Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 11/16/2025 8:17:27 AM PST by 4Runner
My wife age 81 recently developed the need to see a cardiologist for A-fib (non-valvular) which has been releasing blood clots into her lungs causing pulmonary edema and inability to breathe on two occasions requiring EMT intervention and hospitalization.
These events have also caused her to lose most of her ability to ambulate and have also caused loss of mental clarity.
The hospital has not provided us with a referral to a cardiologist only saying my wife needed to see one on an out-patient basis, and this despite having referred her the second time to a skilled nursing facility for physical therapy because she isn't able to walk on her own or even with my assistance.
Because of her increased disability I can no longer transport her on my own to medical facilities and appointments. I now use a wheelchair transport company to assist us. Problem is I have discovered dozens of "pediatric cardiologists" practicing in Tampa, but the only ones taking "adult or elderly" patients are located many miles away, which makes the wheelchair transport arrangement hellaciously expensive.
Additionally, the "pediatric cardiologists" practicing locally to us are all foreign nationals and not American. This is shocking to me.
Why are there so many of these non-American doctors in Tampa practicing in pediatric cardiology, but none in elder or adult cardiology?
And whom are they ministering to, the illegal alien anchor babies?
It is generally known the birthrate for Anerican women is at its lowest in decades, while for Hispanics and other foreign-born women it is out of control.
If anyone on FR knows of an American cardiologist not in pediatrics practicing locally in Tampa please let me know. It would be most appreciated.
Thank you.
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
The answer starts with “M” and ends with “Y”.
Malpractice lawsuits
W.C., I have relatives and friends concentrated mostly in 3 states, PA, NY and AL. Quite a few are in the medical profession and nearly all are non-Hispanic and white. I take many of my elderly neighbors to doctor visits and to hospitals (guess that makes me their transport service!) and while I do see lots of foreign names, I wouldn’t say they are the majority.
But when you live in an urban area, yes, the non-American seem to be majority in the medical profession. Just another good reason to go rural.
Prayers heading up for your wife, 4Runner, and don’t let the indifferent people discourage you, keep pushing and seeking. Big hospitals have all sorts of advantages for all sorts of challenges but they don’t advertise them. Someone there knows how you can get additional help, and you will find that someone.
My wife’s PCP is Cuban. Cuban MD’s have always had a good reputation.
These “cardiologists” on the other hand have names you cannot pronounce. Nor could you spell them even if you had the spelling right in front of your eyes.
The only practitioners who are American or even from Latin America are the APRN’s showing up down toward the bottom of the search.
Wow, that's a lot. When I had cancer in 1996 my insurance company was billed less that 100k for six months of treatment. Of course, 1996 was practically the dark ages in terms of medical billing. I suppose it didn't hurt that the medical group and the HMO were owned by the same group of doctors.
For some reason this reminds me of an article I read here some time ago from a Freeper who attended some university/college/trade school graduation and he noticed that all the graduates in medical coding were Muslim. All of them. Almost as if that field of education was targeted ... one can come to several conclusions about the why.
BFLR
Thank you for your kind words.
If there was a well-trained foreign-born MD in the specialty she needs in our immediate area, I wouldn’t hesitate to go there. Unfortunately there isn’t one. They are all pediatric.
Whatever happened to the constant reminders we used to get from the NIH and other government agencies about heart disease was the number one killer of Americans? And now there aren’t any American cardiologists for adults or elderly practicing in a major American city?
Seems to have happened suddenly . . .
Unfortunately, I do not have an answer to your question but I can offer some potentially helpful advise. Look into a device called a “Watchman” to help reduce the risk of future blood clots from her A-fib condition.
Good luck winning a STEM seat over a full-paying CCP spy.
I don’t like having to ask but WHO was her original cardiologist and where? She had to have one who diagnosed her with A Fib to begin with. Did you move away from her original doctor?
It’s a pistol facing these problems and I can empathize with you. These problems all seem to come at the same time. I sometimes say I wish they had come when we were younger and better able to handle them.
I wish the best for you and your wife.
I googled cardiologists in Tampa, and there are a lot. I don’t understand why you would specify an “American ” cardiologist. If you are from a foreign trained medical school , you still have to pass US exams, and go through a US residency. The best foreign trained doctors that I have personally seen were from India. You need to check where they did residency and fellowship.
People, file this item in the category . . . I didn’t know that.
A provider quotes a price for a service. It will have a medical code number. Commercial insurers negotiate a price for that code maybe a year ago. That is what they will pay and the provider agrees to that in order to get that insurer’s flow of patients.
The Medicare price allowed for that code is roughly 1/2 of what commercial insurers will pay. The provider is looking at maybe 1/4 of what their quoted price was (for uninsured).
So hell yes, if they can get away from elderly patients, who are paying 1/2 of what a younger insured patient will pay for a given code then of course they prefer the younger patient.
Regular Medicare does not pay for non-emergency medical transportation.
FYI
Door-to-Door Transportation
There has to be major cardiovascular groups in Tampa. Organized around either hospitals and/or PPO in and out of network, which should be located through your Medicare advantage provider. Another way would be to go to online major medical schools- the Big 5 centers for cardio specialty fellowships which turn out US grad cardio’s are: Harvard/ Brigham Women’s, Duke Medical, Baylor,/ Houston,UCLA, Cleveland Clinic. Iirc these have locators on their sites for alumni grads in practice (via Zip Code). Looking some in Tampa, the ones there are likely affiliated with U of FL . You don’t have to be stuck with the referal from a primary care, ie go out of network to self referral .
indeed it has
So yeah it begins to feel like it really is thinly-disguised medical senicide or geronticide.
So no one is about to prosecute an MD for ignoring the needs of their elder patients. And for being arrogant while doing so.
The doctors and lawyers are all on the same page.
This wouldn’t be happening if they weren’t.
Thank you. There is a large cardiac specialty hospital in Tampa. I saw it yesterday evening on my drive back home from my wife’s facility.
She had just berated me for not smuggling in her own pain meds from home which I told her was against the rules.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.