Case Study I
There once lived
a healthy girl blessed with above average stamina. She rarely succumbed to
infections. She had finished spending her parent’s life savings on an
Australian course; having been lured there by a covert university
representative. She couldn’t find work to support her basic needs and was
exploited at every turn in a manner that is typical of Aussies.
Then on one very
unfortunate day before Christmas, she fell terribly ill due to the contaminated
water in her suburb and the stress of exams/moving house. She kept bleeding and
wouldn’t stop for weeks. This happened twice within a span of a year. She would
see white spots that would blur her vision for a few seconds, before her legs
gave way. She suffered continuous headaches on the left side of her brain,
possible as a result of low haemoglobin count and oxygen deprivation. Clots the
size of tennis balls would come out of her, draining every ounce of strength
from her already weakened body.
The girl had previously
heard of the notoriously poor healthcare system in Australia and had vowed
never to land in one of the hospitals, despite having paid for her very own
insurance cover for a period of four years. This included a hefty lump sum of $1000
per year. She had a difficult choice to
make. She chose her life instead and drove to one of the nearest hospitals.
There she was made to wait for six hours before being admitted to a ward. She
was given a blood transfusion and a combination of pills that had never worked
well on her before.
She woke up in
high spirits the next day, only to nearly faint again at the sight of the bill,
which had magically amounted to $3000! She was groggy from all the medication
and was forced to pay an upfront deposit of a $1000 while in bed. Despite
having private insurance, the girl was frightened with all sorts of uninformed
bullshit by the two financial officers towering over her. She was due for
surgery the very same day, but was asked to pay another $1000 for another day’s
stay at the hospital. The girl was in bad shape, but she couldn’t put up with
this any longer and discharged herself from the hospital before the digits
could pile up further. The girl felt it best to die soaking in her own blood,
rather than be in debt.
Case Study II
A young man
lived in a Victorian suburb infested with druggies and wankers. This man had
Medicare and a job. He was healthy apart from the occasional springtime allergy
which arose due to the shit cocktail of various pollen grains flying around in
the place. He suffered from a mysterious
migraine, accompanied by a loss of appetite, vomiting and a sore neck. He
assumed it to be food poisoning. He need a second opinion however and decided
to head to the hospital, but was greeted instead by a long queue and slow
service. He decided to abandon his effort and visit the local GP instead.
The GP did a few
pathetic and irrelevant tests; declaring his affliction to be a sinus problem
and chest congestion. He was given treatment for respiratory ailments. The neck
ache wouldn’t budge and kept him awake. He purged his gut for 3 days straight
and was doomed to starvation. He made a
second attempt at visiting the hospital and was made to wait for nearly half a
day, before being told he had suffered none other than a Stroke! The man
wondered how a stroke could possibly be confused with a sinus problem. Had he
waited any longer and visited anymore GPs, he would have probably been lying
dead in his own puke.
