I was heavy drinking whiskey with my friend and a couple girls at my apartment when I was 20. I told my friend to cut me with a steak knife - we were punk rock kids and I thought I was a badass, it was very stupid. So he’s giving me these light cuts that are barely bleeding on my upper arm. One of the girls says can I cut you? I said sure, and put the knife in her hand. She grabbed my wrist and went full bore at my forearm, cut me to the bone. It took some doing but I got the bleeding stopped, did a pretty bad one-handed job with a rag for a bandage.
Some other folks came over and one of them decided to fix me a better bandage. When he saw the wound he’s like you need to go to the hospital, but I was intent on partying. Being the good friend that he was, he came pounding on my door the next morning at 7AM and insisted that he was taking me to the hospital.
When I got there, they found out that I didn’t have health insurance and refused to treat me at all. They said it had been too long since it happened. It got severely infected and took about three months to heal and now I’ve got a wicked scar. American healthcare was and is a disaster.
True, but imo living in a broken and profit-maximising healthcare system should not serve as an excuse for permitting yourself to make shitty life choices. The situation op described would have been irresponsible wherever they lived.
We should all eat healthy within our means. We all should exercise as much as possible. We all should do our best to not get sick or injured in the first place - which imo includes not getting filleted by our friends.
Definitely agreed (I’m from Germany though, so: outside perspective)
However, what I was pointing out is that we ourselves have to be our own advocates under any system. The original OP thing about only his wife dragging him in, this thread’s OP about being cut with a knife… No doctor can do magic and no matter who pays them, they won’t be able to keep anyone healthy if they sabotage themselves. It’s super important to make good and responsible decisions about our health in our day-to-day lives. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, eat lots of whole foods and plants, move etc.
Just sounded like you were saying that even if we have universal health care that it won’t do any good because people will still do dumb stuff like this…
As if that were an excuse as to why USA has a medical bankruptcy health care system.
Exactly. Personal accountability is important regardless of the system. Expecting a healthcare system to be a safety net for irresponsibility is madness.
I agree with the others’ sentiment that you need to be your own advocate (or be fortunate to have a loved one ego can do it) in order to get the best healthcare results.
That goes for all healthcare systems, and our horrid system in the US makes it even more necessary, not less.
Had you gone to the hospital when you first got stabbed, the hospital is legally required to fix you up. But instead you decided to party and went to the hospital too late, and now blame the healthcare system instead of yourself. You are the one that asked to be stabbed, then complain about healthcare later. Did you drink leaded gas as a kid ?
I was heavy drinking whiskey with my friend and a couple girls at my apartment when I was 20. I told my friend to cut me with a steak knife - we were punk rock kids and I thought I was a badass, it was very stupid. So he’s giving me these light cuts that are barely bleeding on my upper arm. One of the girls says can I cut you? I said sure, and put the knife in her hand. She grabbed my wrist and went full bore at my forearm, cut me to the bone. It took some doing but I got the bleeding stopped, did a pretty bad one-handed job with a rag for a bandage.
Some other folks came over and one of them decided to fix me a better bandage. When he saw the wound he’s like you need to go to the hospital, but I was intent on partying. Being the good friend that he was, he came pounding on my door the next morning at 7AM and insisted that he was taking me to the hospital.
When I got there, they found out that I didn’t have health insurance and refused to treat me at all. They said it had been too long since it happened. It got severely infected and took about three months to heal and now I’ve got a wicked scar. American healthcare was and is a disaster.
I’m sorry, what?
You heard me
Dude!
Kids, remember: The cornerstone of any healthcare system is YOU CARING ABOUT YOUR HEALTH. Don’t fuck around with your health.
If you do stupid shit for fun, make at least sure it kills you and doesn’t leave you with lifelong disability.
Kids, remembet: The corner stone of american healthcare system is HOW CAN WE MAKE A PROFIT FROM THAT. Don’t fuck around with our profits.
True, but imo living in a broken and profit-maximising healthcare system should not serve as an excuse for permitting yourself to make shitty life choices. The situation op described would have been irresponsible wherever they lived.
We should all eat healthy within our means. We all should exercise as much as possible. We all should do our best to not get sick or injured in the first place - which imo includes not getting filleted by our friends.
No. We should have free health care for all. Period. None of that other stuff is relevant to our shitty health care system.
Definitely agreed (I’m from Germany though, so: outside perspective)
However, what I was pointing out is that we ourselves have to be our own advocates under any system. The original OP thing about only his wife dragging him in, this thread’s OP about being cut with a knife… No doctor can do magic and no matter who pays them, they won’t be able to keep anyone healthy if they sabotage themselves. It’s super important to make good and responsible decisions about our health in our day-to-day lives. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, eat lots of whole foods and plants, move etc.
Just sounded like you were saying that even if we have universal health care that it won’t do any good because people will still do dumb stuff like this…
As if that were an excuse as to why USA has a medical bankruptcy health care system.
Exactly. Personal accountability is important regardless of the system. Expecting a healthcare system to be a safety net for irresponsibility is madness.
I agree with the others’ sentiment that you need to be your own advocate (or be fortunate to have a loved one ego can do it) in order to get the best healthcare results.
That goes for all healthcare systems, and our horrid system in the US makes it even more necessary, not less.
Um…the American Healthcare system can be a pain, but that was the least of your problems in that scenario.
I need to see how cool the scar is before I can properly judge if it was stupid or cool.
Scar on the right unrelated
It’s over twenty years since that shit went down. You can see how my freckles got stretched.
“Stretched freckles” is my street name.
Had you gone to the hospital when you first got stabbed, the hospital is legally required to fix you up. But instead you decided to party and went to the hospital too late, and now blame the healthcare system instead of yourself. You are the one that asked to be stabbed, then complain about healthcare later. Did you drink leaded gas as a kid ?
Where I live, they fix everyone. No matter how stupid they are. This should be the way.
Curious - do they give them help for the stab wound and/or refer them to substance abuse or mental health programs in a situation like this?
Nah I drank whiskey, not gasoline silly
Wicked story! That healthcare system is just insane.