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Post by cyberstrike on Nov 30, 2011 12:10:41 GMT -5
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Post by defiant1 on Nov 30, 2011 23:35:07 GMT -5
That nursing home that put him on an experimental drug was less than a mile from a good friend's home. I never knew. I'm less than 5 minutes from the place. Small world. I think this article is unfair to CIGNA and I hate insurance companies. It is impossible to put a open ended price on medical care. You cannot keep throwing money at treatment for uncurable conditions. My mother used to work with head injury patients. There is no magical treatments that will make him get better and enable normal function in society. One "good" day does not equate with progress. No one has an answer for this problem. At a certain point, progress just stops or is so negligib;le that you can't call it progress. It sounds like they made a guniea pig out of him and there was of course high risk with that. Horrible story, but thanks for posting it. df1 |
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Post by cyberstrike on Dec 1, 2011 10:11:11 GMT -5
That nursing home that put him on an experimental drug was less than a mile from a good friend's home. I never knew. I'm less than 5 minutes from the place. Small world. I think this article is unfair to CIGNA and I hate insurance companies. It is impossible to put a open ended price on medical care. You cannot keep throwing money at treatment for uncurable conditions. My mother used to work with head injury patients. There is no magical treatments that will make him get better and enable normal function in society. One "good" day does not equate with progress. No one has an answer for this problem. At a certain point, progress just stops or is so negligib;le that you can't call it progress. It sounds like they made a guniea pig out of him and there was of course high risk with that. Horrible story, but thanks for posting it. df1 The article also says that even if the new healtcare reform law wasound when he got hit that it also wouldn't help him, or now or in the future. Head injuries take a LONG time to recover, even Congresswoman Giffords who got shot in the head while her progress is nothing short of amazing she still has a long time to go, and while I do question her decision to run for office again in 2012 for a myriad of reasons, I can't question her courage. The same with Scott Olsen who's Iraq War vet, who got shot in the head with a tear gas canister in Occupy Oakland raid about a month ago. The fact that he's walking and talking is amazing but he's got a long road in front of him. |
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Post by defiant1 on Dec 2, 2011 7:51:36 GMT -5
That nursing home that put him on an experimental drug was less than a mile from a good friend's home. I never knew. I'm less than 5 minutes from the place. Small world. I think this article is unfair to CIGNA and I hate insurance companies. It is impossible to put a open ended price on medical care. You cannot keep throwing money at treatment for uncurable conditions. My mother used to work with head injury patients. There is no magical treatments that will make him get better and enable normal function in society. One "good" day does not equate with progress. No one has an answer for this problem. At a certain point, progress just stops or is so negligib;le that you can't call it progress. It sounds like they made a guniea pig out of him and there was of course high risk with that. Horrible story, but thanks for posting it. df1 The article also says that even if the new healtcare reform law wasound when he got hit that it also wouldn't help him, or now or in the future. Head injuries take a LONG time to recover, even Congresswoman Giffords who got shot in the head while her progress is nothing short of amazing she still has a long time to go, and while I do question her decision to run for office again in 2012 for a myriad of reasons, I can't question her courage. The same with Scott Olsen who's Iraq War vet, who got shot in the head with a tear gas canister in Occupy Oakland raid about a month ago. The fact that he's walking and talking is amazing but he's got a long road in front of him. When you say recover, it makes it sound like he can recover. The damage is done. Anything that we call recovery is the brain rewiring to get by. Unless there is a scientific miracle with Stem cells healing the tissue, he will never get better. The data in his head that makes him the person we know will never be the same. The signal in our brains have a path they use to get a task done. If the path doesn't work, it has to be relearned a different way. A coworker and really great guy I work with had a stroke while driving to work. They say he blacked out and woke up with cars honking at him. Somehow he made it the next few miles to work and people discovered he couldn't formulate his words properly. He's out of the hospital and his life is pretty much back to normal, but his brain still can't produce the words he wants to say. He tried to say Portobello Mushrooms to his kids and it came out something like portabrooms. His kids looked at him and said 'what did you just say dad?'... He knows it made no sense so he just shrugged it off and said "Just go over there and get some pizza. " which is what he was going to say eventually anyway. Thankfully, he can laugh about it now. I suggested to him that he try to sing his word. Some people don't know James Earl Jones was a chronic stutterer. The part of the brain that sings is separate from the part that talks. I heard a really cool story about Mel Blanc. He was in a car wreck that put him in a coma. No one could get through. His mind was shut down. One day a visitor visits and says "What's up Doc?" Mel Blanc responded in Bugs Bunny's voice. They got him out of the coma by communicating with his cartoon personalities. Minor damage can recover, but major damage is unlikely. A gas station a mile from where i live exploded while some guys were reopening it. It had been closed for years. Later it was found out the guy who was doing the work that exploded had a head injury the year prior. People thought he was back to normal. My mom says they never completely get back to normal and portions just won't work at random times. df1 |
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Post by G on Dec 6, 2011 7:35:46 GMT -5
Tragic story. I always loved Rom in the early days of that book. I always thought the banishing of Dire Wraths by Rom was depicted much like a real death. I always thought it was cool. It's sad to hear what happened with Mantlo. His name was everywhere in my early days of comics and then he just vanished. Now I know why.
I also have mixed feelings about Cigna. They did spend a few million dollars on his condition before cutting him off. It's apparent that trial drug was working wonders and then backfired when they upped the dosage. They should have stayed with the bare minimum dosage, but they got greedy hoping it would quicken his recovery. At the rate he was going before that, they should have been thankful. He had progressed a long way and then he was back to square one once they upped his dosage.
I would wonder if I or someone I love was in that condition and they were cutting me off of paying my medical bills or my love one at what point would I feel like they made an noble effort to help me and was their cutting me off justified? I would say when it comes to us we would probably all just be selfish and want more up til the day we died. Its hard to say at what point would you not be bitter for being cut off. It's a shame that Mantlo is living out his last days at the bare minimum levels of existence and housing. Life is scary when it comes to situations like this. You never know when your life will turn upside down and you just might ask people you love to "kill you".
Like my dad (RIP) always used to say...."Health is Wealth".
To this day I know how right he was.
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