Week 1-Blog Post

            A first hand medical experience I had was when my grandpa came into the hospital for heart surgery was treated like another number. My grandpa had lived a life where he did not always take care of his body and this caught up to him when he had clogged veins. So, he went to the cardiologist after discomfort and found out he had to have major heart surgery. My grandpa was obviously very concerned when he heard he had to have major surgery and wanted to know everything about his situation. However, when the doctor actually did come in to talk to him, he was rushed, he did not answer many questions, and he showed a lack of empathy towards my grandfather. My grandfather felt as though the doctor did not care and now sees another cardiologist. This way of operation was because the surgeon, as many doctors do, was just treating him as another patient they need to get rushed out of hospital because of the environment our healthcare system has created.

Furthermore, this can be seen when people go to urgent care and they hardly look at you before handing you pills or suggesting the emergency room to answer the problem. This a major problem that stems from the roots of our healthcare system, biomedicine. Biomedicine is the system we use in the United States that focuses on the individual and curing problems short term. In doing so, the doctors and nurses tend to become numb to feeling emotion towards each patient. Biomedicine has caused overcrowding, mistreatment of patients, and short-term solutions the overcrowding is caused by the lack of treatment long term, aka surgery or pills, as well as the doctor’s need to see every patient in the waiting room. Despite the short term “cure” the problem really just creates its own vicious cycle because the system only “cures” the patient’s short term and they have to come back again. Additionally, the mistreatment of patients is also a product of the overcrowding, created by our system, because the patient is just another number to get through. This leads into the lack of empathy and lack of proper attention the patient deserves, because of the problem the system created, again furthering the cycle. Finally, short term problems like surgery and pills only lead to short term solutions. This creates the need for people to come back to the waiting rooms, overcrowding them, leading again into this cycle.

To summarize, I know many people who have had similar experiences to my grandpa’s and really think that we need to look at our healthcare system going forward. Does it make sense that we pay the most for healthcare and have more sick than most developing countries? I believe we need to start changing system to treat the cause of the medical problem, rather than the symptoms. Not only would this save Americans thousands of dollars in doctor visits, but the overcrowding and mistreatment would not exist. Thus, ending the cycle that we have created for ourselves.

4 thoughts on “Week 1-Blog Post

  1. Hello Lauren, thank you for sharing and I am very sorry to hear that about your Grandfather. I am glad to hear that he was able to find the care he needed to allow him to get healthy again. I understand how that could be very frustrating, it is not only a very serious surgery, but if he was also nervous from the start then I can imagine I would have felt very uneasy as well. It makes me sad when I hear stories like this because I currently work in the ER so I see the other side of what patients see. I see the blood, sweat and tears of what doctors, nurses, techs, etc experience every day. It does get really busy here so it can be very frustrating at times-even for me because I see severely sick people that have to wait in the waiting room because there aren’t any beds yet available to bring them back. I do agree with the fact that healthcare is very expensive and it doesn’t make sense that we have so many sick people. So it would be nice to change that considering how much we pay for care. Unfortunately, I don’t think the overcrowding would necessarily stop. I think it would actually do the opposite. Overall, I think it would definitely improve the medical field and get more people the proper care that they need without misdiagnosing them.

  2. Thank you for sharing the story about your grandfather Lauren. I’m so sorry to hear that he had such a horrible experience with our current healthcare system. I think it’s also interesting that your grandfather went to another cardiologist after his experience. I know that I’ve done the same thing when it comes to my experience with urgent care facilities. Did your grandfather’s new surgeon or cardiologist suggest any alternative remedies post-surgery? I know you said that his life before led him to have the clogged veins, but did he begin to take better care of himself after? I’ve had experiences at urgent care where, I completely agree with you, I feel like they just pump me with pills and send me on my way. However, I still think that there are still some nurses and doctors that genuinely care about your ailments and health. My primary care physician may not remember all my issues from the previous appointment, but she takes copious amounts of notes about my current activity levels and concerns to review while we are in the room together. I agree that our health care system needs a major overhaul.

    • Yes, he has changed his diet for the better. His new doctor gave him more attention and suggested different foods to each. Also, yes I know nurses who really care about their job, and the ones who are more robotic I blame mostly on the system. So, yes I agree there are some pros still, but I think we need to change the focus or goal of our system.

  3. Hi, Lauren. First, I am very sorry to hear this story about your grandfather and I admire your encourage for sharing. I know it is not easy. It is a big surgery that your grandfather had in that time. You talk about how the careless feeling that doctors share for your grandfather and other family members. This healthcare problem provides invisible issues for patients. Just like lecture said, disease can be treated by medicine and surgery. However, people might still have sickness after these medicinal treatments. The care of patients ‘mental problem also needs to pay attention to it. I have also heard stories about patient who think he has a stomach disease but have not shown any evidence of diagnose. Under the comfort from a kindness doctor, the patient “recovered” by a multiple-vitamin tablet which pretended as a stomach medicine. Doctors and nurse should understand some aspects of psychology and communication to help their patient go through their fear.

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