I am looking for some american health care system horror stories.....do you know of some?

I know this isn't what you want to hear but my neighbor lost his job. His wife was on medication for seizures and stopped taking her medicine because of financial reasons. She had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. While there, she learned about the free clinic in the neighboring town and that is where she gets her medicine now. While I know some people do have some bad stories, there is help for people who need it.

My healthcare horror story.... I'm on medicaide, so, expenses are not necessarily the issue...However I did get a $14,000 bill for being transfered to St. Louis Children's hospital by helicopter because I needed a blood transfussion and my blood type was not available at the local hospital, prior to being able to give birth. But that's not where the story starts. Okay here it goes, I had a foreign OBGYN, which, at the time, I, myself seen nothing wrong with foreign doctors and just assumed those who complained about them did so because they were some how prejudice or something, after what happened to me, I no longer feel that way. So, I went to my OBGYN 3 days in a row, went to the emergency room at the hospital in which he practiced, and kept telling them, "something is wrong, I can't use the bathroom and I have a splitting headache, and my feet are swollen up and I think my water has broke. Well, the last day I was there, the doctor said, yes, your water has broke, but here are some pills, it's not time for you to have the baby yet, just take these pills (teburiline) and you will be fine. There are high levels of protien! in your urine, which means that you have not been drinking enough water. My mom was in the office with me on my 3rd visit, and she attested to the doctor, that she wittnessed me drink 5, 32 oz cups of water in the last day. The doctor insisted, no, she needs more water. Well, I went to the emergency room that same night and they told me, your OBGYN says just go home and drink more water. So, I went to a different hospital emergency room in a different town, and they said, OMG somethings wrong, you can feel the baby, then they took my blood pressure, then they said, "you're stroking out" They said, we need to take this baby, ASAP, but your blood is toxic and if we take it with out a blood transfusion first, you and the baby will both die. They did not have my blood type at the hospital I was at, which is located in rural Southern IL, so, they said they needed to transfer me to St. Louis Childrens hospital as they were worried that with my blood pressure being as high as it was that I was going to have a stroke. So, they transfered me there, once there, I waited 12 hours for a blood transfussion, then they took the baby, Jessica, she weighed 3lbs 6oz at birth, she's a bright and healty 3 year old girl now, thank God! Okay, so, they took my baby finally, I woke up from surgery, still had a really bad headache, but I was able to pee now, so, that was good. Stomach was a little sore from the c section, but did not hurt nearly as bad as my head. So, I breast fed my baby, I asked them before they put me under to please place her on my breast as soon as she came out so that she did not get used to the bottle. Okay, so, they released me from my stay after 4 days, said they could not keep me there anymore, but she had to stay. They had a shelter connected to hospital property that I was allowed to stay on, I still had a splitting headache and still told them there was something wrong. Well, on day 5 after I had walked up flights of stairs to feed my new born child, I was walking back down to go back to the shelter on hospital property, when I took a tumble and rolled down the stairs, I couldn't move and my head still hurt really bad. Well, turns out when the hospital in Carbondale IL said I was, "stroking out" they were on to something there, I had had bleeding in my brain from the time I was in carbondale, and my head was still bleeding, apparently my blood was not clotting correctly in my brain, (I'm sure that all that water I had drank had nothing to do with it) So anyhow, yes, I had a ministroke and an annurism bleeding in my brain that whole time. So, the Childrens hospital can't treat me there, so, they take me by ambulance to Barnes in St. Louis, where, I was sent to a neurologist who wanted to perform immediate brain surgery on me. Well, I objected to that, said, they were not going to do any brain surgery on me, to which the surgeon assured me that it was a, and I quote "routine proceedure" All she needed to do was drill a whole in my skull and I would be awake during the whole surgery, that's what she said! Anyhow, I said no!

I could tell you stories of waste all day long. Here are just a couple: 1) Patient is 12 year old boy with asthma. He is on a rescue inhaler, full medicaid benefits. His mom gets his free inhaler twice every week. They cost the tax payers $56 each . Each is 200 "puffs" The boy loses his inhaler every 3 days. His mom refills the prescription, they are free after all. He is going through $400. of inhalers a month. The state recently cracked down on costs: Then his inhalers cost Two dollars each ( patient pays $2 of the $56 they cost) Mom howls. She cant afford it. (she is talking on her I phone at the time) She howls that $2 will cost her food money. It turns out her son was only using most of ONE inhaler a month. He wouldnt hold on to it because it was FREE. When his mom had to pay $2 he managed to hold on to it, and not lose it twice a week. Cost savings nearly $375.00 a month. But! Wait for it. She complained to the state and they waived the $2 copay for her because she is disabled. Suddenly her son can't hold on to the inhalers anymore, using two a week. Cost to state is back up to $400 a month. #2 ) Viagra is free to Medicaid patients. They get 8 free Viagra tabs. a month. Mr. R gets his free Viagra every month on Medicaid. Cost to taxpayers $80. a month. nice. Here's the good part: Mr. R sells his viagra to buy cigarettes, because his food stamps do not cover cigarettes. 3) Mr. Brown is on $675. of AIDS medicines a month. These are fully covered on medicaid. he actually lives in Las Vegas, (we have to mail him his medicines) has a job as a personal assistant to an elderly man. He is paid in cash so he does not lose his Medicaid benefits, because they pay for his AIDS medicines. he flies back and forth from Palm Springs to Las VEgas twice a month, for pleasure. How nice for him. 4) Mrs. Simmons is diabetic and uses two insulins. Her medicaid pays for all but $5 of the cost of the insulins. she cries and says she does not have $5. The drugstore eats the cost, because we all worry about her blood sugars. When I hand her the insulin I notice her beautiful fingernails. I mention how beautiful they are. She replies: " My nails cost me $75 every two weeks !! " how nice that we pay for her insulin out of our lunch money. I could go on all day but the point is, a whole lotta people want a free ride but will not pay just a small part of their medicines or act responsibly. Those of us who are responsible have to carry the burden for them.. I am tired of the whiny brats who will not use any responsibility but whine to me all day that the rich are not "paying enough for the poor folks"