Some more info on Shona Holmes, from the Ottawa Citizen.

[drm604]

I originally posted this on another thread about Shona Holmes. (If you don't know about Shona Holmes check out these Google results.)

Mzmolly suggested that I post it as it's own thread, so here it is.

Some more info on Shona Holmes, from the Ottawa Citizen.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/reality+check+reality+check/1783177/story.html

Holmes has become the darling of conservatives and the stop-public-health-care movement in the United States. She's testified before Congress, been on Fox TV as well as CNN, and her story is retold on hundreds of right wing blogs. She's now doing a nasty TV ad for Patients United Now, a Republican-led group opposed to Obama's reforms. You can see the ad at www.patientsunitednow.com. The group is spending almost $2 million on it to target politicians in Washington.

For a person living with cancer, the idea that someone's care could be unreasonably delayed is truly scary. It also doesn't reflect the experience I've had or the experiences that have been shared with me by so many other patients. Even CNN interviewed Doug Wright, a more typical patient in Toronto who is receiving very speedy treatment for his cancer.

Still, I found Holmes tale both compelling and troubling. So I decided to check a little further. On the Mayo Clinic's website, Shona Holmes is a success story. But it's somewhat different story than all the headlines might have implied. Holmes' "brain tumour" was actually a Rathke's Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. To quote an American source, the John Wayne Cancer Center, "Rathke's Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts."

There's no doubt Holmes had a problem that needed treatment, and she was given appointments with the appropriate specialists in Ontario. She chose not to wait the few months to see them. But it's a far cry from the life-or-death picture portrayed by Holmes on the TV ads or by McConnell in his attacks.

Also check out my post on the astroturf group "Patients United Now", which is a big part of the story. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6080157

[mzmolly]

1. Very important info. Please join me in a K and R.

:kick:

[redqueen]

2. Another RW liar... how surprising.

Thanks for posting this.

[dgibby]

3. Interesting!

I just forwarded your post to Ed. Maybe he can use it on his show.

[drm604]

4. Cool!

I'll set the Tivo.

[drm604]

6. You might want to forward my journal page to him

since my article right under this one is about the astroturf group "Patients United Now", which is a big part of this story. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/drm604

[Critters2]

12. I sent it to Rachel. Hopefully, someone will use it. nt

[drm604]

14. Thank you.

This info needs to get out there.

[KT2000]

5. K & R - the ad is a lie

and should be taken off the air.

[mopinko]

7. another good thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6102187

[whosinpower]

8. The issue here seems to be

Whether her tumour was a life threatening as the Mayo Clinicians implied.
I am not a doctor, so cannot make that judgement - and perhaps there are those out there who could weigh in.
However....this may seem cynical - but if you were a doctor who made a living at the Mayo Clinic....would you suggest that she need treatment now, and there - at a cost to her of $97 000....or would you agree to send her back to Canada and not gain the sale of the procedure??????

I am also going to give my own story of Canadian style healthcare, from a personal perspective.
It was the middle of the night, when my husband woke me up, feeling not well, and telling me that he needed to go to emergency. We got dressed and drove down, and when he arrived, and told them his symptoms, he was RUSHED into the cardiac care unit, and testing began immediately. One week later, he underwent multiple bypass heart surgery. Four weeks later, he came home. Not once, was treatment delayed - we had to wait for him to stabilize, and he stayed in hospital the entire time. While he was waiting, he was in the cardiac care unit, which has 24 hour on site nursing monitoring and supervision. Not once was cost discussed. Not once was who was going to pay for what was discussed. We did not have to take out a significant loan to pay for this expensive procedure. We did not lose our house.
Every three months, he gets a phone call from the physician to come in, get blood work, and have his med's checked. When he was released, a follow up service included getting him into a heart healthy program. They booked appointments for him to go meet up with a group who exercised together, provided fellowship and support to each other. Under surgery, he also received a pacemaker. The pacemaker clinic phones regularily for him to come in and get checked out.

Again - I must reiterate - the cost to us was zero. My husband is with us today as a direct result of our Canadian Healthcare system. He feels better now than he has in years and we are grateful. His surgery WAS a case of life and death. Shall I go down and make statements to Congress too?????

Shona's story is one instance....and so is mine. I do not see why her story has any more relevance than mine does.

[stuball111]

9. MAybe it's time the Democrats

Trot someone like you out and put you in an ad! Your story seems more fitting to the truth. Shona Holmes is suing up there to get her money back. I wouldn't want to wait in discomfort for an operation, but hers was obviously not life threatening, or she would have got faster treatment. She is lying about something.

[Critters2]

13. Beginning with the fact that it wasn't a tumor. It was a benign cyst. nt

[Canuckistanian]

10. I was about to post this myself

What a fraud. I'll bet you she's being wined and dined by the insurance companies as we speak.

K&R

[stuball111]

11. you can bet she'll

get lots of money to pay for her brain liposuction,from all her TV ads and appearances and STILL sue the Government for more. Greedy fucking facist...

[troubledamerican]

15. Mark Twain quote

Samuel L. Clemens: "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

[drm604]

16. Very apt quote.

The politics of Clemens' time probably had a lot of similarities to the present day. Their mass media consisted of only the printed word and telegraphs so the lies didn't spread as quickly as they do today, but I'm sure they gave the truth a run for it's money. I can only imagine the spin that was put on the slavery issue.

[gwashington2650]

17. How pathetic

The RWers resorting to lies to get their point across.

[progressoid]

18. Unfortunately, facts don't mean shit to the RWers.

As far as they are concerned, it was a huge fucking tumor that would have killed her and her cat. And if it weren't for the All-American health care system fixin her up, that tumor thing would have taken over the free world.

[jgraz]

19. Didn't she also say Canada's healthcare system was taking Iraqi babies out of incubators?

:shrug:

[drm604]

20. ???

What are talking about?

[jgraz]

21. A prior example of fraudulent Repuke testimony

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3589/us-iraq-lie.html

[drm604]

22. I know the reference.

I'm aware of the incubator story. I just didn't see the connection to this.

[jgraz]

23. Not sure how I can get the dots any closer for ya.

[drm604]

24. I realized what you were doing before my last post.

I'm just not too with it today.

[jgraz]

25. No prob. It turns out my analogy was even closer than I thought

This woman did not have a brain tumor. She had a lipoma (benign fatty tumor) under her skin at the back her neck. I had one of these for five years before I finally bit the bullet and had it removed. There was no reason for her to go to the freaking Mayo Clinic to have this taken care of.

More bullshit political theater by the Pukes and their corporate masters.

[drm604]

26. I don't think that's right.

According to the Mayo Clinic she had a Rathke's cleft cyst.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/patientstories/story-339.html

Dr. Naresh Patel, neurosurgeon, diagnosed Holmes as having a Rathke's cleft cyst (RCC). The rare, fluid-filled sac grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain and eventually can cause hormone and vision problems. Dr. Patel joined forces with Drs. David W. Dodick, neurologist, and Michael D. Whitaker, endocrinologist, to work on Holmes' case.

This sounds more serious than a lipoma on the back of the neck. Apparently though, it wasn't an immediate enough problem to justify rushing down to the Mayo Clinic.

[jgraz]

28. Whoops. That's what I get for listening to talk radio callers

The fact that it paralleled my experience was just too delicious to question. Thanks for the correction.

Still, it's not exactly brain cancer.

[YewNork]

27. She shouldn't think of coming to live in the US - she has a pre-existing condition.

[Shagbark Hickory]

29. Look. Even if a few Canadians slip through the cracks...

Even if a few Canadians slip through the cracks and don't get the care they need, (it seems to make national news in Canada when this happens by the way), isn't that still a whole lot better than the millions of people in our country who don't get the care they need?

It's a numbers game. Out of 33 million people there's bound to be a screw up or two. I'm comfortable with those odds.

[drm604]

30. Exactly.

One anecdote doesn't prove much. You need to look at the big picture.

[iverglas]

31. finally!

I had looked all over for some truth a couple of weeks ago.

Wednesday this week, my partner and I were at our community health clinic in another city in Ontario. He's pals with his doc (I haven't seen her yet, not fully switched from my former clinic). She has him come in and play patient when she has first-year med students in to practise people skills, etc., and they shoot the breeze about this and that. He asked her about Holmes.

She said the story was crap, and it was a cyst. I figured she must know what she as talking about!