Our 11 yo daughter has cancer and is due for radiation therapy next week. At our initial visit with the Radiation Oncologist, I was surprised to meet a French Canadian. I asked him what brought him here and he responded that he couldn’t practice in Canada in good faith. His patients have to wait so long for his services that the tumors are frequently too advanced to treat.
Our 11 yo daughter has cancer and is due for radiation therapy next week. At our initial visit with the Radiation Oncologist, I was surprised to meet a French Canadian. I asked him what brought him here and he responded that he couldn’t practice in Canada in good faith. His patients have to wait so long for his services that the tumors are frequently too advanced to treat. BINGO!
And that saves the Canadian Government bean counters a ton of money.
Look at the tragic death of British actress Natasha Richardson (the wife of the actor that played Oskar Schindler on "Schindler's List") from an epidural hematoma after a fall on a Quebec sky slope. After the 911 call was made, it took several hours to get her to a Trauma Center with neurosurgical capabilities. By then, it was far too late to save her life.
Why?
Because, in order to save the bean counters money, the province of Quebec lacks a medical helicopter system.
When treated in time by a neurosurgen, an epidural hematoma is very easy to treat with a burr hole (Trepanation). Trepanation has been done for centuries. (See the trepanation scene in the movie "Master and Commander".)
Yet, in Quebec, such an injury can be a death sentence if you are on a ski slope because the Province of Quebec bean counters have decided that burying dead patients costs far less money than having a helicopter service that delivers salvageable patients to a Level I Trauma Center in Montreal.
Doctor: Lack of medical helicopter cost Natasha Richardson .... The province of Quebec lacks a medical helicopter system, common in the United States and other parts of Canada, to airlift stricken patients to major trauma centers. Montreal's top head trauma doctor said Friday that may have played a role in Richardson's death. "It's impossible for me to comment specifically about her case, but what I could say is ... driving to Mont Tremblant from the city (Montreal) is a 2½-hour trip, and the closest trauma center is in the city. Our system isn't set up for traumas and doesn't match what's available in other Canadian cities, let alone in the States," said Tarek Razek, director of trauma services for the McGill University Health Centre, which represents six of Montreal's hospitals