Socialism Killed My Parents

I am originally from Canada. I became a US resident in 1985. My parents who lived in Montreal, died recently, both killed by the Canadian health care system. My father had a heart attack but the ambulance took 90 minutes to get him to a hospital. Why? The ambulance driver took him to the “wrong” emergency room twice, and, though they could have treated him, they sent my dad away both times. (he was in the wrong “region” or something, as best my mother could recall). He lived another ten days in an Intensive Care Unit at Montreal General, that in August was stiflingly hot; there were two air conditioners (circa 1975) wedged into open windows to cool an ICU with 10 or so, gravely ill patients. It was humid and unbearable. Average temperature on my father’s final days on earth inside the ICU; 90 - 95 degrees F.

My mother noticed a lump in her breast and was told three times by her oncologist (one of only three in all of Montreal, a city of two million people) that it was “nothing”. She could NOT get a second opinion and, sensing the worst, she kept going back to the same doctor in each of the six month interval between “available” appointments. Finally on her fourth visit (two years later) he realized there “could be a problem”. Once diagnosed, my mother got chemo almost right away but had to wait six weeks for radiation as there was some “problem”. That was the explanation. No questions allowed.

I was summoned to Montreal only a few days before my father’s death. But I spent a full (and wonderful) year with my mother in Montreal before she died. The last time I accompanied her to her oncologist (at the Royal Victoria Hospital), he presented us with an x-ray that was dotted with dark spots. “ The cancer has spread into your bones and lungs” he said matter-of-factly. The news took our breath away, as we were hoping the chemo and radiation would buy her a few more years at least. Bravely composing herself, my mother asked “What are we going to do?” Here’s what the 30 something piss-ant doctor said to my mother. “Mrs. Rezyka, you are 79 years old, you’ve had a full life. What do expect from us?

I should have smashed his teeth down his throat right there and then, but I could not. Incurring his wrath could cost my mother additional suffering and I, by then, knew that all too well.

My mother told me this when I first arrived home (one year before her death) “I have to be nice to these people; they think I’ve lived long enough as it is, and if they don’t like me, they won’t help me”. She always brought gifts to the 20 something punk kid that booked her chemo sessions because she knew that he could easily derail her treatment. My mother was a strong and proud woman and it sickened me to see her kowtow to these junior bureaucrats and doctors whom, she feared, considered her too old to be worthy of attention.

You still want a Canadian style health care system here?

Canada has taken tort reform down to it’s Socialist absurdity. You cannot sue the Canadian government at all, for any reason. Thus the treatment of my mother and father stands; immune from consequence or criticism. The system is rife with cronyism, ageism, arrogance, and corruption.
As a sidelight here; both my parents quit smoking in 1980. But on their death certificates the “smoking related death” check-box is ticked. I have a feeling that in Canada all smokers, present or past, die of “smoking related” illness, even if run over by a bus. Also, my father’s date of birth was wrong, making him seven years older than he actually was when he died. I’m certain Canada cooks its longevity statistics to hide its failures from the public and the world.

The once elite Canadian health care system is now well below the standard of our free County system. The lowly American without health insurance now gets better health care than every Canadian.

That’s the truth.

You still want a Canadian style health care system here?

Also: You wanna get really scared?
Read Loren Bliss's of Wolfgang von Skeptic post on
THE HIDDEN HORROR OF KERRY'S HEALTH PLAN

Finally: Mark Steyn is far and away the top Conservative mind in the world today. No kidding. If you give one rat’s ass about the future of healthcare in America, this is a must read. Here are his views on the Canadian Health care system.