Posted on 02/24/2017 2:34:09 AM PST by markomalley
An irate man contacted me recently to complain he’d been turned down for back surgery because he’s a smoker.
“It’s just not right,” said the Charlotte man, who suffers from chronic hip and leg pain. “I need this surgery. It’s to the point where I can’t walk around the block with my dogs.”
He acknowledged smoking is a “bad habit,” but after 35 years, he’s not sure he can quit. And he doesn’t think he should have to.
(snip)
Spector said it’s part of a national trend for doctors to run down a checklist of behaviors in preparation for elective surgery. Before spinal fusion, Spector said he might tell a patient: “Listen, I want you to stop smoking, but if you can’t stop smoking, at least cut it in half. A two-pack-a-day smoker is going to have a higher risk (of complications) than a two-cigarette-a-day smoker.”
(snip)
At OrthoCarolina, Spector said doctors agree that all patients who register for the bundled payment plan must go through “surgical optimization” so they’re as healthy as possible before surgery. At some point, insurance companies may even begin to refuse to pay for elective surgeries on smokers.
(Excerpt) Read more at macon.com ...
Short thought - they are nazis.
No. They haven’t. When across the board smoking bans were instituted did heart disease fall 60%? Did non-smokers stop dying of lung cancer, mouth cancers, and other cancers? The studies are pure bullshit. While smoking is bad for you, it’s not as bad as it is made out to be, and the studies prove it.
With socialized medicine, now everything you do becomes everybody else’s business.
My grandmother has COPD. She’s 73. Smoked all her life.
If someone refused to operate on her I’d be very. very. very. upset.
With socialized medicine, now everything you do becomes everybody else’s business.
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too true
The correlations are clear. Just because cancers can and do occur otherwise doesn’t negate the obvious connection.
It’s worse.
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