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Is this Fox News Spreading Disinformation about Canadian Healthcare?

2K views 30 replies 11 participants last post by  Dr.G. 
#1 ·
#9 ·
This is Business as Usual for Faux.

One of their favourite attacks is that Canadians cannot pick their own doctors, hospitals... with the implication that Americans can.

Truth is pretty much the opposite. Canadians are fairly free to pick and choose as long as there is a spot available. OTH I have spent a lot of time over the past several weeks changing my mom's US medicare provider so she can have a Doc that does house calls. Asking Americans in their 70s or 80s or 90s to deal with that sort of red tape is truly Satanic. Trying to pass it off as right and proper is even worse.
 
#10 ·
It must be me that is missing something here, for I see little difference in the details of the news portion of the story, other than the Fox release included the social network piece saying the posts resembled prayers...... if that is the only bias, but is that accurate....if the posts do indeed look like prayers is it newsworthy to include, which the CBC didn't appear to deem it so.
 
#11 ·
Well here is how the Fox article starts...

"The Canadian family of a 13-month-old boy clinging to life support has defied a court order to remove the boy’s breathing tube and now is looking to an American hospital for what experts say would be a miracle recovery."

Although the factual data seem very similar, the CBC article doesn't mention recovery anywhere.
 
#15 ·
As a follow-up to this very sad story, from the Windsor Star:

The Windsor family of terminally ill baby Joseph Maraachli suffered another setback Wednesday when the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit refused to accept the infant as a patient.

Joseph’s aunt, Faith Nader, said the Detroit hospital will not take the 13-month-old in for an assessment, as the family had hoped.

The boy’s parents, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader, have been fighting doctors at the London Health Sciences Centre, where Joseph has been since last fall, refusing to let them remove the child’s breathing tube.

Although Joseph suffers from a severe and terminal neurological disorder, his parents don’t want him to die in hospital.

Instead, they’ve been asking doctors to perform a tracheotomy, which would allow them to take Joseph home.

It’s their wish that he would die there, surrounded by family.

Joseph’s parents reached out to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan to see whether specialists there would examine the baby and provide a second opinion. The parents defied a court order this week to comply with the London doctors’ plan to remove Joseph’s breathing tube.

The couple’s lawyer, Mark Handelman, had been negotiating Joseph’s possible transfer to Detroit and who would pay for the child’s care in the United States.

The London Health Sciences Centre had sent the child’s medical records to Michigan.

Handelman could not be reached for comment Wednesday night, but he told The Star this week the family wanted “a second, completely independent medical opinion.”

Late Wednesday, LHSC confirmed Joseph will not be transferred to Detroit, but declined to elaborate, citing privacy rules.

A spokeswoman for the Children’s Hospital of Michigan wouldn’t comment on Joseph’s case, calling it a private matter.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition who is helping Joseph’s family navigate the legal system, said the news from Detroit was “a big disappointment.”

“But it’s not over yet,” he said, noting that the Children’s Hospital of Michigan was not the only facility the family had in mind. “Everything is moving along and we’re hoping for the best.”

However, time may be running out. LHSC has contacted the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee, which can make health care decisions on behalf of those deemed incapable of doing so themselves.

Since Joseph’s parents have not given consent to remove the baby’s tube and no other relatives are willing to do so, the next legal step is to ask for the public guardian’s consent. That can take several days.

“We don’t know how much time we have,” Schadenberg said.

Meanwhile, money is being raised to help cover the family’s legal bills. A trust account has been set up at TD Canada Trust bank, where people can deposit donations



Read more: Detroit hospital refuses to admit dying Windsor baby
 
#18 ·
I do find the request to allow the boy to die at home a reasonable one. If a tracheotomy is all that is required to make this possible then it should be done.

If the hospitals reason to disconnect support is to save money or to make space available that solution serves both purposes better than the current; "Let's fight it out in court!" approach.
 
#20 ·
is it about money or causing the child undue suffering?

Just because he's in a vegetative state doesn't mean he's impervious to pain. I imagine a tracheotomy would hurt. a lot.

Performing an unnecessary operation that causes pain (and may cause further complications...i.e. an infection) for the sole purpose of bringing him home to die doesn't seem to make much sense. at some point shouldn't the opinion of the medical staff be taken into consideration?
 
#21 ·
. at some point shouldn't the opinion of the medical staff be taken into consideration?
The issue is the emotional impact that this decision has on the parents. G-d forbid any of us to have to make this decision, and whether one dies at home or in a hospital, it does little to reduce the pain, I've been there and it doesn't matter where it happens.

But I have never lost a child .... for all parents this seems like the greatest hurt of all, that a child dies before you. While I can never say I know what it must be like to be in their situation, because I don't .... I can understand their intent, rational or not in other people's opinion.
 
#23 ·
the article you linked also specifically states that patients in a vegetative state do react to painful stimuli, but if he doesn't feel pain then that would negate the family's fear that the child would "suffer a painful choking death if the ventilator is removed".

i'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to comment on the specifics of what he can and cannot feel, but from reading this: "the doctors refused, saying it's not in the boy's best interests." i think that does have to mean something.
 
#24 ·
Specifically:
"...if you pinch her arm, she is like to flinch away. "That is called nociception," De Georgia says. "Tissue is damaged by the pinch, this generates a response in a receptor, which sends an impulse along the peripheral nerves. This impulse travels to the thalamus, which directs the arm to withdraw," he said. It is what is commonly called a reflex.

Pain, on the other hand, is the recognition of nociception by the nervous system, which sends the impulse to regions of the brain where consciousness exists. In the case of a severely brain injured person - one in a persistent vegetative state - those areas of consciousness have been destroyed, and as result "they don't 'feel' pain."
Honestly, the boy, who no longer has consciousness, no longer has interests. He will never regain either. Let the parents do what makes them feel peaceful.
 
#25 ·
IMO what that doctor is referring to is the idea that a person in a vegetative state lacks consciousness and therefore does not suffer or feel pain from being in that state.

but their body would still react to stimuli that would "hurt". (which a tracheotomy surly would).

Performing a useless operation to appease the parents without taking into account the well being of the child isn't exactly responsible.

Ultimately the public guardian will know more of the medical specifics and rule in his best interest.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Feb 24, 2011 Fox News lost interest with this story

Just checked Fox News web site and this story hasn't been updated since Feb.23rd, 2011.

CBC News had this update yesterday
CBC News said:
The family of Joseph Maraachli, the terminally ill baby at the centre of a right-to-life controversy, is still in shock that he was able to be airlifted to a U.S. facility for treatment.

Joseph was transferred from a London, Ont., hospital to a children's medical centre in Missouri for "a second opinion," said the boy's aunt, Faith Nader, on Monday.
Baby Joseph Transferred to US

and today CBC News has this update

CBCNews said:
A hospital in St. Louis, Mo., will likely perform a tracheotomy on Joseph Maraachli — the year-old Ontario baby at the centre of a right-to-life battle — by the end of the week, officials say.

Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Centre (CGCMC) had planned a news conference for Tuesday, but cancelled it because a treatment plan for Joseph, who has an unidentified degenerative brain disease, is still in the works.
Baby Joseph likely to receive tracheotomy

Fox lost interest but with the rhetoric in the above report for how long?
 
#27 ·
Funny, I saw this on Fox News just a few days ago.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Baby Joseph' Gets Second Chance at Life in U.S. - FoxNews.com

There is a difference in how this is being reported.... from what I understand, the parents are not trying to find a miracle cure here, they would like their child to die in a different manner. Yet this article talks about a 2nd chance at life and saving Baby Joseph.

This came up a few days ago on a heavily US-based board I visit... the story is getting WAY more airtime there than here.
 
#28 ·
I copied the original link title into Fox's search feature and got only two hits however when I put in 'Baby Joseph'' got the latest info.

My apologies to FoxNews for my misinformation as I know they do the same...ˆ not
 
#29 ·
I wonder if these "Priests for Life" will be helping to pay for his medical treatment and care? I wonder if they will be there night, after night, after night should he pull through, caring for him?

I know of this situation. My daughter was born profoundly disabled back in the early 80s. There was not DNR legislation back then, so rather than allow Shaina to die with some dignity, they pulled out all stops, used techniques and instruments that allowed her to survive. At the time, we were never consulted as to "should we do this?", but rather told "this is what we are doing". Months later, she was allowed to come home. At the time, she was one of the most profoundly disabled children in NL.

We were then told to "give her up" and put her in "Exon House", which was a place where the profoundly disabled were cared for when their parents could no longer care for these children. We refused this option, and kept her at home. We even did an at-home physiotherapy program with over 300 volunteers that won a provincial award as an example of an excellent home volunteer program. I had to fight to get her into the public school system, in the special needs unit of a school here in St.John's.

Year after year after year, and operation after operation after operation, we saw her life become one struggle after another. In the end, after 25 years of struggle, she passed peacefully away in our arms.

So, when I hear of such cases, I am always of the opinion "to what end"? Yes, life is precious, but there has to be life with some dignity, which is why I feel that this poor boy is not being dignified in any way. Rather, he is being used as an opportunity to promote a cause ........... and will be forgotten once the public tires of reading about this poor boy.

While we loved and cherished Shaina, and tried to make her life as real and comfortable as possible, the one thing we never allowed her to become was part of any cause.

Paix, mes amis.
 
#30 ·
Dr.G., once again I am sorry for your personal struggle.

This child lives because of advances of modern medicine. Left on her own she would not survive.

My oldest sister died in 1942 at age 2 because medicine had not found tracheotomies yet. This treatment was "discovered" later in theatre and perfected during the second world war.

Sadly this child's situation will become a political football. Evidently this child has attained celebrity status as "Baby Joseph." Much attention will be paid. How many facts will be reported?
 
#31 ·
Thank you, BigDL.

Yes, the phrases "political football" and "celebrity status" are apt descriptors of this poor child.

Paix, mon ami.
 
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