Article

2013-08-20 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Australian Doctors Bring Woman Back from the Dead

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Posted by Fred 2013-08-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Prolly just mostly dead.

Posted by SteveS 2013-08-20 00:26|| 2013-08-20 00:26|| Front Page Top

#2 Well whada you know, now the church can' say "Christ was the only one".

Posted by Redneck Jim 2013-08-20 01:02|| 2013-08-20 01:02|| Front Page Top

#3 Meh...Chicago Dem ward bosses have been doing it for decades....

Posted by Uncle Phester 2013-08-20 08:45|| 2013-08-20 08:45|| Front Page Top

#4 I wonder what the Doctors charged, the machine was free just the electricity to work it, so, ALL PROFIT. (Do Doctors overcharge? Does a Bear shit in the woods.)

Posted by Redneck Jim 2013-08-20 08:51|| 2013-08-20 08:51|| Front Page Top

#5 Medical pricing is a horror of incomprehensibility, a wallow for government regulation. Docs charge $450 for a procedure and Medicare allows them $10.77. They have to charge the $450 because there's an entire industry devoted to suing them, which means their insurance rates are through the roof.

Posted by Fred 2013-08-20 09:07|| 2013-08-20 09:07|| Front Page Top

#6 My favorite resuscitated patient was a fellow who suffered a cardiac arrest while I was at his side conversing with him. I could see this event coming, and had already uncovered his chest, applied conductive material to the paddles of the defibrillator and primed myself to give him the shock of his life. So when he developed an otherwise fatal heart rhythm, I called for help and then shocked him within 8 seconds or so of the event.
He immediately revived and said, "Gee, thanks"
I made the same amount that hour as I did for an hour in the ER when nothing whatsoever needed doing.
I'm sure the hospital billed him out the wazoo.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2013-08-20 09:55|| 2013-08-20 09:55|| Front Page Top

Docs charge $450 for a procedure and Medicare allows them $10.77. They have to charge the $450 because

It's way more complicated than that. No hospital or medical practice could survive if all they did was collect whatever Medicare paid them. Then there are the patients who pay nothing at all and get the same treatments. The non-payers then return again and again for more free treatment (as long as they survive). The US Gov't in its wisdom has forced EMTALA on nearly all emergency rooms & therefore nearly all hospitals. This unpaid mandate is NEVER discussed by the MSM or pundits. [I have read but can't cite a "fact" that the sum of all US physicians incomes is less than the cost of record-keeping done by their offices and by hospitals: e.g, if physicians worked for nothing, US healthcare would still be extremely expensive] So they charge everyone else extra.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2013-08-20 10:00|| 2013-08-20 10:00|| Front Page Top

#8 I wonder what the Doctors charged, the machine was free just the electricity to work it, so, ALL PROFIT.

The machine didn't fix the problem. RTFA. It kept blood flowing to the brain. The docs still had to go in and unblock an artery. That means a surgical team, facility use, after-surgical care and so on.

Average cost for post-myocardial infarction (that's 'heart attack', by the way) treatment in Coachella Valley is $150K. One-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollars. Considering that 10-15% of patients are brought from across the border (and go back without paying), indigent (that means 'poor'), or here illegally, that's a significant chunk of change that doesn't get recouped (that means 'someone eats the costs').

I suppose I could dig up the number of M.I. cases that aren't paid for to get you an accurate amount, but frankly, I know I'd be be wasting my time.

Posted by Pappy 2013-08-20 10:43|| 2013-08-20 10:43|| Front Page Top

#9 RJ wins the prize for dumb economics of the day.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2013-08-20 10:55|| 2013-08-20 10:55|| Front Page Top

#10 the machine was free

Assuming they found it laying in the street and didn't have to buy or maintain it. Never mind the network of research, engineering and manufacturing that lead to it existing in the first place.

I wonder if people turn away from liberal silliness as they get older because their brains mature enough to understand economics.

Posted by SteveS 2013-08-20 12:36|| 2013-08-20 12:36|| Front Page Top

#11 The electricity and machine were simply tools - like a hammer. The cost comes in knowing how to use that hammer - where to place the impact, what angle, how much force. Of course in medicine it's much more complicated.

Do you know how to unblock an artery? Or even make a proper incision. (Well Dr. Steve probably does...) I sure don't.

Basically the 'cost' is for renting the doctor's expertise, experience, practice, and steady hand. As well as that of the nurses and attendants....

And of course the insurance....

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-08-20 12:45|| 2013-08-20 12:45|| Front Page Top

#12 We have one of those suckers in the Mail room... students... several students have almost ~~needed~~ gotten it.

Posted by Shipman 2013-08-20 17:02|| 2013-08-20 17:02|| Front Page Top

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