Kevin MD has another example of doctors who don't want to give treatment to a bad patient. Basically the guy is a smoker. Smoking impedes post-surgical healing. Therefore the doctors don't want to operate on his banged-up knee.
And although one might think (hope) that this is a decision driven by the medical reasons behind it, it is happening in Canada, with their public health care system, and at least one of Kevin's commenters avers that if the guy was paying for the operation himself, then he should be entitled, but that the system shouldn't pay for it.
Here's a key excerpt from the source article:
He has had several operations already, but a scheduled surgery to complete the repairs was cancelled by his orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Steven Massoeurs.[snip]
"He told me I would heal slower and I would be more prone to infection," Randall said Friday. "But I've been through three surgeries already and I've never had any trouble with infections or anything like that."
It seems particularly icky to refuse him a surgery that is meant to "complete" these repairs. No?
Well, since we seem to like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, why wouldn't we like the healthy getting healthier and the unhealthy just being left to get unhealthier?
Why single out the smokers? People, including doctors, often make poor life-style choices, or have chronic conditions caused by them, that might negatively affect surgery or other medical treatments. Where will the line be drawn for refusing treatment? At the moment, smokers are society's demons, so denying them treatment will probably be applauded. But who's next?
We'll want public listings of Doctors with God-complexes, please.
Posted by: Peggy | February 23, 2007 at 07:04 AM