--- In [email protected], "suziezuzie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I would like to tell you a story about conventional health care. My > dad was born with congenital cataracts. In the old days, this disease > accounted for 50% of blindness in old people. My dad had eye problems > his whole life. He passed that disease to me but fortunately, in the > early 70s, medicine developed a technique to remove the lens of the > eye. The patient then wore a hard contact lens in place of the natural > lens. This was how it was in my case but at least I had perfect > vision with the use of a contact lens. Now the story continues. I pass > on this disease to my two kids who are now 17 and 19. The 19 year old > daughter had her two eyes operated on in Israel but unlike myself, the > removed lens was replaced with a hard lens implanted into the eye. The > operation is 99% successful for patients and in her case, she came out > with vision that was better than most of her friends who have 20-20 > vision in both eyes. In my sons case, it was the same story. His eyes > were operated on in Israel also and he came out with perfect vision in > both eyes. With implanted lenses there is not the inconvenience of > wearing contact lenses and they both have the complete natural and > comfortable use of their eyes. I share this story because while it's > true that there are major problems with our health care system today, > there are also the success stories.
Thanks for the success story Suzie, here's another. In 2001 the mitral valve of my heart became infected as a result of a dental procedure that was performed without antibiotics, something that should always be used when you have any kind of heart murmur. By the time I realized that something other than a "bug" was making me weak and short of breath my mitral valve was pretty much shot. I was immediately operated on by a superb surgeon (son of Bread founder David Gates BTW) who reconstructed my mitral valve using my own tissue. It's a bitch of an operation, where your heart must be removed and opened up to do the work. Everything's been ducky ever since...I'm quite fit for 54. All the vedic enemas in the world wouldn't have saved me....I'd have been dead in a few weeks had I gone that route. But....looking at our healthcare system as a whole in the US (I note that your children's surgeries were performed in Israel) there are indeed significant problems....many pointed out in Michael Moore's movie Sicko. The traditional practice of medicine is (mostly) OK. But obtaining quality health care is more and more difficult for many. I was lucky back in 2001.
