Funny thing about ‘walking back the cat’ though. When you start pulling on a thread as you trace a story back to its routes, more often than not the entire garment begins to unravel…and pretty soon the emperor, or in this case the empress, has no clothes.
Our girl Shona ended up making her way to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona where, for a mere $100,000.00, they confirmed the diagnosis, did some additional testing, performed the appropriate operation and sent her home fully cured just four days after the surgery. Trouble is, the surgery wasn’t for a brain tumor, or brain cancer as Fox News so typically overstated during their interview with this unfortunate victim of Canada’s socialized health care system. It was for the removal of a benign cyst…and they excised it not by boring through her skull, but by going up her nose with something akin to a Roto Rooter and popping that sucker like a big ol’ zit.
What she actually had was called a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst, a rare, fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. It can cause hormone and vision problems, both of which Holmes had been experiencing, and can also cause more serious problems if left untreated. But it is not…NOT…life threatening, and is normally treatable with minimally invasive surgery, as was the case in this instance.
End of story, right? Our victim/heroine escapes the tentacles of Canada’s oppressive, socialized health care system, heads south to that ‘shining city on the hill’, gets the treatment she was denied in her own country, and finally goes back home to live happily ever after. Wow! If it weren’t for this damn gag reflex it would probably bring tears to our eyes.
Here’s the thing, though. This procedure took place four years ago, but Americans For Prosperity/Patients United Now didn’t see the need to produce and release a TV spot featuring Holmes until just recently… when they undoubtedly felt it could do the most public relations damage to any Health Care Reform initiatives currently being considered by Congress. And the Mayo Clinic, which first wrote about this story in 2007 as a not so subtle dig at Canada’s public health care system, and a not so subtle plug about their own expertise, all of a sudden decided to re-release it this summer to coincide with the release of the TV spot. Oh the humanity!
What a crock of unadulterated horse pucky! For openers there is no way…no freaking way…that anyone with either a life threatening or immediate need medical condition gets put on hold by the Canadian health care system, unless there has been some kind of misdiagnosis or they have somehow fallen through the cracks. And neither of those things could ever have happened here, in the good ol' USA, right?
Oh, you may have to wait a while for that vasectomy or nose job, and maybe even for that hip or knee replacement…and that could never happen here either, eh? But if you need treatment NOW for ANYTHING that is in any way life threatening, the Canadian system will make sure you’re taken care of. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is either misinformed, or just plain lying for their own selfish reasons…like that health insurance agent we told you about yesterday.
We don’t know what Shona Holmes was paid or given for agreeing to do that ill-advised TV spot or the Fox News interview decrying the Canadian public health care system…maybe a ton of money, maybe all the expenses associated with her treatment at the Mayo Clinic, maybe nothing? But what we do know is this. She is nothing more than a shill…and she’s being used by extreme right-wing interests in this country who, for their own selfish reasons, will do anything to try and stop any type of ‘public health care for all’ from becoming a reality in the United States.
The Canadian system isn’t perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But like ours, the quality of care is world class. The difference is that their system is significantly more accessible and exponentially more effective and efficient than what we have here…or maybe ‘what we don’t have here’ would be a more accurate way to describe it!
And here’s a little nugget for you that you probably don’t know…and you’ll certainly never be told by anyone who leans to the right in this country. When asked in a poll at the turn of the millennium to pick who they thought was the most important person in the history of their country, Canadians overwhelmingly selected a man by the name of Tommy Douglas. The late Mr. Douglas is noteworthy for a few reasons. He was the father-in-law of actor Donald Sutherland and the grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland…and he’s also the man primarily responsible for making Canada’s public health care system a reality. We’re fairly certain the latter reason is why so many Canadians named him the most important man in their country’s history.
For more on the Shona Holmes traveling circus, there's some excellent material on these sites:
http://mediamattersaction.org/factcheck/200905270002
And if you really want a laugh, check out the Fox News anti-health-care-reform infomercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJGTcfcWGo
Steve
My Paula had this exact same problem - a cyst on her pituitary gland. It was diagnosed when she was a teenager. Having it removed was elective. She chose not to do have it removed for over a decade. It certainly was not life threatening. Although she is glad to be rid of it, she is the first to admit that the procedure to have it removed was much more painful than any of the symptoms she was experiencing.
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