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Actress Natasha Richardson, after her ski accident in Canada, was met with closed doors at crucial points in her chances of survival. Of course, this started with her refusal for treatment, which is common in brain injury patients who have no symptoms. But, when she arrived at the local ski-resort hospital, she was still conscious, and had a good chance for survival; if she had received the right treatment.
At the local hospital there were:
- No specialists to perform a preliminary drainage to increase her survival rate
- No CT to see the extent of the damage
- No helicopter to transport her quickly to Montreal
By the time she arrived in Montreal, she had to be moved to yet another hospital, again by land, before she got to the right one. By then, it was probably too late.
Compared to hospitals in a similar ski resort in the U.S. - say in Colorado - these would have been unacceptable delays. The problem in Canada was exacerbated by lack of specialized facilities and medical experts: transportation, medical teams, doctors, and brain scanning machines.
This is not a Third World problem. This is a First World problem caused by ideological compromise of its healthcare structure. What the Canadian system does is forfeit advanced, specialty-oriented health care for lower-level universal health care. And lots of "education" on prevention. You can get cured from a cold or even the flu without too much of a doctor's intervention. Or, you can teach yourself how to eat better so you don't get a heart attack. But, God forbid if you have a brain injury that requires precise, first-class equipment and trained specialists. Canadians are quite capable of acquiring wide-scale, specialty-oriented health care, but the system prevents the hospitals and doctors from achieving it.