Hospital harassment

[AnIndependentTexan]

Posted at Kerry/Edwards forum by MetroRetro

http://forum.johnkerry.com/index.php?showtopic=85306&hl=

Not too long ago, there was a thread (I'm so po'd, I can't remember the poster's name - sorry!!!!) about a woman whose husband had been pulled over in a construction site, possibly because of the Kerry bumpersticker on his car. I think it was in Indiana.

Another poster said he doubted the story, but I was sure it was true going by the poster's history here.

Well, unbeknownst to my mother, my brother plastered a Kerry/Edwards sticker on our mother's car. My father, who has Parkinson's, just took a turn for the worse (temporarily) and had to be put in a rehab home today for a week of therapy. Before he was in the home, he was at the hospital.

My mother just called me crying and rather hysterical, not to mention very angry at my brother. When she went to have my father transferred via rescue to the home, they had to wait 3 hours for the doctor to show, which he never did. So my mother pulled her car up to the door to put my father inside her car. There was another doctor and two attendants who were supposed to assist her. Instead, the doctor saw the sticker and went back inside with the attendants, telling my mother to have John Kerry help her.

I'm fuming!!! My mother is 77 yrs old! My father can't walk, so he can't help himself.

No one better ever tell me again that stories such as this are not true or that Bush supporters are compassionate. I just called the hospital and b*tched the administrator out on his answering machine. The worst thing is, my mother can't remember the doctor's name.

Compassionate my left cheek.

Teri

[gardenista]

1. Your mother has a case. She should get a lawyer immediately. nt

[wildflower]

2. OMG...the doctor told your mother to have John Kerry help her??

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I agree with the first poster.

-wildflower

[oscar111]

3. cap dr salaries at fifty K to drive greedheads out

Nationalize first, then u can cap their wages at the average wage.

Greedheads have currently overrun that field. No way to keep them out except average wages.

Isnt that OBVIOUS?

Greedheads are the last type we need in the health field.

Some might be ultra smart, but they do NOT deliver what they know, because THEY DO NOT CARE. As your post proves. Another nondelivery example: the infamous widespread seven minute office visit.

Better to have caring drs who are a bit lower on entrance exams , yet deliver ALL they know.

Drive the greedheads out: 50 000 as the standard wage for nationalized dr's. Ban any private drs.

[IdaBriggs]

7. I disagree with you COMPLETELY.

Physicians spend an unbelievable amount of time preparing themselves for their field; they pay a ton of money for the privilege, and most live with below poverty wages during the hellish training referred to as "internship." At the end of their TWELVE YEARS OF TRAINING, they are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, have delayed starting their own families, and are "starting out" in their own careers, so they are EIGHT YEARS behind a "normal" college graduate in a) paying off their student loans, b) beginning to build "normal" assets, and c) starting to put money away for their own retirement and/or future dreams. Most get into the field because of a willingness to serve others, but then have to fight with medical insurance companies to treat patients how they want to treat them, struggle to pay their staff a decent wage, work 50+ hour work weeks, have above average divorce rates, and deal with people in emotional crisis on a regular basis while handling paperwork requirements that just don't stop. Oh, and they need to stay "up to date" on medical advances while memorizing all of their patients' personal information, and display decency and compassion 24/7 as they struggle to balance their own financial well being and that of their families with that of their patients!

There is always an opportunity cost for higher education; those in our health care fields deserve respect for their dedication to helping others. "Greed" is not the motivating factor for any medical professional I have EVER encountered; if it was, they would have started making money a good ten years before they did. Please think about these things. While the doctor who was posted about behaved badly, please remember everyone has bad days; it doesn't mean they are always "bad people."

[mhr]

15. Unemployed 51 Months Here - Cry Me A Bloody F**king River!

That doctor's behavior is unacceptable!

[LoZoccolo]

4. The doctor needs to lose his license.

We gotta get this guy fired. We cannot have these terrorists attacking citizens.

[AnIndependentTexan]

5. want to remind people I just reposted it from Kerry/Edwards forum

I wasn't invovled in anyway with this person. I just saw this there and thought it was something that should be posted because we might be able to help that person if they do end up needing us to dig any information up on the hospital or doctor.

[cheshire]

6. It just so happens Kerry and Edwards are lawyers. Sue the shit out of the

MF's. I would be down there with a lawyer asap. What a F**K.

[SheilaT]

8. Why does this sound like

urban legend to me? Is it because it's a re-posting? Is it because I simply do not believe that a doctor would refuse to aid a sick patient based on bumper stickers on the car? Is it because there are no specifics in the story? The hospital is not named, the city isn't named. Is it because there's no end to the story, no telling what precisely happened to the Dad? Did he go home and die? Did he somehow crawl into the hospital? Was he transported elsewhere?

Before you blindly believe such stories, be a little skeptical.

Plus, what is meant by "he was transferred via rescue to the home." I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what that meant, nor can I really follow the supposed sequence of events being related.

[wellstone dem]

9. During primary season

I had to take my daughter to the emergency room, she had torn a ligament and chipped her knee cap (though we didn't know that at the time) a nurse's aid came out with the wheel chair. As she wheeled my crying daughter past the rear end of my car, she looked at me and said, "I love your stickers!"

[oscar111]

10. not an urban legend IMHO..sounds like the real world that is unreported by

the corporate media to the middle and upper classes.

That is why it may sound like urban legend to the above poster. Life at the lower levels is mighty rough, and rarely reported. eg i was ordered off a bus for requesting a currentdate transfer, to correct being given a flawed one.

I was polite, the driver extremely rude. This sort of injustice never gets into the tv news.

Result: the upper and middle classes wonder what the lower levels are griping about. Their delusions up there, are fed also by papercolumnists like Novack. THey think the gripe stories from below are "urban legends" and so they live in blissful ignorance. Buying BMW's and driving past the freezing homeless.

[CrowNotAngelGRL]

17. It wouldn't surprise me personally

because I have heard of reps vandilizing so why not this?

[cyr330]

11. I'm a hospital administrator

And the ONLY way to get satisfaction out of this entire sorry situation is to write a letter and describe EXACTLY what happened, WHEN it happened (Date, time, etc.) and WHERE it happened. Describe the people involved, and they CAN be located. When hospitals receive written complaints, they are obliged to answer and do something about it. I strongly urge you to do so.

[Sugarbleus]

12. Wow....

I don't know if this story is true but I do know that odd things happen all over the place.

In an extremely tense and divided election year, almost anything is possible. Filing the appropriate complaints are the way to go.

Someone here made mention of how lower income/class individuals are treated in general.....in that I absolutely agree. It is different for these people (of which I am one) in health care, in the courts, in housing, in consumer affairs..in many places. There is a different standard and a different attitude towards people of lesser means.

The ill treatment isn't absolute across the board, but often enough to be a huge problem. AND..........politics DOES play a huge part in many many cases. Doctors and lawyers and Realtors etc are human beings with points of view and philosophies like anyone else...it comes through when they deal with people who may have a differing view. It REALLY comes through when you're dealing with a professional who may be a Republican and you are POOR democrat or simply POOR.

My husband is seeing a doctor right now who is a flaming conservative...he is a libertarian to be exact. He IS NUTS. And he is incompetent. If this guy knew that we were supporters of Kerry, he would blow a fuse and begin to show even LESS care towards my husband. The reason we cannot find another doctor is because husband is on Medicaid. There is a "list" of doctors who will take this insurance and IT'S SHORT. The one's with "open lists" are, well, NOT OPEN to new patients at this point. HE IS STUCK.

My sister has no health insurance whatsoever. Her husband died last year and left her without life insurance etc. She is having a horrible time finding some sort of healthcare for herself; in the meantime, she is scraping money together so she can afford an occasional office visit with a doc in her area that she's seen over the years. She went in the other week because her knees are bothering her. My sister had her money for the office visit and told the nurse she wanted to make the same arrangements as before--pay off whatever other tests needed on a monthly basis. The nurse told her she couldn't even make an office appointment using CASH!!! They had changed their policy to Insurance ONLY. ?????????????????????? NO CASH whatsoever.

My daughter and I were treated like shit by a lawyer who was a conservative/anti-woman (as we discovered after the fact). We were dealing with a custody issue out of state.... A VERY VERY CONSERVATIVE STATE. We BARELY won, and only won an eentsy weensy bit. The lawyer got his money we got the SHAFT. We were DEVASTATED. A Kerry sticker would have put us over the edge with them in that matter too. No doubt about it.

I'd like to tell you the story of how we are being treated by the people who inspect this property/landowners. I'd like to relate to you how I'm treated when I go to get my eyes examined by a conservative optometrist. It's very uncomfortable.

I wish I could "show" you..really relate to you the things I've seen and experienced in terms of discrimination--which stems from POLITICS really. It would, hopefully, open your eyes and blow you away.

[SheilaT]

13. But isn't it nice to know

that your sister is one of only about 5 million so uninsured? (Sarcasm alert). There are so many un- and under-insured Americans out there that it's not funny.

I don't deny the conservative professionals out there, and among other things I think it's criminal that so many physicians won't take Medicare/Medicaid patients. I think it's beyond criminal that we are the only first world country without a national health care system.

I still say the story reported sounds like urban legend precisely because of the lack of details. However, if it did happen, the people involved absolutely should contact the hospital involved documenting the specifics.

[Sugarbleus]

14. Yes, indeed......

I would have thought our society might have reached an enlightened and forward thinking period by now.

My favorite chant: "Keep Hope Alive" is what I leave to my children and grandchildren. I may never live to see the "enlightened" age come to America, but that doesn't mean it can't. I urge all the younger ones out there to take this with them also. Don't let America be the only country that rolls back into the dark ages... Push forward, Dream big, don't back down.......KEEP HOPE ALIVE

[CrowNotAngelGRL]

16. How unfair and horrible!

You should tell everybody you know about that story if that's how Bush supporters treat people. :mad:

[Shopaholic]

18. When I checked to see who had donated to * in my town

the list was jam-packed with every doctor in this town. Remember, he's going to protect them from those pesky malpractice suits so they can practice their love for women. Remember he's going to give them huge tax-cuts and let them have every tax shelter so they can hold onto more of their money.