On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 3:48 PM, Ken Waller <kwal...@peoplepc.com> wrote:
> Yep. That's why in Detroit we have instances of the citizens of Windsor (you > know the city south of Detroit) > coming over to the states for their medical treatments, instead of waiting > for it in Ca na da. I didn't bother telling the list, because it was rather inconsequential, but about a month ago, I was sitting, got up quickly, had that "head rush" and (for the first time in my life) fainted. As I'd heard that every loss of consciousness requires a doctor visit, I went to the nearest emergency ward. Now, I have to admit, I was there a long time. It was one of Toronto's largest trauma centres (Sunnybrooke, for you locals) at evening rush hour, and there were several serious automobile collision victims that needed help more than me. All in all, it was a 10 hour visit, but I realize that my condition put me at the bottom of the triage list. However, in that ten hours I got great treatment. Before seeing a doctor, nurses took blood, checked blood pressure/pulse and gave me a cardiogram. The doctor finally saw me and said that in a way it was good that I was there for that length of time, because he could give me ~another~ cardiogram to make sure there was no change (out of an abundance of caution). There was also a specific blood test that he wanted to see that the nurses didn't do, so I got a second session of bloodwork. The doctor saw me two or three times, and appeared concerned yet calming. After it all, he said that all tests were fine, and that (as he said) gravity just got the best of me that day. A head rush gone too far, nothing more. He said that I'd done the right thing by having it checked and apologized for the long wait (as several nurses did earlier). Can you imagine how much that would have all cost me had I paid for it? Or if my insurance paid? Would they have authorized all those duplicate tests? And that was at one of Toronto's top hospitals - yes, I got to choose the hospital I went to, no insurance company to give me a list of "approved" hospitals. So, I'll take the wait to get top treatment with nothing out-of-pocket, thank you very much. BTW, Ken, there are many anecdotal stories (as yours was) of Detroit citizens crossing the border into Canada to try to get treatment here, as they have no coverage in the US. "Borrow" a Canadian's card and hope you don't get caught and charged with fraud - that's how desperate some uninsured Americans are. And, to top it off (on a personal note), my heartbeat came in a 57 bpm. Not quite Lance's resting heartbeat of 32, but pretty good for an old guy... ;-) cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
