I’m back! Article about flying patients around soon. With photographic evidence… But first.
Helping with the Whipples the other day got me thinking.
The patient in question has a really bad Pancreatic Carcinoma and has quite severe abdominal pain. The prognosis is poor. Probably 3 months. By doing this palliative whipples (you can do the op for other reasons) - she will first need to recover, but then should have less pain.
The catch is - she is still going to die. We have not solved her cancer problem. We have probably extended her life by 9 months.
Here’s the second catch. She has no medical aid. All the theatre costs, ICU, ward stay, doctor and anaethetist will be paid out of her pocket! It could come to a quiet R100k.
Now is that worth it? Many would say yes. You can’t put a price on life can you? But I’m skeptical.
If I had pancreatic cancer, and I had 3 months to live, I wouldn’t want to spend my money having a huge operation, whiling away the time, drugged up in hospital – just for a few months. Remember, you don’t just skip out happy the next day – it takes TIME to recover from hefty procedures.
I’d rather take my wealth and spend it lavishly to live my remaining days on a deserted island somewhere.
So I told the surgeon…”If you ever open me up, and see the pancreatic tumour, please close me back up and send me packing to the Bahamas!”.
I don’t know if I’m right. But it sure got me thinking.
2 comments:
then i'm also sceptical. i think that's too much for too little. what about a bypass or a simple stent? in her case probably just as effective and much cheaper. anyway i wasn't there so i can't really critiseze the guy.
In her case unfortunately, nothing would have worked. It is was Whipples (which is kind of a bypass) or nothing...
Post a Comment