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Health Care Horror Stories

Health Care Horror Stories

Across the globe, citizens of nations with government-run health care systems experience long wait times, a lack of access to certain treatments and, in some instances, a diminished quality of medical care. Navigate the links below to learn more about patients’ health care horror stories.

“I wouldn’t like to see Americans make the same mistake Canadians have made… Patients in Canada are treated like Third World citizens. Our health-care system is like Cuba or North Korea.”
- Lindsay McCreith (Brain tumor patient, Canada)

“This country would be nowhere without its elderly population. We have always worked and paid our taxes. It seems most unfair that we’ve got nothing at the end of it.”
- Dawn Ford (Eye disease patient, UK)

“I’m a person who left school at 15 and I’ve worked all my life and I’ve paid into the system, and I’m not going to live long enough to get my old-age pension from this government.”
- Debbie Hirst (Breast cancer patient, UK)

“Once you have had the diagnosis you want to have the thing done. The longer it is in your body, the more chance it has of spreading.”
- Linda Lucas (Breast cancer patient, UK)

“There should be somewhere closer. No one with breast cancer should have to go on such a long journey, particularly when we are not feeling too good anyway.”
- Muriel Buckley (Breast cancer patient, UK)

The United Kingdom

Linda O’Boyle

When Linda O’Boyle, 64, was diagnosed with cancer, she decided to pay for additional, private treatment out of pocket, hoping to prolong her life. O’Boyle was told that a medication not provided by NHS would increase her chances of fighting the disease. After deciding to use her savings to pay for these outside medications, NHS withdrew their services, including chemotherapy because current government laws ban a patient from combining public and private healthcare. O’Boyle passed away March 26, 2008.

Joshua Halliday

Joshua Halliday, 5, was forced to travel 50 miles to be treated for a broken arm after doctors failed to find him a place at seven hospitals. The original care facility no longer performs serious trauma surgery.

Katie Hilliard

Katie Hilliard, 24, asked to be given a smear test twice, and was refused because she was “too young.” Katie now has cervical cancer, and it has spread to her lymph nodes and lungs. Doctors have given her 11 months to two years to live.

Claire Everett

Claire Everett, 22, a married mother-of-one, was diagnosed with cervical cancer after developing symptoms took her to the doctor. Claire feels that a smear test would have caught the terminal disease sooner, but the UK increased the regular screening age for cervical cancer from 20 to 25 in 2004. Chemotherapy and radiation were initially thought to have been successful, but two months after the treatment finished, Claire was informed that the cancer had spread to her pelvis and is now incurable.

Terry Pratchett

Author Terry Pratchett, 60, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Because Pratchett is only 60, a relatively young age to develop the disease, he cannot be prescribed the drug Aricept on NHS.

Jackie Knight

Last November, Jackie Knight was diagnosed with metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma after a checkup revealed a tumour on his liver. The consultant he was referred to told him that the most effective treatment would be Sorafenib or Nexavar. NHS denied him access to this drug because it was not “cost effective.” Knight does not know how much longer he will live.

Anne Thomas

After an x-ray, Anne Thomas, 69, was told by doctors that she had only suffered bruising from falling in her garden, and was sent home. After five days of continued pain, friends took Thomas back to the hospital. She was sent home again and told to return to see a consultant in two days. The consultant determined that Thomas had a broken arm after examining the same x-ray.

Amy Thomas

Amy Thomas, 2, went to the hospital with an excruciating leg pain. After taking x-rays, doctors sent this two-year home and told her parents to “put a bag of frozen peas on it.” Thomas spent the night in pain. Her family later found out her leg was broken.

Alan Francis

Alan Francis, a 68-year-old leukaemia patient, was denied a life-saving bone marrow operation by the Health Commission Wales (HCW). The HCW would have refused to fund the operation, which would have entailed taking the marrow from the donor in Australia and flying it to the UK.

Alan Peasnell

Alan Peasnell, 60, was told he needed keyhole surgery on his knee. He thought he would have to wait a few months for an operation, but the mechanical engineer from Peterborough ended up waiting for more than a year. “I went to see the consultant with a knee problem,” Mr. Peasnell said. “After MRI scans and X-rays they decided in early February last year that I required an operation. They sent me a letter saying that I’d have the operation within a few months. But from the time of a consultant saying I’d been put on the waiting list to getting the operation it was 13 months. While this was all going on some days I couldn’t walk at all. I was in pain and on anti-inflammatories. It harmed my quality of life. People who are in pain like I was shouldn’t be kept waiting.”

Allan Lloyd

Allan Lloyd, from Hereford, said he traveled 7,000 miles to take his wife to a hospital in Cheltenham to receive her cancer treatment. It took 210 hours and cost £750 in petrol.

Andrew Lawson

Andrew Lawson, a 48 year-old NHS doctor, was diagnosed with pulmonary mesothelioma. He said, “treatments are available now, but in parts of the UK the drug that is used as a frontline treatment is not available on the NHS. This is because for each year of (quality-adjusted) life it brings it costs more than £30,000. [If you are] diagnosed with a mesothelioma in Scotland, Australia and many European countries, you will receive the drug – but not in England.”

Andrew Melville

Andrew Melville, 50, was refused the drug Tarceva by the NHS, despite being told by doctors it could prolong his life. The father-of-one died on February 11. Now Mr Melville’s sister, Pat Myatt, wants all patients refused drugs on the NHS to form an action group. Her aim is to take on the Government over the issue.

Christine Preuth

Christine Preuth, 72, of Keywood Avenue, a Sunbury pensioner, was told she was too old to receive treatment for a head injury at Ashford 24 Hour Walk-In Centre. While making her daily trip to the shops on Beechwood Avenue she tripped and fell on the pavement. Bleeding from the head and concerned she may be suffering from concussion, she went to the centre for a check up. But the check up was cut short when another nurse said she was not able to received full treatment because she was over 65 and her complaint was a head injury.

David Swain

David Swain, a terminal cancer patient, was refused a drug by the NHS that could extend his life - despite offering to pay part of the cost himself. His offer to meet the monthly £2,000 cost of Erbitux was refused, he said, because the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) ruled it was too expensive.

Dawn Ford

Dawn Ford, 67, had to pay out-of-pocket to receive Avastin, an as yet unlicensed, form of Lucentis. The Echo (UK publication) launched its “Save Our Sight” campaign last year in a bid to make Lucentis and Macugen - another vital drug - available on the NHS.

Debbie Hirsts

Debbie Hirsts, 57, was denied access by the NHS to a drug that would have slowed the progression of her breast cancer. With her oncologist’s support, Debbie decided to raise the $120,000 for the medicine herself. The situation changed in December 2007, when Debbie’s doctor told her the NHS would no longer allow her to subsidize the medication. If Debbie decided to pay for the medicine out-of-pocket, she would then need pay for all of her cancer treatments, which she could not afford, and would no longer receive free health benefits from the NHS.

Deborah Sugg Ryan

Deborah Sugg Ryan, a breast cancer patient, was denied a £20 test for HER2, a protein which affects the growth of cancer cells, at Derriford Hospital back in October.

Jacky Pickles

Jacky Pickles, 44, said that after 25 years working in the NHS, she will have to give the final years of her life to a Health Service that refuses to save her. Her condition improved when she went on a Velcade drug trial earlier this year, but has now been told that she will not get the drug again when her condition deteriorates. She said: “I am absolutely devastated by NICE’s decision. I believe that Patricia Hewitt has, through the back door of NICE, encouraged a new policy that saves the NHS money by condemning patients to an early death which means they are less of a financial burden both in the short term and the long term.

Jane Hewitt

Jane Hewitt, 58, who lives in Whitchurch, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. She underwent a lumpectomy on January 6 and then a mastectomy on February 3, 2006. Her surgeon recommended a course of Herceptin but Bristol South and West PCT refused to pay for it. She appealed but was turned down because the PCT said there were no exceptional circumstances in her case. Mrs. Hewitt, took a lump sum from her pension and has so far paid out £9,500 for her three weekly injections.

  • “Cancer patient won’t have to pay for drugs” The Bristol Evening Post, By Julie Harding (July 3, 2006) (Subscription Required)
Linda Lucas

Linda Lucas, a 51-year-old teacher from Cupar, Fife, was diagnosed with breast cancer and given a surgery wait time of 8-9 weeks. She had medical insurance and chose “to go private,” resulting in a mastectomy three weeks later.

Lynda Coghill

Lynda Coghill, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 39. At an appointment after surgery and radiation, she told her oncologist she was still bleeding. He did a quick exam, announced she had a new tumor, and said bluntly: “Your chances are slim to none.” He told her to wait a few weeks for the results of a biopsy, then left to treat a patient down the hall. “I looked at the nurse in sheer disbelief,” Ms. Coghill says. “The doctor had proceeded to tell me, in less than 30 seconds, that I was going to die.” She cried for days, unable to eat or sleep. She and her husband planned her funeral. At last, she contacted the sympathetic nurse from the doctor’s office and persuaded her to call for an “unofficial” biopsy report. The tumor was benign. Eight years later, Ms. Coghill remains angry about having been treated “like a numbered object on an assembly line.”

Margaret Coates

Margaret Coates, 65, has been diagnosed with age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Despite the availability of sight-saving drugs, Coates was told by Bromley Primary Care Trust (PCT) that she does not qualify for NHS-funded treatment.

Nurse Marie Robjohn

Nurse Marie Robjohn, 60, was billed for £10,000 for Herceptin. She then received a letter from North Somerset PCT saying it would wait until the final NICE guidelines were published and then write to her oncologist to ask if he considers her a priority. She said, “what infuriates me is that my oncologist has already written to the PCT - they know his opinion. The trust is procrastinating.” Mrs. Robjohn, who needs eight more injections, said a delay could cost her and other patients thousands.”

  • “Cancer patient won’t have to pay for drugs” The Bristol Evening Post, By Julie Harding (July, 3 2006) (Subscription Required)
Mark Cannon

Mark Cannon, 30, died eight and a half weeks after being admitted to the hospital with a broken leg. He was clearly distressed and in pain, but he had to wait three days to see the pain team. His father Allan, from Barton Turf, has been campaigning with Mencap to raise awareness of the ingrained discrimination he claims to have encountered from NHS staff towards his son, who had severe learning difficulties and could manage very little speech.

Martyn Sumner

Martyn Sumner, a kidney cancer patient, has been denied a life-prolonging ‘wonder drug’ by Oxfordshire NHS officials because he is not considered an “exceptional case”. Sumner has been given ten months to live.

Muriel Buckby

Muriel Buckby, an 87-year-old woman with breast cancer, must travel more than 500 miles a week for treatment because of a lack of local services. She has to make three 175-mile round trips every week from her home in mid-Wales to a radiotherapy unit in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Each journey takes her more than four hours by car. “There should be somewhere closer. No one with breast cancer should have to go on such a long journey, particularly when we are not feeling too good anyway.” Health campaigners said Mrs. Buckby’s case highlights the problem of specialized cancer centers serving large catchment areas. Patients in rural areas have to travel considerable distances several times a week, and sometimes daily, to get the treatment they need.

Rose Harrison

Rose Harrison, 59, of Barlby, was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer in April 2007. According to Harrison’s doctors, the drug Sunitinib, also known as Sutent, could extend her life by up to five years. But Harrison was refused funding by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), despite patients in neighboring County Durham and Teesside being approved for treatment. Harrison and her husband, Ronald, 60, spent their life savings on the treatment.

Sarah Perez

Sarah Perez, from Enfield, has undergone repeated courses of chemotherapy since she first developed bowel cancer six years ago. Her oncologist says the only drug that could help is Cetuximab, but Enfield Primary Care Trust will not pay for it, saying it has to balance the drug’s chances of success over NHS resources.

Canada

Beverly Green

Beverly Green, 45, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. Initial tests indicated she would not benefit from hormonal drug treatment, but retesting at Mount Sinai Hospital in 2005 found that her initial test results were incorrect. Green testified at a public inquiry in March 2008.

Branislav Djukic

Branislav Djukic, an Ontario cab driver, faced a difficult choice: Wait more than 14 weeks for cancer surgery, or travel outside of Canada and purchase the lifesaving operation. Ultimately, Djukic returned to the country he fled in 1995, the former Yugoslavia. In Belgrade, he underwent surgery to remove a portion of his left kidney at a cost of $5,000.

David Malleau

David Malleau, a 44 year-old truck driver suffered a devastating car accident in 2004 that forced doctors at Hamilton General Hospital to remove a fist-sized piece of bone from his skull to relieve pressure on his brain. Once the swelling subsided and he was ready for surgery in March 2005, Malleau was sent home and placed on a waiting list. Three months passed. Then six. He waited at home, a prisoner unable to leave the house for fear something would hit the exposed side of his brain - for him a potentially fatal incident. In the end, it took nearly a year before he could get skull replacement surgery.

  • “You can’t fight the hospital; Man forced to wait a year for skull surgery had no official advocate,” The Toronto Star, By Tanya Talaga and Robert Cribb (May 22, 2007) http://www.thestar.com/article/216280
Diane Nesenbrink

Diane Nesenbrink, was goofing around as a teen when her jaw locked open. That incident, 27 years ago, marked the beginning of the Stratford, Ontario, woman’s lifelong ordeal with jaw joint problems. Ms. Nesenbrink jaw joint needed to be surgically replaced. But patients who need a new hip or knee have been deemed a political priority and are guaranteed joint replacements within nine months – the “medically acceptable” wait for consultation is no more than three months and the subsequent wait for surgery no more than six months. Ms. Nesenbrink’s doctor, Dr. Baker said, “The jaw joint is an important joint as well, but we’ve been forgotten.” In fact, his patients wait an average of more than two years for surgery. Even critical cases – where patients suffer excruciating pain and are unable to move their mouths – wait at least three months. “We see patients who are in dire straits: Talking, eating, chewing, smiling are all difficult, if not impossible,” Dr. Baker said.

Jeff Clarke

Jeff Clarke, 34, was in a chronic state of pain for three years. The Kitchener man could stand for only 10 minutes at a time, sit for about 20 and then lie down again. The back pain, diagnosed as degenerative disc disease, travelled through his legs and often he buckled over as he tried to stand. He used two canes and a walker to get around. Then one night last November as he was watching TV, he saw a commercial about a Canadian company offering surgery in India. Clarke called the Vancouver-based business and within two days was sending his folder of medical information to the surgeon in Chennai, India. “All of a sudden there was hope, valid hope I could grasp,” he said. On Jan. 28, Clark had two titanium rods placed in his lower back, two reconstructed discs made of high-density plastic inserted, as well as screws to hold the discs together, all thanks to an Indian doctor.

  • “Kitchener man walks again after back surgery in India; ‘Still in a state of shock,’” The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, By Liz Monteiro (April 19, 2007) (Subscription Required)
Jordan Johanson

Jordan Johanson, 18, died at Rockyview Hospital in late March. He died following a 12-hour wait for surgery on his appendix. Darcy Johanson, the boy’s father, said “Young kids shouldn’t be dying like this. If something can be done to fix it, they should get on with it.”

  • “Families upset city health-care inquiry delayed; Five appendicitis deaths in 10 years at city hospitals,” The Calgary Herald, By Sean Myers (May 2, 2007) (Subscription Required)
  • “Teen dies after appendix ruptures,” The Edmonton Sun, By Bill Kaufman (April 19, 2007) http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2007/04/19/4078502.html
Lindsay McCreith

Lindsay McCreith, 66, was told he had a brain tumor but that he would have to wait four and a half months to obtain an MRI to rule out the possibility that it was cancerous. Unwilling to risk the progression of what might be cancer, Mr. McCreith obtained an MRI in Buffalo, which revealed the tumor was malignant. Even with this diagnosis in hand, the Ontario system still refused to provide timely treatment, so Mr. McCreith had surgery in Buffalo to remove the cancerous brain tumor in March, 2006. In Ontario, Mr. McCreith would have waited eight months for surgery, according to his family doctor. Eight months is enough time for a cancer to worsen, spread and progress to an irreversible stage. Had Mr. McCreith not paid $26,600 for immediate care, he might be dead today.

Manon Lemoignan

Manon Lemoignan, 46, a cancer patient and the mother of two girls, was denied access to a life-prolonging drug. Lemoignan’s oncologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital recommended the best therapy available, Avastin. The drug, however, had not yet been approved for use in Canada.

Rally Levy

Rally Levy, a breast cancer patient in Montreal, was denied eligibility for the drug Herceptin. Where she lives, the drug is only available to women with advanced breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. “If I started my chemo a month ago, I would have been on the trial group that was eligible,” said Rally Levy. “They have realized it is a good pill. Why can’t I get it?”

Sheila Nunn

Sheila Nunn, a Kitchener woman suffering seizures, was told by her doctor that she urgently needed an MRI scan. She was also told she would have to wait three months to have it done locally. Nunn, who had been suffering blackouts, memory loss, confusion and seizures for two months, decided to take action: She paid $1,100 to have the MRI scan done in Michigan.

  • “Seizure patients face long MRI waits, group says,” The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, By Anne Kelly (June 15, 2007) (Subscription Required)
  • “Wait for MRI tests too long in region,” The Kitchener-Waterloo Record (June 9, 2007) (Subscription Required)
  • “‘Totally Unacceptable,’” The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, By Anne Kelly (June 7, 2007) (Subscription Required)
Sheryl Smolkin

Sheryl Smolkin had been undergoing several months of assorted treatments for pain in her right knee, but the pain was still putting a crimp in her quality of life. So, she decided to go to Buffalo, New York in late December for an MRI. She had an appointment at 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 21 at a Toronto hospital, but simply didn’t want to put it off any longer. With the assistance of Richard Baker at Vancouver-based Timely Medical Alternatives, she arranged to have the procedure done at a convenient time five days later for $465 (CDN). The only waiting she had to do was the two hours in traffic it took to cross the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge into the United States. Based on the MRI, her knee problem has been diagnosed, but that’s only the first step. A February appointment with a specialist will determine if she’ll need to go on another wait list for surgery.

  • “Shuffling off to Buffalo for an MRI,” Employee Benefit News Canada, By Sheryl Smolkin (February 1, 2007) (Subscription Required)
Vince Motta

Vince Motta, 23, died of a severe asthma attack after he was airlifted to Rockyview Hospital following appendix surgery at High River hospital. Motta and his mother had waited at both Rockyview and Foothills Hospital, but eventually left due to the long waits.

  • “Deaths deserve a public inquiry,” The Calgary Herald, Editorial By Maureen L. Prowse (June 17, 2007) (Subscription Required)
  • “CHR review clears hospital in death of Calgary teenager; Parents of boy ‘disappointed’ with finding,” The Calgary Herald, (June 13, 2007) (Subscription Required)
  • “Families upset city health care inquiry delayed; Five appendicitis deaths in 10 years at city hospitals,” The Calgary Herald, By Sean Myers, (May 2, 2007) (Subscription Required)
Virginia Yule

Virginia Yule, 49, met her surgeon only twice, for a total of 45 minutes, to learn she needed a biopsy after a mammogram found a shadow on her breast, and then to be told she had cancer. So she wrote her doctor a letter. “I really wanted her to know who I was,” she says now, cancer-free for seven years. Ms. Yule’s desire to be seen as a person is a common complaint among cancer patients caught in a system that seems overwhelmed by waiting lists and swamped by test results, where phone calls tunnel through to voice mail and a busy doctor may have mere minutes to explain the most complicated, heart-stopping medical information.

Australia

Gerald Carroll

Gerald Carroll, 46, of Kalgoorlie had chemotherapy for tumors in his jaw and behind his eye. After that treatment, he had a three-month wait for radiotherapy. “But in the three months it took to get the stereotactic radiotherapy I needed, the tumor had grown too large to treat,” Mr. Carroll said. “The radiotherapist referred me back to my oncologist. I’ve been on chemo since February and now’s it’s reduced the tumor to a point where I can have the radiation. I’m on the waiting list for stereotactic radiosurgery at this time.”