Death to Fidel, and death to all his trust-fund-baby left-wing supporters in this country. The sooner the better.

As the joke goes :

Why did Yassir Arafat die when he was flown to France for treatment?

Because France has socialized medicine.

The biggest story of the last 15 years, bar none, is the stunning defeat of socialism.

Viva la revolutionary infectious organisms!

Death to the counterrevolutionary running-dog antibiotics!

"Socialism or [sic] death!"

The Cuban retort to:

"Socialism or Death."

is

"What's the difference."

Fidel is great!

Babalu akhbar!!

Actually, skipping the colostomy is being done more and more in certain selected cases of perforated diverticulitis. There is some room for surgeon discretion depending on the conditions inside the abdomen at the time of operation.

A certain percentages of colonic reconnections simply do not heal, leading to what can be catastrophic infections.

That said, I doubt that this will kill Castro now that we've seen him actually walking around.

I read an article in National Geographic that had a line like this, "the driver of my cab was also a doctor, driving a cab to make ends meet."

Well maybe Fidel's doctor should not have been driving that cab the night before.

Isn't this what we call "poetic justice"?

Your right because Cuba is like Canada or France or most of Europe.

Wow, this is a dumb post. The article does say Castro chose this method, even though it was more risky. Considering the average life expectancy for males in Cuba is still slightly higher than for males in the U.S., it looks like socialized medicine works much better than conservatives choose to believe. That one hurt.

"Considering the average life expectancy for males in Cuba is still slightly higher than for males in the U.S. . . . "

Is it possible that the reason the "average life expectancy for males in Cuba is still slightly higher" is . . . . .

the medical statisticians as about as competent as the Cuban GI surgeons?

A colonic perforation from colonic diverticulitis is a very common condition and is easily managed by the most barely competent surgeon.

Why in the world did they need to import a surgeon from Spain with high tech equipment to such a socialist people's paradise?

Sure, Cuban health care is waaaaay better. That's why all those wealthy foreigners go there for treatment instead of, say, the Mayo Clinic in the US. Does LtntWolfe have any trustworthy data to support his contention?

Does LtntWolfe even know for sure how 'life expectancy' is measured in Cuba? Please note that, like infant mortality, this is sensitive to definitional differences. Be nice to know anyway. And I suppose he'll be going to Cuba next time he needs health care? On a leaky raft?

For some reason I don't see a lot of US males heading to Cuba for their healthcare..ouch.

Hmmm. Choosing this option for colon surgery is a bad idea when peritonitis is present.

Peritonitis was present. Castro is 80. Bad idea.

(LtntWolfe is awaiting his promotion as one of those revolutionary Colonels. Lotsa medals on his chest, though.)

That's like asking why Americans buy japanese designed cars instead of American. Because they are better. Ironically, you don't seem to realize that Castro took a doctor from Spain, a country with socialist healthcare. I'm not defending Cuba; I'm defending socialized medicine. The U.S. has a horrendous infant mortality rate and one of the lowest satisfaction rates with healthcare even though we spend more of a % of our GDP than anyone else in the world by a longshot. Even those who spend more on healthcare in this country are not any happier with it than the poor. People here do go on vacations and get plastic surgery all the time. Why don't American males go to Cuba for healthcare you ask? Well, it could be because it is near impossible to travel there if you are a U.S. citizen. Here's the real bite: Americans are going to Cuba for medical education. See
"Affirmative Action, Cuban Style." New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 351:2680-2682.

But it is all irrelevant to me. Socialist healthcare is inevitable in this country.

Socialized medicine is a crock. The different results you get with it all depend on how long you've had the system (how much time has the system been decaying) and how well off is the larger economy.

Like socialized anything else, socialized medicine has no way to divine how its resources should be allocated. In economic lingo, it doesn't know how to set prices. This is a tremendous failure and a guarantee of horrendous waste and eventual collapse.

Castro, like every other national leader, got the best care his system could provide, and even with a Spanish import, it almost killed him.

As for US statistics, two things to keep in mind. We are very strict about our medical statistics and a lot of births that get marked down as infant mortality would be categorized as still births anywhere else in the world. Another thing to remember is that we are personally irresponsible about our behavior on an amazing scale. We're sedentary, fat, have horrible habits, and generally use our bodies up in a way that you don't see as much anywhere else. This does show up in our medical statistics but is not a reflection of our medical system.

Ironically, you don't seem to realize that Castro took a doctor from Spain, a country with socialist healthcare.

The only countries that he could choose from have socialized healthcare. What was he going to do, fly an expat in from Miami?

The U.S. has a horrendous infant mortality rate

This has been debunked for years. The simple fact is that the US neonatal medicine is so far advanced that premature infants that would be written off in other countries are routinely treated and sometimes saved. Of course, that also means many are lost.

and one of the lowest satisfaction rates with healthcare even though we spend more of a % of our GDP than anyone else in the world by a longshot.

Poll driven medicine? Is there ANYTHING libs don't poll to get an opinion on?

People here do go on vacations and get plastic surgery all the time.

To countries with PRIVATE hospitals where the patients spend a lot less than in the US. Of course those countries have streamlines the procedures (i.e. removed many malpractice hurdles) in order to lower costs and lure patients. The free market, whoda thunk it?

Why don't American males go to Cuba for healthcare you ask? Well, it could be because it is near impossible to travel there if you are a U.S. citizen.

Be honest, if you were diagnosed with cancer, would you seriously go to Cuba rather than the US if you were able? Have you ever see pictures of the inside of a Cuban hospital? Do you like cockroaches?

Is there no honest left? Knock France if you will--but Arafat died from AIDS. And Castro
turned down the colonoscopy (I had one two weeks ago), opting for a dangerous and hence bad piece of surgery. And yet in defense of a failed system we now have in America you must badmouth soci8alized medicine when in fact it was CHOICE and a bad one at that which may well kill Castro. How can anyone believe you when you make such silly statements?

"Anonymous" doesn't strike me as one to let a few inconvenient facts stand in his way but TomB is right. The only way that you can characterize America's child mortality rate as "horrendous" is if you ignore the fact that we try to save far more very, very marginal preemies. Add to that the sizeable number of illegal aliens living mostly outside of the system (but delivering babies within it) and you end up with unfairly high numbers.

Note that I don't make the observation regarding aliens delivering children here as a criticism - it is an eminently rational choice given the alternatives. It does, however, mean that our child mortality numbers are skewed in a way that prevents fair comparison with other countries. Using it as a basis for calling for socialized health care shows a fundamental lack of even the most basic understanding of medical statistics.

Is there no honest left?

No. He couldn't wait around for 6 months and had to head to the US to get an MRI.

I don't see a lot of doctors wanting to move to Cuba, Jon.

Umm, TomB. El Lider Supremo didn't turn down a colonoscopy. He turned down the bowel resection PLUS a colostomy. I doubt you had one of those recently.

My guess would have been, that if given an option, Fidel himself would have refused the surgery on the grounds that the colostomy bag would be at odds with the strongman facade.

I wouldn't stand up and shout for socialized medicine. I'd just suggest the possibility that the problem with the Bearded One's health care is as likely to be that he's the one directing it. The headline is, "Castro decided to avoid colostomy".

Socialized medicine has no corner on the botched care market. As the child of a (deceased) mother who experienced a vioxx induced heart attack and who was subsequently administered a lethal morphine dose in the emergency room, I find your gratuitous idealogical posturing moronic, at best.

uh NAD, you're right, I didn't have a colonoscopy, it was Fred.

But be assured, if I did need one, I'd not go to Cuba.

Socialized medicine has no corner on the botched care market.

I hear doctors in Cuba are especially adept at treating badly beaten strawmen...

I don't see this idiot Jon moving to Cuba, or even to Canada for that matter.

What a typical left-wing loser....

Here's a win/win situation. . . .

Let's have all the faithful little moonbat lefties go to Cuba for all their medical care.

If they have cancer and need surgery/radiation/chemo -- get it in the socialist paradise. If they have a premie that needs surgery -- fly him on down to Havana.

And, of course, bring along the cash the poor socialist paradise needs.

That way they can experience the absolute best in medical care (under a Marxist regime, natch) and show their soliditarity with the revolution.

And, I suspect, most conservatives would be quite happy with the results.

"Let's have all the faithful little moonbat lefties go to Cuba for all their medical care. "

But that would require them to learn Spanish, something they don't want to do, only force onto others in the US.

Instead, I propose we be more humane, and have them go to Canada. Canada is a good place, but the condition is that they cannot come back to the US for medical care, ever.

(at the same time, conservatives from Alberta, Yukon, etc. should be courted to come here.)

Well, this all may be true. (It may not.) But, just as a counter example, our infant mortality rate in the US is nothing to be proud of. (Compared to, say Sweden or Cuba.)

On the other hand, it's hard to find aspirin in Cuba.

I'd much rather get sick in the US, but I don't trust our health care system so much, either. It's nowhere near what it needs to be. So there you have it.

There's no point comparing American medicine or health with what Castro says is the state of Cuban medicine and health. The statistics of communist countries aren't worth the low-grade paper that they're printed on.

The United States has the lowest life expectancy, the highest infant mortalit and the owest state of general health, while paying 17% of GNP as oposed to 8% to 12%.

Ugh...whenever a discussion of Cuba comes up and I have to hear the lefties talk about how terrific it is, I feel like I am back in college listening to the drivel from the professors about Cuba's fab HCS and 100% literacy rate. My response was always, "what good is 100% literacy if you aren't allowed to read the books you want to, educator?" The response was usually, yes, that's an issue...then changes the subject.

Remember how much information the Soviet Union kept from the world - what a hole that country became (and all of the other Easter Euro countries it swallowed)? Trying to hide Chernobyl, for example. Yet, despite that knowlege people on this board and others like them take Castro, once wholly supported by the Soviets, at his word? I just don't get it.

The indisputable measure of a country is how many want in vs. how many want out.

I see a lot of Mexicans risking their lives to come here, just to earn a minimum wage job. Chinese lock themselves up in boxes for 2 weeks to get to the US.

I don't see Americans flocking to any country, least of which Cuba.

This one point is what you can use to quickly humiliate the liberal morons.

Castro was 80, and going to die sooner or later, one way or the other.
Doctors make mistakes, or, what other dostors claim to be mistakes, all the time, everywhere.

The claim that socialism helped kill Castro is ridiculous. If that were the case he should have died at 50.

Will I ever see you again Mr. President?

"The United States has the lowest life expectancy, the highest infant mortalit and the owest state of general health...."
CJ

Beyond a certain base level, these things have little to do with organized health care. Try thinking about it.

Is it now politically correct to say that Fidel is full of shit?

"facts please"

Yes, you clearly need some.

One thing that routinely gets left out of the discussion of the medical system is this simple fact: the rest of the world is free-loading off of the US.

Seriously. How many new drugs are developed elswhere? How many new surgical techniques? Oh sure, a few, but the overwhelming lion's chare is here in the US. "Cheaper" medicine (such as in Canada) is possible because of price controls. Price controls are possible because SOMEONE ELSE is paying all the R&D.

Now, who is that someone else? Oh yeah - the USA.

If everyone in the world goes to socialized medicine, medical advances will essentially stop.

For only an extra 5-9% of our GDP (17% versus 8-12%), we carrying the bulk of world mdical advancement.

That's a pretty neat trick, I'd say.

Yes, let us all draw sweeping conclusions about an entire system of health care from a single isolated case. That makes a whole lot of sense.

You are all morons to draw any sort of conclusion from this case.

"One thing that routinely gets left out of the discussion of the medical system is this simple fact: the rest of the world is free-loading off of the US.

Seriously. How many new drugs are developed elswhere? How many new surgical techniques? Oh sure, a few, but the overwhelming lion's chare [sic] is here in the US."

BS.

The US pharma industry is all about cranking out cash cows, not solving real problems. New chemicals, not new technology. Most new technology occurs in research universities - but the US has cut university funding to the bone preferring to have their citizenry held hostage to the large corporations.

I note that some of the really interesting gene research is being done outside the US. For instance, the universal influenza vaccine was developed in Europe.

The University of Alberta (in Canada for you US navel gazers) has announced the completion of the mapping of the human metabolome.

Good point BlueMan!

But I tend to draw conclusions from reading about general conditions in Cuban hospitals like these:

http://www.babalublog.com/archives/001470.html