The Canadians are not too happy about the lies being spouted by the loony right. Her's just an example of the lies.

But right now, Canadians are setting aside their criticisms of Medicare and rallying to its defense. The reason: Their system has been dragged into the debate over President Barack Obama's health care reform proposals by opponents who say Canada proves Obama is wrong — that Canadians endure long waits for critical procedures, medical rationing, scant resources and heavy-handed government interference.

A TV ad sponsored by the conservative Americans For Prosperity Foundation spotlighted a Canadian woman, Shona Holmes, who has challenged the system in court. She spoke of suffering from a brain tumor and declared she would "be dead" had she relied on her government. She said she had to mortgage her home to pay more than $97,000 to get timely treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

In Canada, groups quickly sprouted up on Facebook accusing Holmes of betraying her country and exaggerating her illness.

In a report on its Web site, the Mayo Clinic said Holmes was suffering from a Rathke's cleft cyst near her pituitary gland. The Web sites of several reputable medical groups list the cyst as non-cancerous.

So when are people going to begin to realize the lies are perpetrated just to protect the obscene profits made my insurance companies?

The rest of the story can be read here.

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Update, Aug. 9: Shona Holmes released a statement to FactCheck.org through Americans for Prosperity. She says that her husband “was told in no uncertain terms that if I waited the time scheduled to see specialists back in Canada I would be dead.” Holmes is suing the Canadian government and can’t release her medical files, she says. The Mayo Clinic also found that she had Cushing’s disease, a rare endocrine disorder, according to her statement. “My case was so complex – the tumor was not only compromising my optic chiasm but was also damaging my pituitary gland, and it was uncertain whether I had a pituitary tumor on the gland itself,” she says. “I was not producing ACTH, which is fatal, and I had gone into adrenal crisis on 4 different occasions.” She had surgery to treat the adrenal issues in Canada, but she says it took three years to get that operation. “It has just been one nightmare after another,” Holmes says.

“All experts who have reviewed my case, both before and after, made it very clear that I needed surgery within hours to days,” she says. “I wish I could release my medical files, but unfortunately I am in litigation trying to recoup my financial loss from the government.”

Ah yes, 'wish i could release my medical file....'

Sounds kind of like Thurlow and his Bronze Star.

by the Canadians and the Mayo Clinic.

And why all of the spite from the Canadians? Seems to me she should be worthy of sympath and concern considering her condition was NOT being handles appropriately in Canada.

By the way, the wife of a manager I worked with in Canada also went to the US for treatment of her cancer. I suspect this is not as rare as you might think.

And who knows but her if she is telling the truth, or if the experts in the article are telling the truth.

Plus what makes us think that only America has a problem with medical malpractice. Do we blame their universal health care, or do we blame the practitioner. How does one match two possible cases against the thousands who die here evey year?

And does this excuse the American health insurance companies from allowing how many Americans to die, because they found some way to cancel their insurance because of some 'pre-existing condition'?

MWG,

You are on a role. From your link:

"The Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., where Holmes was treated, wrote about her success story in May 2007. It said that Holmes was in danger of losing her sight, which had been worsening. It didn’t say anything about her being in danger of dying or only having months to live. The neurosurgeon that diagnosed Holmes, Dr. Naresh Patel, said, "We needed to remove the cyst to save her vision." Mayo reported: "When she first saw Dr. Patel, Holmes had lost half the vision in her right eye and 25 percent in her left eye. After the surgery, her vision was 100 percent restored."

We asked the Mayo Clinic about the usual prognosis of the condition. Fredric Meyer, M.D., chair of neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., responded in a statement that "RCC is a benign lesion and is not typically life-threatening.""

And from the Mayo Clinic link provided by Factcheck:

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Excerpt:

"Their further tests revealed an increase in the size of her cyst over a short period of time as well as progressively worsening vision. "I was concerned that the pressure on Shona's nervers was causing her to become blind," says Dr. Patel. "We needed to remove the cyst to save her vision.""

Nothing life threatening.

She lied. You passed on the lie.

Until next time,

Zif.

Wahbooz,

She lied about her condition. For the Mayo Clinic to have even printed her story they would have needed for her to sign a release as to what she was treated for, and how severe it was. The Mayo Clinic would have mentioned if her "cyst" was life threatening in their write up if there was a shred of truth to that since it would have made them out to look even better than they are.

Until next time,

Zif.

.....and I have witnessed Canadian health care in action first hand at UBC when a friend needed elective, not even emergency care, although it was for a serious injury that he was given a choice of waiting to have surgery on at home or have right away in Canada. He was given a bill for his procedure and care. It was a fraction of the average cost of the procedure here. He submitted the bill to his insurance company here and had to fight tooth and nail to get them to cover the cost. He found out that the surgeon he had was also the guy that worked on most of the Vancouver Canucks and while in hospital, he had a corner room with a view many would pay big bucks for. None of this was requested by him, he just thought it would be better to take care of it rather than have them do a temp stablization until he got home. There was no waiting period.

While my Canadian friends admit their are improvements could be made in their system, they wouldn't trade theirs for ours for all the tea in China. They often rib me about our system while telling "American" jokes, that might include something about our health care system in them, to their fellow Canadians.

I have a cousin who was hit by a car when very young and suffered from epilectic seizures all his life. He told me after finally taking the advice of a lifelong friend, he went to the Mayo clinic to see if there was something they might be able to do that could spare him what he had suffered from mos of his life. There was a lot of testing to see whether there was any possibility a procedure they have used would work, it sure seems to have, but his comment after this was that he got tired of doctors simply prescribing drug after drug that eventually lost their effectiveness in controlling his condition and was more than just a bit pissed off that none of the doctors recommended he find out whether he might be a candidate for the procedure he finally had. Instead, they kept prescribing pills. Good post.

As we speak, someone very near and dear to me is trying to resolve some recurring pain issues from surgery two years ago, recently referred to another specialist, the appointment with that specialist who was spoken to and directly requested by the surgeon who did the first procedure, was scheduled at the first available date, in February. Never mind how many weeks that is away, let's count the months.

No one is looking to make a big profit out of the concept of universal health care, therein lies the contrast between the two sides of the debate. Do we represent a profit or loss, visiting a physician, lying on an operating table, taking up a hospital bed or do we represent a human being that in need of compassion and health care? How do we want to be considered and how do people think we are considered in a profit motivated industry?

Hitting the hay, have a great night.