Smoker refused operation on broken ankle

[2rth2pwr]

Source: Telegraph

A smoker is facing years of pain after an NHS hospital refused to set his broken ankle unless he gives up cigarettes.

John Nuttall, 57, needs the operation to fix the ankle he broke in three places two years ago and which was not healed by a plaster cast.

Doctors at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro have refused to operate to rebuild the ankle because they say Mr Nuttall's heavy smoking would reduce the chance of a full recovery.
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They have told him to give up smoking before they operate but the retired builder has been unable to break his habit.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/14/nsmoker114.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

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I better quit soon!

[kestrel91316]

1. Note: This is in the UK, not the USA.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Coming soon to an HMO near you!

Some big mouths here in Canada (where we have universal health are) trotted out the concept a few years ago that smokers shouldn't be afforded healthcare coverage.

And then someone got the publicly-available numbers and gave 'em a quick crunch. Turns out the taxes on tobacco products collected per year is enough money to cover every man, woman and child in the country - three times over.

End of discussion.

[Warpy]

2. If he has worsening COPD, I heartily agree with this

with the caveat that it could possibly be done with spinal anesthesia.

His ankle will have to be rebroken and fixed either internally with pins, plates and screws, or externally with a device to hold the bones in alignment. It is likely to be a lengthy surgery and inhaled general anesthesia in combination with COPD in a heavy smoker is not a good idea.

He'd get his ankle fixed and die from the anesthetic.

[havocmom]

9. Good point. People forget a lot of heavy smoking can cause lots of problems

Diminished circulation can interfere with healing. When I broke my foot (at age 46) I learned we don't heal as well in extremities as when we were younger, and I never smoked, well no first hand smoking. Seems reasonable that a heavy smoker would be more at risk with surgery.

[Horse with no Name]

12. Don't forget blood clots.

This seems to be a hit piece in one of Murdoch's rags regarding the evils of "socialized medicine".

[Systematic Chaos]

4. It's true that smoking is a major contributor to osteoporosis.

I still think they're being very unfair with this man though. They should attempt to do something, even if it only partially alleviates his pain.

I'm very overweight and a prime candidate for gastric bypass or other surgery to help me lose weight. I'm not going to get it though because my insurance company couldn't give a rat's ass. So that means it's up to me and me alone, and I've been doing pretty good in that regard lately. And while I think it's a crock of shit that the treatment I'm getting is based more upon my income than my worth as a human being, I fully admit that the responsibility for my actions and their consequences rests squarely with me. I hope Mr. Nuttall can find the strength to quit smoking and save his own health because the ankle problem is just the merest hint of what's to come.

[woodsprite]

5. When I had my surgery, they said *IF* I smoked,

stopping smoking at least 10 days before my surgery would speed my healing, as much as by 3 weeks. As it was, I don't smoke, but I had major surgery - total abdominal hyster for uterine cancer - and I was released from the doc and declared fit for activity and work at 6 wks. This WAS in the US. But nobody said I wouldn't get the surgery if I did smoke.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Yours was an emergent surgery--his is elective

From the article:

"He refused surgery when he first injured the ankle in a fall in 2005 because he was worried about catching MRSA in hospital. When he went back a few weeks later and the ankle had not set he said he was told he would have to give up smoking before doctors could operate."

He was the one that was totally responsible into turning his condition into an elective surgery. His actions and his alone.

[SOS]

6. Churchill

smoked cigars incessantly from age the age of 20 until his death at age 90.

Would Royal Cornwall Hospital have refused to treat his ankle?

[Vilis Veritas]

11. Of course not, he never inhaled...nt.

[salib]

7. whatever happened to "do no harm"?

[Kagemusha]

10. Doing nothing is a funny way to define "do"

...And I was very much noticing this move by the NHS when it was first announced. I paid attention when people said there were real medical reasons for pushing this. I don't want people to be punished, but smoking can cause a lot of complications for some things. This seems one such case...

[CountAllVotes]

8. I believe it

Last time I went overseas I met up with a woman that had BREAST CANCER and she had a lump "the size of an apple" and was WAITING for an appt. to see a doctor to get to a surgeon. She said it had been 6 mos. and she was not in a great mood to say the very least.

She was a Catholic living in northern Ireland btw.

Nice, real fuggin' nice.

NOT! That poor woman is likely dead and gone by now due to no care when needed. :mad:

And so much for the NHS!!

:kick:

[Boudica the Lyoness]

15. So much for the stinking care in the US

I pay a hell of a lot for health care in the USA! And I'm made to suffer! I have been trying to get my ankle fixed for years. I had it crushed by a horse in '85. It was fixed with screws at the time and has slowly turned into severe advanced arthritis. I have been walking with the bones GRINDING together all summer. I had to wait for 8 weeks to see this doctor and when I did see him he read the wrong x-rays. I paid $600 for those x-rays. I had to argue that yes my ankle did have three huge screws in it and he insisted there were no screws. I didn't back down so he went back to his computer and looked at the X-rays again and realized he was looking at the wrong ones. I'd just had the x-rays taken that day and they wouldn't let me carry them across the parking lot to the clinic because the idiots wanted to email them. (I have them now). He out-right lied to me a few times so I decided I wasn't going to let this member of the Christian doctors club or whatever it was, touch me (his bio). My other doctor wouldn't see me till at least May of '08 (this was August) and I was informed if I did manage to see him I would have to wait till the Fall of '08 to get the operation I need. I can't walk without crutches now because my ankle cannot bear weight, you can even hear the bones grinding. The pain is awful! My family in England are appalled.
I have had three free operations for other things in England and the care was incredible, wonderful. I have had operations here and have been treated like shit and made to pay huge sums of money for the pleasure. When my son was 8 he had an operation on his lower abdomen that lasted almost two hours. He had two incisions, one three inches long and a smaller one. Before he was awake the nurse carried him for us to our car and laid him on the back seat for us to take home. We live almost 2 hours from the hospital. When I brought him home as a newborn they made sure he was going home in a proper baby car seat, but when he was 8 they just laid him out on the back seat in his own vomit! They knew there was no way he could sit up or wear a seat belt. Some vets wouldn't let a dog or a cat go home less than 2 hours after a simple spay operation. Something like this happened to us before with my husband. They sent me home the next morning after I had my gall bladder out and I couldn't convince my mother, who was in England I was really at home already. She was laughing because she thought I was having a bit of fun with her.
The pain I'm right now is so bad I'm considering just cutting my leg off. The thing is, if my horse goes lame or we have a cattle problem, I could get our vet out here within an hour. That's if we couldn't haul them to him. But I have to wait months to see a doctor and then when I do I get treated like
shit. I've had to give up my business because I can't stand or walk. I wouldn't let an animal suffer like I am now. So much for your stinking over priced health care. Most of you poor sods don't know any better and you believe you have the best health care in the world because that's what you are told.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. On the other hand, the landlady at the B&B I stayed at in Exeter

reported that when she went in for a routine physical, her doctor suspected cancer, and after a round of tests, she was having surgery within two weeks.

Some DOCTORS are good at brushing patients off, no matter what system they're under.

[baldguy]

14. Anti-nationalized healthcare propaganda

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. It is the Telegraph after all,

the angry conservative's paper in the UK.