Posted on 06/30/2008 12:17:53 PM PDT by AT7Saluki
It was a Friday afternoon, and Dr. Allan Friedman was headed for a vacation in Canada when his cell phone rang.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, newly diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, had searched the nation for the best neurosurgeon to remove the growth -- and he wanted Friedman.
By the following Monday, a horde of reporters was camped outside Duke Medical Center, and Friedman was performing a tricky operation inside the brain of one of the country's most powerful politicians. It was at once an honor and a burden for a man who has spent 34 years building a reputation as one of the world's leading brain surgeons.
A successful surgery would be a boon to his career and to Duke. But the slightest mistake or problem would be scrutinized by the nation.
Fortunately, as a man who spends four days a week slicing into brains, Friedman is used to pressure. Kennedy's surgery was successful. And now, after hiding from the media during the initial frenzy, Friedman has agreed to step out of the shadows.
Friedman, 59, says operating on Kennedy provided a rare brush with celebrity. Kennedy had guards posted in the hallways and was taken to the heliport, away from the glare of cameras, for exercise.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
Well isn't that special. One of the chief architects of the destruction of free market health care chooses free market health care when it's his life on the line.
Why didn’t he go to the doctors his illegal aliens go to? Show some solidary.
Hopefully, the brain surgeon fixed a few other problems while he was working on Kennedy’s brain.
Fortunately he didn’t get the Mick Jagger.
Dental coverage under universal commiecare: smoke a doobie to relax you, then a tap on the head with a lightweight rubber mallet, then crank and pull with pliers, finally a shot of Jim Beam to dull the pain, and as a parting gift from the state: a tee-shirt that has Che, Mao and Lenin on one side and the words: power to the people, long live the state on the back./Just Asking - seoul62.......
The article says the operation was successful.
What does that mean?
Nope,would go more like....
Sorry Mr. Slapshot, you've been bumped in line by Senator Kennedy, and the next available appointment is sometime late next year. Good Luck with your cancer and hope that you enjoy what time you have left.
If universal health care were enacted !!
Does Kennedy’s adocated “free” health care system allow anyone to do what he just did?
Yes, anyone named Kennedy.
Yup you’re probably right.
A few extra months.
Nope, he wouldn't have, in Canada the politicians get special treatment, they are pushed ahead of the commoners don't you know, and Kennedy would have been shoved up likewise. Whether or not a surgeon of this caliber will be around if national healthcare ever makes it to the US is another question.
How would one know?
Is it too much to hope that the surgeon fixed what was wrong with Chappaquiddick Ted’s thinking?
What’s with all the hoopla?
It ain’t rocket science.
August 23rd, 2009.
“Sorry, Senator, but this surgery does not have a good enough survival rate. It cannot be performed. Here is some morphine and an address for a hospice. If you like, we can subsidize your suicide.”
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