Woman Finally Gets Here Skull Back

[zakur]

Woman's head is whole again

MIDVALE, Utah -- After a lot of red tape, Briana Lane has her skull back in one piece.

The 22-year-old was injured in an auto accident in January, and doctors removed nearly half her skull to save her life.

But for almost four months afterward, the piece of bone lay in a hospital freezer across town -- and Lane had to wear a plastic street hockey helmet -- because of a standoff between Medicaid and the hospital over who would cover the replacement surgery.

During the wait, she suffered extreme pain just bending down and would wake up to find that her brain had shifted to one side during the night.

[...]

Doctors at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City removed the left side of her skull to treat bleeding on her brain. Lane's doctor scheduled the replacement surgery for mid-March, a month after her release from the hospital, said her mother, Margaret McKinney, a nurse who works in another division of the medical center.

But the operation was canceled the night before because the hospital was waiting to see whether Medicaid would cover it -- a process that can take at least 90 days.

Lane, a waitress with no insurance, was sent home with a big dent in her head where the bone had been removed but the scalp had been sewn into place. She stayed at home, able to walk around but not go to work.

 

[c0rbin]

Not to derail, but just curious about differences in the two systems (maybe this belongs in the political forum).

How would this whole thing have gone down in Canada?

Edited to add: I realize that there would have been no shortages or waits for a hockey helmet.

 

[richardm]

During the wait, she suffered extreme pain just bending down and would wake up to find that her brain had shifted to one side during the night.

[faints]

 

[richardm]

Edited to add: I realize that there would have been no shortages or waits for a hockey helmet.

Ya reckon?

"Well, if I lend you my helmet how am I going to play on Saturday?"

 

[bignickel]

Well, the good thing is that since a piece of her skull was removed, any demons that were in there had a chance to escape.

Bedbugs, on the other hand..,

 

[wollery]

See in this country we have the NHS which gives free healthcare for everybody, so she would never have been left without half her skull while they worked out who would pay for it.








Of course the main reason that she wouldn't have been left without half a skull is that when she was first admitted she'd have been left on a trolley bed in a corridor outside the emergency department for 10 hours before being seen and she would therefore have died before ever getting to the operating theatre.

 

[Felice]

Sounds just like here!

 

[Camillus]

Of course the main reason that she wouldn't have been left without half a skull is that when she was first admitted she'd have been left on a trolley bed in a corridor outside the emergency department for 10 hours before being seen and she would therefore have died before ever getting to the operating theatre.

I have to strongly disagree with you. She would have been left on the trolley in the ED for only 3 hours and 59 minutes at which point she would have been admitted to any available bed (probably on a male genito-urinary ward).

Then she would die because the surgical team would be unable to find her and the nurses wouldn't have the faintest idea how to look after her.

 

[NightG1]

[faints]

Exactly. Kinda makes you wonder what method she used to check.

 

[sorgoth]

That's....horrible...

 

[neutrino_cannon]

But she said the experience has left her [lane] a little more cynical about the health care system.

I nominate this for the understatement of the year award.

Seriously though, how often does this sort of horror story happen? Do we not hear of it much because all the unfortunate folks usually die?