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Quebec Man Dies After He Forgets Health Card and Is Forced to Return Home
Canoe ^ | April 23, 2004 | The Canadian Press

Posted on 04/23/2004 8:48:34 PM PDT by quidnunc

Montreal – A 21-year-old man died of appendicitis after he was refused treatment at an emergency clinic because he didn't have his provincial health card with him.

Gerald Augustin complained of stomach pains on Thursday but the receptionist at the St-Andre medical centre told him he had to return home to get his health card. He didn't make it back to the clinic in Montreal's east end.

About four hours later, a friend alerted police and called an ambulance for the man, who had a fatal attack of appendicitis in his apartment. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

Rouslene Augustin, administrator at the St-Andre clinic, said the man didn't appear to have any urgent symptoms when he came to the clinic.

"If this guy was an emergency case, we would accept him if he had his card or not," she said.

"I don't see what we did wrong. I'm not defending the clinic, we just followed the rules."

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at cnews.canoe.ca ...


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: canuckistan; canucknuts; healhcare; socializedmedicine
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To: Libertina
Subhuman Government-drone Quote of the Week
LOL!
61 posted on 04/23/2004 10:23:40 PM PDT by samtheman (www.georgewbush.com)
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To: quidnunc
hmm. Appendicitis doesn't kill in four hours. He must have delayed seeking treatment for a day or two, or maybe he died of something else...
62 posted on 04/23/2004 10:35:56 PM PDT by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people)
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To: LadyDoc
He died from Bureacratis Socialistis
63 posted on 04/23/2004 10:41:28 PM PDT by GeronL (John F Kerry; Repeat to thyself often: The Mississippi is not the Mekong Delta)
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To: quidnunc
Hmmm... the docs offices that I've worked at here would have fired ME if I'd had turned away someone without their insurance card. The motto usually is, the paperwork can always be done. Yes, it is important for the patient to have the insurance information at the time of check-in, BUT patient care supersedes all paperwork. The only exception I've ever encountered are drug seekers who are running con games. Those are the ones that better have all their info ahead of time as when they were turned down for narcotics, we never saw them again. Again, thank God for the USA... we may not be perfect, but we still are better than any of the rest.
64 posted on 04/23/2004 10:57:14 PM PDT by Cate (Bush is da' man...)
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To: quidnunc
And after all: RULES ARE RULES!
65 posted on 04/23/2004 11:24:18 PM PDT by Travis Lee
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To: Travis Lee
"I don't see what we did wrong. I'm not defending the clinic, we just followed the rules."

Jawhol mein beurocraten!
66 posted on 04/23/2004 11:36:17 PM PDT by Jason Kauppinen
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To: DoughtyOne
Most hospitals have to deal with these two entities, that tell the hospitals how much they'll pay, damn the costs. Then the government forces these hospitals to serve illegals, which don't pay a dime. It's amazing to me that we have any healthcare system left in this nation.

It's just gonna get worse too. I think there is an emerging trend for boutique hospitals or short stay centers. The patients who are being referred to those locations seem to be the better insured patients leaving only Medicare Medicaid and very ill high acuity patients to be cared for at traditional hospitals. With all of the attendant services needed for the very sick population they have high expenses and will not be recouping those with Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement rates.

The next 10 years are going to be very interesting.

67 posted on 04/23/2004 11:45:58 PM PDT by not_apathetic_anymore
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To: not_apathetic_anymore
I agree with your comments. That is the trend and it will indeed be an interesting ten years. Also, hospitals are only one manifestation of this national illness IMO.
68 posted on 04/23/2004 11:49:02 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: quidnunc
This is why we don't want Hillary Healthcare!!
69 posted on 04/24/2004 12:09:57 AM PDT by CyberAnt (The 2004 Election is for the SOUL of AMERICA)
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To: quidnunc
"If this guy was an emergency case, we would accept him if he had his card or not," she said.

Duh. This was an emergency clinic. Why else would the guy be there if it wasn't an emergency?

My stepdad died because a triage nurse blew him off, and my sister nearly died once for the same reason. My family is very stoic; we don't whine and cry like babies, and we seek to hide our weaknesses. In emergency situations, we tend to be calm and unemotional. I wonder if this guy was the same way, and that's why they blew him off.

I'm beginning to think that medical professionals need to take yet another "diversity" class: One that teaches them that there is a such thing as the polar opposite of a hypochondriac. Then maybe the next time someone walks up to a triage nurse and without wincing, calmly explains that they're in extreme pain, they won't be ignored the way my stepdad and my sister were.

70 posted on 04/24/2004 1:05:36 AM PDT by schmelvin
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To: quidnunc
The U.S. Government has a law on the books called the Emergency Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) which is a section of the broader Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA) that was enacted by Congress in 1986.

It states that all emergency patients must be treated to the best of the hospital's capabilities regardless of the patient's ability or inability to pay.

In short, if this had happened in the U.S., the Federal Government would have descended upon the Hospital and all individuals involved like Attila the Hun.

71 posted on 04/24/2004 1:20:39 AM PDT by Polybius
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To: McGavin999
"Free healthcare for everyone........if you can manage to live long enough to get it."

Probably on a par with the social security disability system here, in which they take your money without your consent as long as you are working but when the doctors all say that you are unfit to work they spend all your tax money fighting your disability claim rather than paying it out to you as they promised. At least this is the way it seems to work here, I am told that in some areas it is much easier, it seems to boil down to which judge you get, the luck of the draw.
72 posted on 04/24/2004 3:22:57 AM PDT by RipSawyer (John Kerrey evokes good memories, OF MY FAVORITE MULE!)
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To: quidnunc
"I don't see what we did wrong. I'm not defending the clinic, we just followed the rules."

The unvarying motto of the bureaucrat.

73 posted on 04/24/2004 6:14:23 AM PDT by atomicpossum (Hobbits offer only Tolkien resistance.)
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To: quidnunc
Oh I wish we could all have equal access to healthcare like that..............

74 posted on 04/24/2004 6:40:00 AM PDT by festus
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To: Libertina
If everyone is covered, why do they need to show cards?

Identification and proof of residency. Health services are administered by the provinces.

75 posted on 04/24/2004 8:51:51 AM PDT by RansomOttawa (tm)
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Comment #76 Removed by Moderator

To: DoughtyOne
Learn Spanish, don your worst looking clothes, leave your I.D. at home, fein illiteracy and you'll get that bill written off faster than you can spit over the Rio Grande.

I've actually thought about changing my last name. Funny story: I had family who lived in San Jose in the 70's. They're from my mom's side of the family, and look "black Irish"-jet black hair, dark eyes. Well back then, the colleges had racial quotas, so my cousin listed his race as Hispanic. Hahaha, he passed for Mexican and was accepted to San Jose State! At the time I thought it was the most dishonest thing I had ever heard.

Hey I know, I can play the race card. My kids are Iroquois on their paternal grandma's side. Sheesh...

Anyway, billing over at Harbor UCLA told me that I am qualified, and if I can't find my worker(I can never get her on the phone), then contact her supervisor, etc. She told me just to keep going up the food chain. We'll see. The last time I tried that, the phone battery went dead.

77 posted on 04/24/2004 10:49:31 AM PDT by TheSpottedOwl (Torrance Ca....land of the flying monkeys)
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To: Steely Tom
They all probably had that teacher who told the kids to throw a student out the window.
78 posted on 04/24/2004 11:07:12 AM PDT by ladylib
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To: GeronL
"Not that bad," I said, "but they're taking him to King."

"Okay," he said. "I'll call Homicide."

Ohhhh that hospital! Yvonne Braithwaite Burke has one hell of a nerve.

The only reason why I mentioned Torrance Memorial is because my father died there. They were the most rude, hateful, nasty people I've ever seen in a medical setting. "Hurry up and die, we need the bed"! My recommendation is Harbor UCLA. They're county, but imo, they're the best. When my mom was admitted, they got a couple of decent sized chairs and blankets so I could stay with her. We knew she was dying, but they did everything to make her comfortable, and try and improve her condition. I said no to life support however, and they respected that.

My son was hit by a car a couple of years ago, and they transported him to Harbor. They were shorthanded, and so I had to hold my son down while the doctor irrigated his jaw. Bleeech. However, they were as efficient as possible (lots of cops roaming the halls-there was a gang shooting that night, or something), and they have 2 different ER's. One for adults, another for pediatrics. They were very efficient, though.

79 posted on 04/24/2004 12:24:47 PM PDT by TheSpottedOwl (Torrance Ca....land of the flying monkeys)
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To: GeronL
That's what I was wondering --- since they all have health cards, you'd think the clerks would have realized he had one and could get it later.
80 posted on 04/24/2004 12:35:41 PM PDT by FITZ
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