A Dubious Alternative to Anesthesia

The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

A Dubious Alternative to Anesthesia
“Starbucks to Take Control of French Operations”–headline, Associated Press, Sept. 1 

I’m Not a Doctor, but I Play One on the Wires
The Associated Press, seeking to defend Canada’s government monopoly on health insurance, attempts to debunk the story of a Canadian woman who had to come to the U.S. to get care:

A TV ad sponsored by the conservative Americans For Prosperity Foundation spotlighted a Canadian woman, Shona Holmes, who has challenged the system in court. She spoke of suffering from a brain tumor and declared she would “be dead” had she relied on her government. She said she had to mortgage her home to pay more than $97,000 to get timely treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

In Canada, groups quickly sprouted up on Facebook accusing Holmes of betraying her country and exaggerating her illness.

In a report on its Web site, the Mayo Clinic said Holmes was suffering from a Rathke’s cleft cyst near her pituitary gland. The Web sites of several reputable medical groups list the cyst as non-cancerous.

We checked out those Facebook groups and were surprised to learn that Canadians can be so nasty. We also checked out the Mayo Clinic report, which suggests the AP was right to suggest Holmes’s life wasn’t in much danger. Still, it hardly paints a comforting picture of CanucKare:

Shona Holmes was in trouble: The list of her symptoms included headaches, sleeplessness, dizziness, low libido and, worst of all, rapidly deteriorating vision. Her family doctor in Canada ordered an MRI, and a brain tumor was detected. But it would take months for her to get on the appointment calendar of a neurologist or endocrinologist in Canada.

“I knew in my gut that I had to see someone and could not wait five to six months,” she says. So she called Mayo Clinic and got an appointment the same day. . . .

Dr. Naresh Patel, neurosurgeon, diagnosed Holmes as having a Rathke’s cleft cyst (RCC). The rare, fluid-filled sac grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain and eventually can cause hormone and vision problems. . . .

Further tests revealed an increase in the size of her cyst over a short period of time as well as progressively worsening vision. “I was concerned that the pressure on Shona’s nervers was causing her to become blind,” says Dr. Patel. “We needed to remove the cyst to save her vision.”

So Holmes probably could have survived the Canadian wait and been none the worse for wear–well, except for the minor inconvenience of being blind! America’s health-care system saved a Canadian woman’s vision. A Canadian-style system south of the border could turn all of North America into the land of the blind.