Oops!

More Cuban slave doctors are needed in the Bolivarian 21st Century Socialist Republic of Venezuela Ruled by Citgo executive Hugo Chavez.

Carlos Camejo, a Venezuelan man who had been declared dead but woke up in the morgue in excruciating pain after medical examiners began their autopsy, poses for the camera in La Victoria September 17, 2007. Camejo, 33, was declared dead after a highway accident and taken to the morgue, where examiners began an autopsy only to realize something was amiss when he started bleeding. They quickly sought to stitch up the incision on his face.

hat tip: ¡No Pasarán!

Comparisons

The image on the left is the treatment room of a U.S. animal hospital in Roanoke, VA. Above is a patient ward at the government hospital in Placetas, Cuba.

If any more evidence was needed that Michael Moore is full of more than just hot air we now learn of the Canadian Liberal Party politician Belinda Stronach who travelled to California to obtain surgical treatment for her breast cancer

Stronach's spokesman, Greg MacEachern, told the Toronto Star that the MP for Newmarket-Aurora had a "later-stage" operation in the U.S. after a Toronto doctor referred her.[...] MacEachern said the decision was made because the U.S. hospital was the best place to have it done due to the type of surgery required.

This appears to be at odds with the message Michael Moore seems to be sending us with the recent release of his "documentary" Sicko wherein he touts the superiority of the socialist method of health care over our own somewhat private but highly regulated system.

A good side by side comparison of socialized versus private health care is this pearl courtesy of John Stossel:

Not all Canadian health care is long lines and lack of innovation. We found one place where providers offer easy access to cutting-edge life-saving technology, such as CT scans. And patients rarely wait.

But they have to bark or meow to get access to this technology. Vet clinics say they can get a dog or a cat in the next day. People have to wait a month or more.

Interestingly, this news comes a mere few days after the roll out of Hillary Care II which will address the so called crisis of the uninsured by forcing them to buy health insurance. One can only marvel at the possible reaction to the first law in United States history that will compel citizens to purchase a product they may not desire. Hillary goes on to assure us that this is really not so far fetched as most states require auto insurance in order register an automobile and drive it upon public highways. She conveniently fails to address the issue of forcing one to buy auto insurance if they do not own a car.
cross posted at: Eternity Road

Michael Moore, Call Your office!

While Cubans are dying for lack of medicines; Castro is donating 5 tons of drugs to Peru.

Everyday we hear reports from Cuban-Americans who have to send medicines to Cuba, because their relatives can't find any in the local pharmacies.

When a relative is going to have surgery in Cuba, Cuban-Americans are forced to send everything, including the anesthesia.

But while Cubans are dying due to the lack of medicines, the dictator is giving tons of them away to foreign countries for propaganda purposes.

Here is a report in Monday's Prensa Latina:

Lima, Jul 23 (Prensa Latina) Cuba will deliver five tons of medicines in the next few days for those affected by the cold spell gripping the Peruvian Andes, the island"s charge d"Affaires to this capital Pastor Rodriguez stated.

The diplomat said this during a Sunday jubilant act in occasion of the 54th anniversary of the attack on Moncada Barracks, an armed action of the Cuban Revolution against the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship (1953-1959).

Amid applauses, Rodriguez announced the donation of medicines among his country's examples of international solidarity, which in case of Peru, the island was the first nation that in 1970 gave support to victims of a devastating earthquake.

"¡SOCIALISMO O MUERTE!"...

The slogan decorates many of the billboards in Havana and other Cuban cities and translates "socialism or death". The reality is more likely "socialismo es muerte" (socialism is death).


An example of the "great health facilities" that Castro has built for the Cuban people

On May 20, 1989, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro inaugurated the new maternity ward at the Julio Trigo Hospital in Arroyo Naranjo, near Havana. It was a very modern facility with 425 beds. Here is what he said at the time:

"Well, I think we have a magnificent hospital facility. It was finished a few weeks ago and has already started to render services, except the inauguration was delayed a little. That's fine though because we are still on time. I was saying that it is a magnificent hospital facility. I asked the public health investor: How does it compare with other maternity hospitals? He said to me: Undoubtedly, this is the best one in Cuba. This is logical because I think that every new thing we make should be better.... As with every one of these hospitals, there will be something that will be amended, there will be things that are perfected. Even though they are similar projects, there is no doubt that each one will be better than the other. Here, however, we have the best maternity-infant hospital in the country."...If we use the advantages of socialism, everything is possible. You can see yourselves here. You are all mixed--construction workers, doctors, students. We have mixed health, construction, and politics. Fatherland or death, we shall win"

That was in 1989. The photo above is how "the best maternity-infant hospital" in Cuba looks now.

Get In Line!!

With most of the current crop of next year's presidential hopefuls in the Democratic party signing on to the socialized medicine bandwagon it is appropriate to examine the results of adopting such a program.

Canadian citizen Lindsay McCreith’s Medical History

In January 2006, Mr. McCreith suffered his first seizure. The Newmarket Hospital diagnoses his seizure as epileptic and prescribes anti-seizure drugs. Mr. McCreith has a MRI scheduled for May 27, 2006.

During the month of January 2006, Mr. McCreith continues to suffer from headaches and seizures on an almost daily basis. Mr. McCreith decides to seek a second opinion.

On February 2, 2006, Mr. McCreith contacts Timely Medical Alternatives and the next day has an MRI in Buffalo, New York USA and is diagnosed with a brain tumour.

On February 13, 2006, Mr. McCreith returns to Buffalo for a specialist consultation.

On March 6, 2006, Mr. McCreith returns again to Buffalo for a scheduled biopsy, during which time doctors decide immediately to perform surgery and remove tumour.

On March 14, the pathology report concludes that Mr. McCreith’s tumour was malignant.

On May 23, 2006, OHIP rejects Mr. McCreith’s application for refund of medical costs of $27,600 ($US) that he paid out of pocket to the Buffalo hospital.

In November 2006, Mr. McCreith is cancer-free and agrees to begin process of filing lawsuit against Ontario provincial government.

Mrs. ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ is a Swedish citizen and has a sister that recently was allowed to undergo a colonoscopy after a 5 month wait. For those of you who have "enjoyed" such a procedure, imagine having it done without benefit of anesthetic. That "frill" was too costly for the Swedish taxpayers to underwrite.

UPDATE 14 Feb 2007 09:05

London's Observer (3/3/02) carried a story saying that an "unpublished report shows some patients are now having to wait more than eight months for treatment, during which time many of their cancers become incurable." Another story said, "According to a World Health Organisation report to be published later this year, around 10,000 British people die unnecessarily from cancer each year -- three times as many as are killed on our roads."

Despite the long waiting times Canadians suffer, sometimes resulting in death, under federal law, private clinics are not legally allowed to provide services covered by the Canada Health Act.

Some of our politicians hold up the Canadian and British nationalized health care systems as models for us. You can bet that should we ever have such a system, they would exempt themselves from what the rest of us would have to endure.