Posted on 01/16/2011 11:52:34 AM PST by FMAC
Doctors at Herlev Hospital uses secret codes that can mean life or death for patients. A large number of patients in the medical department assigned codes "Minus ehm" and "Minus ITA", which means that the patient should not be resuscitated in the event of cardiac arrest and that the patient is forhåndsudelukket from intensive care. In the lung diseases ward at Herlev Hospital is one in four patients who received codes. TV 2 | NEWS can reveal that it is not only terminally ill patients expected to die shortly, there are codes. Other patients assigned code.
(Excerpt) Read more at translate.google.com ...
Recently the conservative government of Denmark has gone to great lengths trying to privatize a part of the medical industry of the country, as a reaction to the nationalized system inability to treat patients within a reasonable length of time (in other words, the patients were piling up). Yet, the nationalized system denies care to patients considered a burden to society and the system.
Either that or they’re the most gullible people on earth.
I’ve spent six weeks of my life in Denmark and I can make these observations.
First, they don’t have a huge problem with cocaine, crack, LSD, or meth.
Second, they don’t have a violent crime problem. There are some ‘counties’ where the local emergency room on a Friday night might only have heart-attack patients only.
Third, alcohol is so high in cost...that folks are fairly picky about when and how they drink. The cops don’t tolerate DWI situations...so they take your license for a year if you ever show an issue.
Fourth, the speed limit throughout the country is usually around 50 mph on the normal roads. In six weeks of driving around...I never noted a single accident.
So they keep their costs low and the impact on the public is minimal. As for the death panels...I’m guessing they look long-term at people in their 60s and 70s who are already showing health issues and measuring out just how far they are willing to carry the person. I work with an individual who has a relative who is in the late 70s and had marginal health for an entire decade...complaining about pains and gets by off a regiment of pills which cost around $1500 a year. I suspect our quality of healthcare has improved the length of our lives, but not the real quality of it. As much as I dislike the idea of death panels...you can’t run a totally open heath care insurance program with unlimited coverage (even we will have to admit that eventually).
“I suspect our quality of healthcare has improved the length of our lives, but not the real quality of it.”
Nonsense.
I'd be afraid of a government that wants to "make" me happier, such as Obama stating that the Constitution doesn't tell us what the government can do "for" us.
Prosperity and health levels would no doubt be factors, but I'd wonder about other factors such as drug/alcohol abuse, clinical depression and suicide rates, crime rates, etc.
The impact on society when it disintegrates into a thanatophoric one like in Demmark is disastrous.
Utilitarianism is on the rise. God help us.
“Quality of life”, “marginal life in last decade”. BS. I am in my last decade and quality has gotten worse, I guess I am one of the marginal people. But nobody else on earth gets to decide to kill me.
You must understand that quality of life in the eye of the beholder is far different from in the eye of the person living. It is precious to us marginals, every damned day is a miracle to us.
“Quality of life”, “marginal life in last decade”. BS. I am in my last decade and quality has gotten worse, I guess I am one of the marginal people. But nobody else on earth gets to decide to kill me.
You must understand that quality of life in the eye of the beholder is far different from in the eye of the person living. It is precious to us marginals, every damned day is a miracle to us.
btt
Everyone knows you can’t have unlimited medical care.
The problem is these programs don’t allow you to buy additional care or the extra care if you want - no option. Even when you are fully able to pay for them, you cannot purchase it.
THAT is the problem.
““I suspect our quality of healthcare has improved the length of our lives, but not the real quality of it.”
Nonsense.”
Agree - scary post. I guess he never heard of hip replacements, cataract surgery, etc. Just a blanket statement to justify mercy killing. Scary.
I don't get the point. Is this a recommendation that we who are in our 70s should be able to get by on less than $1500 of medicine or give up our lives? If your workmate feels such a way about his relative, then I would say your workmate is impatient for his inheritance. Here in the US we don't allow people to kill off their relatives to get an inheritance.
I’m in my forties and there are years when my pills have cost $1500 a year - after insurance. $1500/year is a bargain to maintain health, productivity, independence.
My grandmother spent the last forty years of her life complaining about her gallbladder and her bronchitis and her hiatal hernia and her bad back - and she had a pretty good time most of those forty years.
Sure there’s such a thing as futile care - major interventions for someone who is near inevitable death. But treating the normal ailments of age is not futile.
I can write a letter for you if you like to the Danish embassy saying you would like immediate landed immigrant status and would love to contribute to their society. When do you want me to start? heh
I disagree. My grandmother died when she was in her early 70's. I can barely remember her, but looking back and looking at pictures, she seemed a very old woman. I know she was bedridden the last several months if not year of her life. My mother, her daughter, has some of the exact same medical problems. She is turned 85. Yes, she's an old woman, but she is still able to get around and do a lot for herself. She is in a nursing home, but don't assume that means she has no quality of life. She told one of her sisters a few months ago that she is "happier than she has ever been." (Her mind is pretty well intact).
Quality of life, as another poster has said, is in the eye of the beholder. For my mother, being able to do as she pleases, knowing she is cared for and will be taken care of, has given her a quality of life that is entirely acceptable to her and to her family.
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.