the last resort”. They say nurses and doctors make the worse patients … there’s a reason for that.
Healthcare in the U.S. is the best, people go to foreign countries for health care as a last resort. M. M. commentated on how great the Cuban health care system with Castro in charge. that’s all that I was trying to get across.
Karl what is an iskra agent?
Bruce wonders about Michael Moore but i wonder if Bruce’s parents had any children that lived?
I thought he blew off his own ass.
after blowing off his very own are in a car chase …
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arm, his very own arm….
Bruce said:
“Wonder if Michael Moore thinks Brazilian hospitals are better than U.S. hospitals too.”
Bruce –
MM’s rather thorough research already picked up on the fact that Brazil’s health care system is pretty punky – 125th of the 190 countries assessed by W.H.O.
We – on the other hand – have considerably more to be proud of, The U.S. generally ranks around 37th on the planet – usually a little better than Slovenia, but not quite as robust as Columbia, Cypress, Morocco and Chile.
Wootsy, I know you were serious.