Originally Posted by garce

Even in glorious, Michael Moore and Bill Clinton loving Canada, I have three very close relatives who were killed by incompetance in the last few years. I'd have more examples, but I'm running out of elder family members.

Short form:

My Uncle Frank had lung cancer. They caught it early and removed it. We were all ecstatic! He wasn't free and clear - there was a good chance it would recur sometime in the future.

Unfortunately, he caught pneumonia while in hospital and the nurse improperly inserted his shunt. After surviving numerous surgeries and years of treatment, he drowned to death on his own internal fluids in a hospital bed in Peterborough. He was a guard at Kingston Penetentiary. Not a low-life like me.

My gorgeous, sainted, 94 year old grandmother broke her hip two years after her son (see above paragraph) died. She spent two weeks in a corridor because they could not find her a bed. Her doctor actually drove across Ontario trying - without success - to find one fucking hospital bed for a woman who paid taxes longer than most people have been alive. She lived independantly until about age 92. She died in a hallway.

Never had a drink of alcohol in her life (outside of the church where she was the organist), but she died while pumped full of morphine. In a corrider, but not alone.

My mom. I could write a book on this one. I won't, though. Not here. She could have been saved five years before she died if not for the bureaucracy, paperwork, and politics involved in getting a senior serious and rapid medical help in a socialist province. It took TWO YEARS to get approved for therapy and get and oxygen machine in the house.

It was against the law for me to purchase these services and equipment - I had to wait in line. Rich people go to the States for medical care. I could not afford to do that.

Don't ever think Canada has excellent medical service. Its free for mundane shit (Oh, I cut my finger! Oh, I need a flu shot! Oh, I had a baby!) - but when it comes to serious, life-saving care - particularly for the elderly - run away.

When you are old, you WILL die here. Canada abolished the death penalty? Try being retired taxpayer with a chronical ailment.

You die.