Healthcare Issues

Insurance companies really need have a reality check. No, this isn't one of those we need to have a more socialized system like France, or anti that tirades. It is just sad to see how the insurance companies have made it so that people who really do need medical care are sent home. These are men and woman who actually pay for good insurance. These are people who for whatever reason end up in situations that beyond their control. Instead of the hospitals helping them, they are discharged and told to "hope for the best." How is that in the best interest of the patient.

I always knew about situations like these existed. I was angered by the lack of services given to people who needed them. I was disgusted by the red tape and bureaucratic nightmares that happened everyday. Still, the injustice didn't set me on fire until it hit a little to close to home.

My father was admitted to Bay Park hospital in Northwest Ohio on the Saturday before Christmas. He has an arrhythmia and it sometimes causes his blood pressure to drop to dangerous levels. While he was at Bay Park, his cardiologist decided to send him to The Toledo Hospital for more extensive tests. (Toledo Hospital has a much more extensive cardiac unit) They ran a battery of tests on him Christmas Eve. They decided that the blockages in his heart did not warrant surgery, but they found something else. They were sure it was nothing, but they wanted to keep him for a few more tests and to do the ablation to fix the arrhythmia. The day after Christmas, my father was supposed to have a CAT scan and an ablation and then be released. Instead they discovered the calcium deposits on his pericardium had adhered to his heart. It was like my father's heart was in a glass jar. He was slated for surgery for that Friday, but then it was postponed. Someone had forgotten to take him off of one of his blood thinners. The surgery would not be for another week. They discharged my father Thursday night. He just had to return for his surgery. So my father has been sent home, without having his ablation to fix the arrhythmia AND he is taken off his blood thinners.