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 hos...