Jesus, if there’s one person on this board who should be aware of the dangers of assuming facts not in evidence…
How much do doctors charge to prescribe meds? I could understand getting a scrip then not filling it because you’re poor. I don’t understand not getting a scrip at all because you’re poor.
I’m thinking the severity of the injury may have been a wee bit exaggerated and the docs didn’t think a prescription pain med was necessary.
Me too, but I found this Handy Artery Diagram and it appears that they do.
And I’ve had plenty of cuts, smashes, puctures (I could tell you about the time I smashed a dime-sized hole in my penis/upper scrotum) and never got any pain meds, or even stitches (even on my penis mishap). It never even dawned on me that it was a problem with the country I lived in, I just figured I was an idiot and had it coming.
I had 2 teeth pulled and was bleeding like crazy with a mouth full of gauze and didn’t get any pain meds! I demand a pain free life gods damnit!
AHHHH!!!
(runs screaming from thread)
What I’m upset about is that he severed an artery in his finger and HE WAS TURNED AWAY FROM THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE. It wasn’t that he didn’t have money. It’s not that this doctor couldn’t treat him. It’s that the doctor wouldn’t take that money, wouldn’t treat him, and made him drive around trying to find someone that would treat his “gushing (in his words- I wasn’t there- this is all his written account of things)” “fileted” finger.
I always though that doctor’s that do emergency work couldn’t turn away emergency patients. I’m kind of shocked that if you don’t have your checkbook on you, you can very well be told your on your own. The nearest emergency room is a town away and takes quite a while in traffic. And the last person I know that got nine stiches at an emergency room paid $1,500 for the privledge- which for reasons outlined later (and which don’t involve me or whatever money I might have) would be a bad thing.
The whole pain pill thing just baffles me. Maybe they thought he was a bad risk because he’s young. Maybe they just hate writing perscriptions. Maybe my friend was lying to me and it was all just a bad scrape. Most likely it was because it is a cut-rate clinic, giving cut-rate medical care at cut-rates. He’s got enough sketchy friends that getting pain treatment isn’t a problem, but it’s still kind of shocks me that a doctor really would send a guy with a rather severe wound away without any pain control whatsoever.
Is this an indictment of the American medical system? To some degree. The organization responsible for- and paying for this guy’s wounds is a struggling small community business that may go under if this case becomes any more complicated (for example, if their insurance rates go up, more complicated treatement is required or if workers’ compensation is involved.) Dozens of people, including the guy involved, could lose their relatively well-paying jobs and the community would lose a great resource. Nobody wants that. But because of the way that medical care works in America, my friend got turned away from a doctor, may have got sub-par treatment (who knows if his finger is going to be alright or not? All I know is that the doctor sent him on his way, not that he got great treatment), and was let go without any pain control whatsoever.
In nearly any other Western country, my friend would have walked in to the nearest clinic, got his finger sewn up and dealt with financial stuff later, been scheduled for a follow-up visit to check on the nerve and muscle damage, and most likely have been given something for the pain. His company wouldn’t be stuck trying to pay in cash to keep their insurance rates sane, the actual costs involved would not be inflated by insurance company practices, and nobody would risk going bankrupt at all for the sake of a few stiches.
Our system is fucked up. This is a prime example of our system NOT WORKING. It may work for you, it may work for me, but for thousands of Americans out there- including kids that have no say in the matter- the system doesn’t work. Most of you probably have reasonable health insurance and will never be faced with a situation like this. But this kid running around with a severed artery looking for someone- anyone- to treat him without him losing his job is the underside of this. And this is something we can fix- as dozens of countries have fixed- by trying to inject a little sanity into our medical system.
Arteries go everywhere in the body - if they didn’t how would blood get to your fingers? Of course, they’re not major.
He couldn’t afford any pain meds? A bottle of Tylenol 3 (30 days supply) is about $10 without insurance. $5 if he only needed a 15 day supply. No one could cough up $5? Please.
The pain meds aren’t the point. The point is that a medical clinic turned away a person who (allegedly) was gushing blood from a stump like a Tarantino character because he didn’t have any cash.
Sheesh.
Clearly, what this second-hand anecdote (and followup) prove is that he could have gone into any pub loo in the UK and had his hand treated for free.
I thought that the pain meds were one of the points in the OP
I thought the point was that they turned him away because he only had cash. I mean, if there was a point. I’ve read this whole thread and I’ve never been so confused.
I’ve read it again, and I’m even more confused.
wanders off looking for a nice peaceful Schiavo thread
Umm nope, it was because the clinic wouldn’t accept cash.
From the OP:
This is a most bizarre story, because;
a) The doctor turned away a supposedly life threatened individual who wanted to pay cash for treatment???
b) No meds at all were prescribed. Everytime I have been treated at a clinic for bleeding injuries (and forced to immediately pay cash or by credit card and submit an insurance claim by myself) I have been prescribed anti-biotics.
For what it’s worth; I have never received pain meds from a clinic. I have recieved scripts for pain meds to fill at my discretion. In my experience you don’t “get” pain meds at clinics or even after out-patient surgury in the US. You get a script and fill it on the way home.
Or, alternately, the docs are terrified to prescribe a decent painkiller and gave him the Tylenol lecture.
Haha, well done light strand.
::claps::
So can the OP clarify- Did the person have cash? (as stated in the OP- "the clinic wouldn’t take cash) or didn’t he? (he couldn’t afford pain meds even if they did prescribe them.)?
Is what you’re saying “he went to the clinic, didn’t have insurance, so they turned him away”? You make it sound like he flashed them a few hundred bucks and they said “Nah, go someplace else.” I’m guessing that’s not the case, since he claims not to even have enough money to by pain meds.
What’s the real deal?
You may be right on the money with that assumption.
When I was in my early 20’s, back in the 70’s, I used to get really bad Cystitis attacks and they were quite painful.
I had a nurse at the local hospital emergency room disdainfully inform me that they didn’t prescribe pain meds for people like me.
By ‘people like me’ she meant young poor students who looked like hippies.
And I was doubled over in agony in front of her desk at the time.
If I had nearly cut my finger off, I would have called 911, whether I had insurance or not. I’d rather be bankrupt than missing a finger.
I think if you strip away the hyperbole from the OP, the most likely scenario of what happened is this:
even sven’s friend cut his finger badly, requiring stitches. The medical clinic across the street refused to stitch him up because he didn’t have insurance. He found an urgent care clinic which gave him a local anesthetic and stitches. They didn’t offer him any prescription painkillers, which even sven found odd.
If my interpretation is right, then I think even sven is right to be perturbed about a medical clinic refusing to give someone stitches without proof of insurance. (Assuming it was actually a clinic and not just a medical center with doctor’s offices or something like that.) I think the painkiller thing is irrelevant hyperbole, as minor wounds are usually treated with over the counter painkillers so one wouldn’t expect a prescription for that.
Of course, it’d be nice if the OP avoided all the over-the-top hyperbole so we can focus on the dickish aspects of doctors not treating the uninsured without having to first work out that her friend’s finger was not in fact “half dangling off” or refused painkillers for agonizing pain.