News article link.

money.... money money money - his discomfort is ok, as long as it doesn't affect her money.

Wow. That reminds me of an incident that happened to my husband. He was in Silverton Hospital for hernia surgery. (Never go to Silverton Hospital unless it is to visit the gift shop. Seriously). Before his surgery, the female nurse was very friendly with him, chatting and flirting. Everything was going well. Then she saw the book he was reading - it was a book about paganism. And her attitude changed faster than you can say, "What the hell?" He noticed, but said nothing.

After his surgery, he was laying on the gurney, and she was the first person he saw. He said she started screaming at him to "Get up! Get up!" Then she grabbed him and pulled him off the gurney, at which point he collapsed on the floor. She just kept screaming at him to "Get up! Get up!" He couldn't get up by himself. A male nurse had to literally lift him up.

He complained bitterly, but nothing ever happened.

This is the same hospital where I took him twice a year for 5 years when he had abdominal pain so severe he could not speak. The doctor, Dr. Waters, couldn't find what was wrong with him and kept sending him home, telling him to use more enemas. Finally we took him to Salem Hospital for the last two times. The second to last time, the doctor at Salem told him that if it happened again, they would do exploratory surgery.

Sure enough, it happened again. When they opened him up, they discovered that his appendix was swollen to the size of a small roast, and was a pea-green color. Your appendix is supposed to be the size of your pinkie finger, and pink. I know it looked like that, because they took pictures. They filmed the surgery because it was truly amazing, the condition his appendix was in. It had evidently been rupturing twice a year for 5 years, and then resealing itself, for some reason not killing my husband.

So really, even if you have to do surgery on yourself with a rusty garden shears, never to go Silverton Hospital. It's like the twilight zone.

These hospitals (the one in the UK and the one in Silverton, OR) sounds incredibly creepy!

I guess I've been fortunate; living in a major city with lots of good hospitals, I have my choice. I'd like to put in a good word for one hospital here, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

They saved my life in 1998 when, during the delivery of my last child, my uterus had a catastrophic rupture. They did an emergency Csection and emergency hysterectomy. I later found out few women survive that kind of experience, but both my daughter and I did, without any serious consequences either.

Those people are good. They know what they're doing!

Good grief KellyMac!!! That's appalling!

On the 'money' point.....
Ages ago, when I still lived in the UK, a young American nurse/midwife joined the team at our local medical centre and became firm friends with my ex-wife. She used to tell horror stories about natural birthing babies being pushed back in so that the couple would sign up for 'extras' - forceps, caesarian etc. I didn't believe her then but I do now. Money and medicine don't mix.

Last month my nephew (a 20 something policeman) got acute appendicitis. He was in and out of the hospital in 3 days. No messing - cut it out. The bill was around $1000. His insurance covered all but $340. He borrowed that from me. The 'Police Fund' paid me back in just under three weeks. Thank God I live in an undeveloped country.