Posted on 06/16/2010 7:44:21 PM PDT by Gondring
(AP/CBS) Uninsured and too broke to pay for medical care to treat her painful shoulder injury, a Niles, Mich., woman shot herself in the same shoulder and went to the E.R. in hopes of obtaining free medical care.
By law, hospitals must treat emergency patients even if they don't have insurance.
Kathy Myers' troubles started when her 80-lb Golden Lab yanked on his leash during a skirmish with her Chihuahuas. The big dog yanked Myer's shoulder as well, injuring her rotator cuff.
After a month of agonizing pain, the unemployed 41-year-old used her in-laws' gun to take matters into her own hands. She placed icepacks and pillows around her head and neck, and then pulled the trigger, according to Wood TV 8 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Myers says she made a rational choice: she had hoped that the doctors who mended her flesh wound would also fix her rotator cuff.
But her plan didn't work out quite the way she had hoped. Last Thursday doctors treated the bullet wound, but instead of fixing her injured shoulder, they gave her some antiinflammatory drugs and sent her home.
Though shooting yourself to get medical care may seem a bit extreme, Myers told reporters at WSBT-TV in South Bend, Ind., that she has no "suicide wish" and that she "wants to live" despite her problems.
And her problems may only be increasing. Besides being in even greater pain, Myers might have to go before a judge to face a charge of firing a weapon within city limits.
Myers, who recently lost her job with an Indiana hazardous-waste removal company, is one of 1.2 million Michigan residents without health insurance.
That seems to be the magical number with cervical pain. I survived that first 2 with an occasional Darvocet, a TENS unit and Chiropractic care. I still go to the Chiro once a month. :)
I'm sorry you're still in so much pain. Have you tried any alternative therapies?
As for this nut who shot herself.... I'm very sympathetic towards those with chronic pain...but she wasn't out of the chute long enough to have "chronic" psychosis... which makes me believe she was off the nut before her injury. JMHO
A month isn't quite chronic. Then again, some people have a low tolerance threshold for pain.
True... but then I tend to be prejudiced by personal and professional experience. Who knows.....she could be an exception to the rule. :)
You have to pay for COBRA coverage. She wanted free health care even if she had to shoot herself to get it. It’s just the entitlement mentality takes over their brains and they lose the ability to act in a reasonable manner.
People like you and this woman are the problem. She only had to go to the ER and get her shoulder treated without shooting herself. Some rotator cuffs will heal by themselves if left alone long enough, not all but some and any ER will treat you if you walk in complaining of shoulder pain.
...and poor liberals all across America will be shooting themselves left and right to try and get free health care. (There's something about this that doesn't sound so bad, you know.)
I would think you could sell the motorhome in the driveway for enough money to buy a decent health insurance policy.
I do have compassion. But the problem she shot herself for (a painful rotator cuff) is one that in socialised medicine countries she would probably wait for years to fix through the system.
You can get fast care in Canada and England for emergencies, but talk to some people who have pain issues and need surgery for non life threatening issues, like knee tears and such - they wait much longer than two months.
I remember reading a story about a Canadian woman just a while ago who mortgaged her house and came to the US for surgery rather than wait two YEARS or more in Canada. I think it was a back pain issue.
She should have shot her dogs. Then she’d have more money and nobody tugging her shoulder.
Failed back surgery can wreck you.
No..the problem seems to be a reading problem. Try again.
BINGO! But it's obvious that that message hasn't gotten out there.
Some FReepers (The Ostrich Brigade) want to ignore reality and put on their magical caps where everyone understands that, instead of getting their hands dirty and actually facing the fact that not everyone understands these things.
So the problem is there (person in pain), and many people see no solution but socialism. Unless conservatives make a good case to counter it, that's what many people will push for.
Please note that my comments are to clarify my point, not directing at you to question you or your commitment to the fight.
What was the solution when she lost her job...abandon the dogs?
I'm just suggesting that she probably had the dogs before losing the insurance.
I wouldn't say it is. Who did?
I'm not being sarcastic. I'm pointing out that many people in this country are stuck on stupid--and vote. Even if we all see the problem with socialized health care, it doesn't mean everyone does. And so we can sit in a bubble and get outvoted while complaining, or we can try to educate and turn the electorate--the latter is what I'm advocating.
Perhaps my tagline helps to explain. Revere, Prescott, and Dawes crying "The British are coming!" was stating the problem. It didn't mean they WANTED the British to come. Similarly, I am pointing out the problem and suggesting we address it.
Too often, there's a lot of complaining and no action. Like on this...I bet I'm the only one on the thread who took the time to write to the station and point out that she didn't have to do this, and explained why, and requested a story covering options. I have no illusions about that spurring them into action, though...in most cases, I would suggest getting the word out to those who might have seen the story.
And I'm not saying every FReeper has to act on every story...I'm saying, though, that we can't expect the sheeple to understand why the seemingly easy road is the wrong road unless we take the effort to explain.
Actually, I think that it's the human nature to want more-More-MORE!...to beyond their means. One could get 1970s health care--no MRI, no CT scan, etc.--quite cheaply, but nobody would find that acceptable. They have demanded advances beyond their ability to pay for the research, development, and equipment capital/operating costs.
The government meddling has exacerbated that problem.
[...]from the system for training and licensing doctors[...]
I don't want the government meddling in the training and licensing of doctors (and other professions), but I think that some of the self-policing hasn't been very good, either. Still, I like Dr. Rand Paul's alternative certification route. We need more of that.
[...] to the requirement of prescriptions for thousands of medications which pose no *public* health hazard [...]
AMEN!!!
Two of the folks at the FDA got quite irritated at me regarding this topic, and I honestly thought one was going to take a swing at me. :-)
THANK YOU! (for the heads-up)
Wow.
I’d rather be “Clueless” than “Brainless” which appears to be your diagnosis tonight.
No...my diagnosis is that you're clueless, not brainless. You made it to FR, after all, so you have a brain. Now get a clue and realize that not every American voter is here and agreeing with you. A great number of people are just going to follow whatever path they are shown and there are socialists very willing to show them that way...
... and no doubt many will hear of this story and knee-jerk to a socialist "solution." Sticking your head in the sand doesn't change the fact that there are those who need to be educated in why socialism fails and how conservative approaches are not lacking in compassion.
I'm sure that she didn't save up enough to pay for COBRA.
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.