Fighter ace sells medals to spare wife long wait for hip replacement (British NHS)

The Telegraph ^ | 12-06-05 | Neil Tweedie

[atomic conspiracy]

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day…"

Winston Churchill, 1940

Time to pay up, then.

[Doogle]

One of the most decorated British fighter pilots of the Second World War has sold his medals, diaries and other memorabilia partly to pay for a hip replacement operation for his wife who faced at least a six-month wait on the National Health Service.

socialized medicine

Doogle

[Republicus2001]

Bushfault!

[No Truce With Kings]

Just damn.

[randog]

This article doesn't explain it (or perhaps I missed it), but what exactly is Mr. Duke paying for--a shorter wait under the socialist system or a private operation?

[minus_273]

actually this is a great example of socialized medicine

[Diva Betsy Ross]

6 Months!!! Sheesh... welcome to socialized health care. This is a sad story for more than one reason. I wish he could get his medals back.

[si tacuissem]

This thread should become a tribute to this distinguished soldier - and not only the necessary bashing for the NHS.

[atomic conspiracy]

They're going with a private operation, available immediately from the private system in the UK.

Here in Lubbock, the various medical centers are inundated with Canadians, and sometimes Brits and others, who prefer to pay for vital procedures out of their own pockets, including travel, rather than wait for the socialized national systems to get around to them.

[I got the rope]

I suspect a private operation. I have an engineer friend from England that told me that a hospital told him that he would have to wait six weeks to see an orthropedic surgeon to fix his arm after breaking it playing soccer.

He paid out the nose to have his arm repaired at a private facility.

I can't remember the percentage of his salary that is going to fund this mess, but I do remember it was over 30%.

[Little Bill]

That a man should have to sell his history and the history of his country and the brave men that served it for an F'n operation sucks.

[Grenada]

I really hope someone will buy his medals from the
"private collector" and return them. If I were the buyer I would return them anonymously. A national hero is forced to sell his medals because the state-run health care system fails his wife.

[Joe 6-pack]

Parting with the medals is clearly a decision to be made by him and him alone. I know that during the course of my life, there have been little totems that I held dear as powerful symbols of meaningful accomplishments and experiences, yet with the passage of time, I've abandoned, lost, bartered away, etc. having come to the conclusion that the symbols were external and ephemeral, whereas that which they represented is eternal, or at least will be carried with me to my grave.

Or maybe his old lady just kept nagging him. I don't know.

[patton]

air ace ping.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I agree. :]

[Polybius]

.....actually this is a great example of socialized medicine

U.S. medical care for the elderly combines the affordabilty of the Canadian and British socialized medicine sytem with the efficiency of private medicine.

As Medicare-participating physicians, the doctors at Celebraion Health accept the amount Medicare approves for knee or hip replacement.

[Dashing Dasher]

Tanks.

[atomic conspiracy]

WB188, the prototype Hawker Hunter in which Neville Duke set the world's speed record in 1953, on display at the Tangmere Aviation Museum.

[patton]

They are 70-tonne beasties with treads, but they don't fly.

That's not important right now.

[patton]

That is COOL!