Air Dead - Emphysema

Our families have a history of emphysema deaths. It is with this in mind that we found this story from the United Kingdom's Burton Mail that we wanted to call to your attention. Medical mistakes aren't just an American phenomena.

"Mrs Margaret Jee, of Curtis Court, Horninglow, 73, suffered a heart attack on July 3, shortly after completing ‘gentle exercises’ at Hill Street Health and Wellbeing Centre, in Stapenhill; an activity recommended to her by her doctor to help her lose weight."

"[C]onsultant pathologist Dr Peter Acland said his examination confirmed Mrs Jee, who had underlying health problems including angina, arthritis and type two diabetes, had stopped breathing because of a heart attack. He said he had found evidence of surgical emphysema; air entering body tissue, indicating that air had been ‘going into the wrong place’, but it was ‘hard to say’ whether this had happened while she was alive or at the time of her death."

OK maybe it was that "gentle exercises" that we wanted to call to your attention after the earlier story about strenuous exercising to reduce prostate cancer that made us find and include this story or maybe not. We're concerned about what was done to Mrs. Jee. We really are concerned. While we don't know Mrs. Jee and the specific problem of medical emphysema hasn't been studied she could be our Mrs. or your Mrs. or she could be one of us or Amy Winehouse. We probably do need to lose weight and probably will. We just think it should be noted that there is a down side to physician ordered exercise. So let's be careful out there!


If you're suffering from emphysema whether major or minor and are in the District of Columbia the Joint Commission gives their "Gold Seal" for Emphysema Treatment to the four (4) following hospitals: Howard, Providence, The Specialty Hospital of Washington-Capitol Hill and Walter Reed. To see their selections for the state of Maryland six (6), North Carolina seven (7) and Virginia fifteen (15) hospitals select the appropriate state's name to get to the link page with that information.

Dead Panels Cost

While the report on the mammogram study is not available to us it did point us in the direction of a controversy we've avoided. Aunt Pearlie made the decision not to continue her life over our objections and despite our protestations to the contrary. It was her decision and again we'll bow out of further discussion. The question posed by the earlier reports isn't whether the government should decide your grandmother's fate. The question is how soon will your hospital and your doctor begin deciding when to withhold information on treatments because of their costs to your HMO or hospital? They have already begun discusing it in public. The question will be decided sooner rather than later.

Association of a Cancer Diagnosis With Vulnerability and Frailty in Older Medicare Beneficiaries: "Few studies have evaluated the independent effect of a cancer diagnosis on vulnerability and frailty, which have been associated with adverse health outcomes in older adults... Conclusion: Diagnosis of a non-skin cancer was associated with increased levels of having disability, having geriatric syndromes, and meeting criteria for vulnerability and frailty."

How much is life worth? The $440 Billion Question: "The decision to use expensive cancer therapies that typically produce only a relatively short extension of survival is a serious ethical dilemma in the U.S. that needs to be addressed by the oncology community, according to a commentary published online June 29 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute... ...Every life is of infinite value, the authors say, but spiraling costs of cancer care makes this dilemma inescapable."
"The current situation cannot continue. We cannot ignore the cumulative costs of the tests and treatments we recommend and prescribe. As the agents of change, professional societies, including their academic and practicing oncologist members, must lead the way," the authors write. "The time to start is now."

One of our arguments to the hospitals who do not release their medical error statistics is: "isn't it better to have more information rather than less when making a choice of medical facilities?" We believe the answer is always yes! The questions the medical community will be asking will be how much will you spend to keep grandma alive? In terms of drugs they've already decided costs (that can be passed on to you) is no object. Treatment that you might declare bankruptcy to avoid - might not get paid. We would have spared no expense to keep Aunt Pearlie alive - she however had a difference of opinion and hers was the only one that mattered.

Medical Oops

The health care debate continues to demand our attention as town halls become shouting matches and a new report released by the Hearts Newspapers have highlighted our concerns on the number of deaths as a result of medical mistakes. The report named the states where the reporting is open and the information available to the public and the standard "and the District of Columbia" tag was added. When he tried to investigate the information we found it ONLY available from the "Dead By Mistake" website. While the info is collected by DC it isn't collected or distributed by either DC, MD or VA - what it can cost us is our lives.

How do we survive IF we survive the emergency
room and our stay in the hospital? CBS news recommends: looking your doctor in the eye before surgery, writing on your body what should be done where it should be done and writing on your body what shouldn't be done, asking about what medications are being given to you and why. Who knew that Bill Cosby in the 60s and Malcolm in the Middle in the 90s would have the best solution to survive medical oops.

Great suggestions right? Not if you're unconscious or unable to verbally assist in your own recovery. Wouldn't it be better to have the procedure - whatever the procedure as an outpatient rather than in patient hospital care. The price would certainly be less than a day in a hospital bed which would reduce the costs of health care and give us better care. While hospitals would not report their complications the idea of reporting another facilities fatality might be possible.

What we need is a study on outpatient to inpatient survival rates. Lost in the health care debate is the patient and while patients death rates creep up at a one (1) percent increase per year. While it is only 1% it is still an increase and we can be the one. So we will contact the hospitals and evaluate and report which hospitals are opposed and why. What we find could save your life so continue to watch this space.