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Wednesday, September 23, 2009
My parents just returned yesterday from a vacation to the UK. During their time there, they came across an elderly woman who had fallen on the side of a street. A few people were crowded around her, while she lay bleeding profusely from a head wound. My mom, a nurse, proceeded to begin CPR on the woman with the "aid" of someone who claimed to know CPR. The injured woman had no pulse and was not breathing, just to give you an idea of how serious the injury was. Shortly thereafter, the ambulance arrived (after two other ones had driven by). That's when everything went downhill. First, the EMTs showed little urgency in their care, taking their time getting to the injured party. Second, they had almost no clue about what to do. My mom had to continually remind them to keep doing the oxygen "bagging" and chest compressions, and they were greatly distracted by the head wound and bandaging it up when it was obviously not the most important issue at hand. Lastly, they had a defibrillator (which has a much higher percentage of success than just your basic CPR) but it was in the ambulance and they didn't go get it, nor did they immediately take the woman to it. My parents don't know what happened to the woman, but it seems highly likely that she did not survive. To be fair, the woman may have died no matter what care was provided her, but it is no understatement to say that the trained professionals paid to care for her did little to save her.

My mom also had an opportunity to talk with a group of women at a Bible Study over there and health care came up. She mentioned some of the typical things women get regular checkups for. For example, they were amazed that here in America, women begin mammagrams at age 40, while in Britain, they don't start until age 50. Same thing was true for a few other tests; the British are advised to wait a lot longer than Americans to begin preventative testing. She told them that when a government is paying the bills, it will obviously limit "unnecessary" testing and procedures to as few as possible. They said they didn't realize that Americans got such good care.

3 comments:

Colin said...

This doesn't surprise me at all. If Americans spent any quality time in England, they would see very quickly just how ruinous socialism is. And to be honest, Britain does not have much more than America - they have just had it for longer.

Socialism destroys everything - work ethic, independence, self-reliance, compassion - everything. Living over here for over a year now has made me mourn for the US, knowing that it is moving in this same direction, and fast.

This generation will witness the final breaths of the US.

Chris A said...

Dude...What's up, Colin?

Steve said...

One day QAmericans will look back and say, 'what did we do?!'

The fruits of public education controlled by leftists.

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Darius' book montage

The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Overcoming Sin and Temptation
According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible
Disciplines of a Godly Man
Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Respectable Sins
The Kite Runner
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, ... anabaptist/anglican, metho
Show Them No Mercy
The Lord of the Rings
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
The Chronicles of Narnia
Les Misérables


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