Why Saving Kids Is Bad Business in America | NYT Opinion
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 01. 2023
- It’s happening again. Hospital I.C.U.s are swamped with patients suffering from severe respiratory illnesses. Overworked doctors and nurses are scrambling to save lives. Another surge of infections, another national health crisis.
But this time it’s not just Covid-19. It’s respiratory syncytial virus and other viruses, too. And the patients now include many young children.
As the Opinion video above argues, this crisis is not simply the result of a sharp rise in case numbers. The wave of respiratory illnesses in recent months has revealed a health care industry ill equipped to care for critically ill children.
Profit-driven management has eroded pediatric health care in America. Health care providers make more money treating adults than they do children. As a result, the number of hospitals offering pediatric care has decreased dramatically over the past two decades.
So when the number of R.S.V. cases skyrocketed in late 2022, the American health care system wasn’t prepared. Hospitals were overwhelmed, and families struggled to find appropriate care. And once again, the nation’s health care workers have shouldered much of the burden, going to extraordinary lengths to care for society’s most vulnerable.
Subscribe: bit.ly/U8Ys7n
More from The New York Times Video: nytimes.com/video
----------
Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.
Hi, I'm Alex, one of the producers of this Opinion video. I spent three days in the pediatric I.C.U. at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital in December. I'll never forget witnessing a baby struggle to breathe because his lungs were failing.
I've been reporting from I.C.U.s across the country since the start of the pandemic. Each one has had burned-out doctors, overworked nurses, and an endless carousel of patients without enough space for them. What made this one unique is the outsized role it plays in children's healthcare - in part because of a decades-long societal disinvestment in pediatrics. I explain more about that in the video.
I'd love to know what you think, especially if you have small children or live near a hospital that recently closed its pediatric department. Leave a comment below.
i feel sad to see this
Great reporting 👍
I would love more insight and follow ups 😔
As a pediatrician I can tell you the emphasis is on the wrong thing. Of course we need ICUs available in the event that we have sick little ones but how about preventing most of those respiratory illnesses from taking hold in the first place? We are the unhealthiest first world nation there is and it all boils down to proper nutrition and good baseline health. COVID showed us all this fact - we had a high proportion of deaths despite having all these ventilators etc. our children are no different. We need to normalize mothers milk for babies. Studies have shown that breastfeeding reduces the incidence of respiratory illnesses in infants and toddlers. Yet we market formula as if it is a good substitute. I am yet to send a term breastfed baby to the ICU for care. Preemies get sick no matter what but are more likely to need ICU care due to lung immaturity.
Also, in 20 years of being on the frontlines, I am yet to see a handful of children eat the recommended servings of vegetables and fruit per day. Everything starts with nutrition. Just ask the other first world countries with healthier children, mentally and physically. Heath care workers are swimming against the tide, that's why we're tired. We need proper education and good primary care to prevent the burden on tertiary care. It's that simple.
For centuries our government has been making money off the dying no matter the age.
Unfortunately Our children are being attacked. Control, power and profit.
The notion of saving kids being a business is an obscene notion itself.
welcome to america
Our country operates on pure capitalism. Everything is a business.
This is America 🇺🇸
Pro life...ya.....it's about money...then we send money to Israel that has health care for all
Go to any other country and see how long your kids last. The world is a dog eat dog world.
Saving kids doesn’t have to be bad business. In fact, saving kids should not be a business at all.
Not in the US, where the elite just don't care about human suffering
@@hanawolfgang and “healthcare” is a for profit situation.
Who is going to pay for this? Do you think they will do it for free?
Adopting kids is 100% a business
Well all family planning is
We send billions over seas so politicians can launder money and we can’t use a few dollars to get, these children. Shameful
How about we stop pretending human suffering is an acceptable profit generator?
Good luck with that. This is America everything has dollar signs on it. That's why when you ask any question why does America do it this way and not like the rest of the world??? it has to do with money. Greed is a mental illness and addiction. Money is the worst addiction of all the addictions combined. It kills more people than all the others combined. it has created a life of isolation and despair in the world. the monetary system has done absolutely nothing but make human beings sick. Only in a sick society do we build an entire city where you can go and lose everything you own and be laying in the gutter the next morning while at the same time these other guys are laying in their 150 foot luxury liner yacht having people feed them because they can't bear to have to feed themselves
Capitalism has entered the chat
😕 🙁 🤒 😢 😮 🫢 😳 🤢 🤑
Capitalist fight hard to keep the masses from thinking this is acceptable and do nothing to change. America is literally the only wealthy nation without single-payer/universal healthcare, nevermind all the other things people should be getting by default (minimum vacation, parental paid time off, etc)
@@francismarion6400 can you really watch these videos and be proud of capitalism starving kids? Killing kids? What a monster you are
as a medical student who recently fell in love with pediatrics on a recent med school rotation, the advice ive received from mentors and friends who are already doctors has been overwhelmingly against going into pediatrics for my future career. the more questions i asked, the more i became utterly disheartened by what i heard, from reports of burnout, lack of resources/funding, downsizing of departments, etc. i've known for quite some time that our healthcare system has been failing us but the fact that this field, which is so critical for stabilizing a healthy next generation, is collapsing, is among the most horrifying things i have ever witnessed.
Even in countries with universal health care, paediatric is not a good choice: unrealistic expectations from overconcerned parents, emotional trauma of losing a patient etc.
@@tammyleung7578 One can argue any position is not a good choice. Being a doctor or nurse at a hospital in general isn’t easy. However, the added stress from downsizing is causing burnout. It’s sickening one of the richest countries refuses to do something about this and is exacerbating the problem.
I hope you have decided to go into pediatrics anyway.
If you do Pediatrics choose a specialty where you have sane hours and better reimbursement. It's that simple. The cost to educate you is not free.
This isn’t political, it’s just the only option - the best thing we can do is vote out the Republican Party. It doesn’t matter if you’re a conservative. As soon as we obtain universal pediatrics, you can go back to voting red.
This is too important to get sensitive about political identity.
We will NEVER solve this problem with the Republican Party in any sort of power.
And they are proud of that fact!! They’ll rub it right in a grieving parent’s face!
Thoughts and prayers.
You would think that universal health care for children would be broadly popular. It’s terribly hypocritical to push massive financial burdens on parents while acting like families are essential to a healthy society.
This is why you can't do government healthcare for some and not all. The children are already being funded with government programs and that's part of the problem. Because the hospitals are still for profit in other areas, they cut out the government funded areas because they don't make enough money. You have to make the entire healthcare system government funded to avoid them prioritizing where the profits are. You cannot have "funded for some" and not for others because this is exactly what happens. It needs to be universal - for all. Get rid of the profit driven system and there will be no more cutting departments because they're not lucrative.
Wealthy families are essential to society. The rest should be restricted from reproducing.
I’m sorry, as a European this whole thing is mind blowing for me. Anytime the government pays for something entirely, it’s easier and cheaper to build the thing and run it directly.
There are people in the government, that oversee the health care system, that saw this coming and didn’t act.
@@lucieciepka1031 I take it the first two sentences were sarcasm!
I’m a PICU nurse
How about asking why parents FAIL to protect their children from viruses and avoidable accidents?
Kids are the responsibility of their parents. I get enough taken out of my check
It's all about money and greed for the private healthcare companies. My husband died because we could not afford the medical procedures he needed to save his life.
jesus christ im sorry to hear that. We need a socialist revolution ASAP
Deepest sympathies and condolences for your loss. Apologies that happened to your husband 😢
@@leechgrl build your own and stop oppressing Americas rights to be diverse and diffrent. 😊 Canada also offers euthanasia, have you thought about self medicating? Jkjk lolol you could move there though.
It is also about social inequality. This is a public service for everyone. This is financed by insurance and taxes. If we keep shoving money up the food chain without a working taxation system for rich people, we deprive ourselves of vital services. In my view we need to rethink public finance and distribution of wealth to a revolutionary degree. We are so far out of balance on these things, our health and our democracy are already at stake.
I’m so sorry.
My wife and I adopted a child in Arkansas in 2015. We didn’t know it before she was born, but she needed to be airlifted for open-heart surgery on the second day of her life. We stayed with her for one month in Little Rock, AR and eventually made it home to Minnesota. If it wasn’t for Medicaid and the excellent care at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, we wouldn’t have our beautiful seven year old girl today. We still donate as much money as we can every year around this time trying to pay back what we feel we owe that hospital. We can’t thank them enough.
Hi, I'm one of the producers of the video. Thank you for sharing your story. I'm glad to hear they were able to help your daughter. While I was reporting in the pediatric ICU at Yale Children's, I watched the medical transport team bring in patients, day and night. The doctors told me about getting calls from throughout the northeast, with sick kids in need of a hospital that could help them. It became clear to me that hospitals like it are a limited resource in the U.S. Families like yours and some of the ones I met in the hospital make such great sacrifices in order to get care for their children. While there will always be specialists that some people need to travel to see, children deserve to be able to find care in their own communities - especially for something as common as a respiratory virus.
Medicaid is responsible for saving countless lives. It should be expanded to include all children. Not just those with low income
@@neoxyte You mean “socialized medicine”?
😢
@@TheMargarita1948 Let's take the nomenclature out for just a moment. Do you disagree that all children should have the best healthcare? Naming it "socialized medicine" keeps it in the clouds, in divisive terms..what do you think should be done?
The American healthcare service is savage. It just is.
Perfect description. Savage
This is facts 😢
But illegals get everything for free 🤔
And when you work in it, you realize even more that this is absolutely true. And it has such an effect on you. Because you realize how the system fails people and puts profit over outcome, more, and more, and more. There's a level of stress and trauma that comes from working in a system like that. Because you can't provide safe, effective care...because it's for profit.
Wait until you see Cuba's.
“20%of children hospitals shuts down” that’s a disaster 😱
It's absolutely disgusting, how is there not massive protests?? Why is the media not talking more about this?
This really strikes at a tender spot for me. My son was hospitalized with RSV and pneumonia in 2019. With insurance, we still paid out of pocket nearly $10k. He would have died if he hadn't gone to the hospital for care, but how many families can handle that big of an expense?
Our ability to get basic medical care shouldn't depend on how much we can pay or how much hospital make off our care.
Healthcare should be free
@@theflaggeddragon9472 "Healthcare should be free" Nothing is free. It would be more accurate to say. Healthcare should be a right for every US citizen and paid for by taxes.
Why shouldn’t you pay? You received services. Your child benefited from the care. Shouldn’t those who saved his life get paid the most competitive salary the market will pay? Nobody else benefited, but your family, so nobody else should be forced to pay. People would have a lot more money for charities if they could reap the full rewards of their own labor. There is nothing charitable about spending someone else’s money. Let individuals choose instead of selfishly choosing for them. The needs of humans are infinite. There is always another good reason to force individuals to pay for the collective. Don’t be a victim. Take charge of your life. The government isn’t going to solve your problems.
@@jessicak4223 Charities don't benefit their target demographic/"cause". They benefit their own salaries, partners, and existence for its own sake.
But you don't have to try to justify your proposed cost/benefit analysis with some random fantasy that such altruistic behavior would somehow result...
It would most probably not.
Otherwise though, the lack of envisioning a functioning social framework where human compassion lives kinfa makes your argument seem like textbook Libertarian daydreaming - how you have no game in the life of someone else "in the neighborhood" so it shouldn't affect you.
Pathetic.
Because in order to be that selfish you'd ignore the actual colossal waste of funds your taxes enable going to dark & black nudgets, military, fraud, etc...
But sure. An individual vs institutions of grand scale is a fair game free market situation...is perfectly ok and not amoral or abusive...
@Jessica P "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" Dear God you're a disgusting person.
As an American that lived in France…we are our own worst enemy. It’s half the population on earth that has the mentality that I only care about me and mine and if I can afford it then you’re not working hard enough. They truly have no idea how the rest of the world works. 😢
And they don't care about other people.
It's a huge empathy problem. I honestly don't know how we would be able to fix it.
@@marynraven Start debunking the lies from the right wing media about socialism and social democracy. They're telling americans that's the devil when it's not. A sociaty that cares for every single person in it isn't bad thing, the greed soulness of an unregulated capitalism does harms that sociaty, How can't you see it? Everything in the usa is f* up due capitalism! everything!, Health care, education, gun violence, car accidents, pollution... Please, as a European I beg you to talk to people to vote for people like Bernie Sanders, is the only solution. Cheers
Because people say " im a grown up and i should focus my life and not others" but i know many Australians dont care about others
@@marynraven in Australia no one cares about others because everyone says " focus on your own life and dont focus on others" or its " im a grown up and its my choice my body"
“Thinking that your child might die is a fear you never recover from” This is so true! When I adopted my daughter as a baby from Ethiopia, she had somehow contracted E. coli. By the time we got her home, her kidneys and her bloodstream were both severely compromised and they told me she might not make it. I was terrified of losing her. Thankfully she made it through, but I can tell you that 18 years later, I still have an anxiety about her dying that most of my friends just can’t begin to understand. To be told that the person you love most in the entire world may die is a trauma that no parent should ever experience.
I would try to work with a good therapist, you are probably suffering from PTSD! I am sorry the anxiety continues ♥️
My mother hates me she has a personality disorder and she is an alcoholic. I really hit the jackpot when I was born.
@emmalouie1663 wow! Sorry about that 😮😢
As long as healthcare is a product and not a right, horror stories like this will continue to happen. We've had decades for the market to find a solution to this problem and it's only gotten worse. At this point the only logical option is government funded healthcare. We need to stop putting the profit of the few in front of the health of the many
It’s even more complicated than that. We don’t even have a healthcare system in the US. Our current system is a sickcare system. We continue to subsidize carcinogenic meat and dairy and push it on the masses all the while it makes everyone fat and sick.
Good healthcare is a choice -- one that starts with you making good choices. Once you call it a right, then the government steps in... and then they tell you where to go, what to do, and how much you're going to pay for it. Like Europe, care will be rationed, and you'll be paying 1/2 your paycheck for it (and all other social services combined). You'll have less freedoms, less personal choices. Profit seeking and self-interest is what makes the US economy a great system (creating the largest economy in the world in a short 250 years). If we lack in care, then the answer is using this pressure to innovate as we always have.
💵 😢
when was it ever a right? I have no clue how socialist nations work but service is not free. someone has to benefit and once someone has to benefit, the benefit from greed is endless. and gov health care like NHS in Britain is a DISASTER> see what is happening there right now, on CZcams, seriously. massive nurse strikes and more.
@@defaultworkouts I see anything as a right if it's something that I would provide for myself (to the best of my abilities) if I were living in the wilderness. if you fell out of a tree, would you not try to splint your broken leg?
I don't have kids, but as an adult in "society" all children are my kids. We are our brother's keeper. I am FLOORED WITH HORROR. WTF, has happened to this country? In the RICHEST state I'm watching a child DIE? The "suits" need to be held accountable. I am so disgusted with RAGE that I can't even cry for Theo. I am so sorry Alex that you had to see this.
First stop murdering Children in the womb, let's go step by step, once USA Start doing that it will see a change.
And people like Francis can't get enough of it.
Theo was one of the lucky ones, he got great care
@@francismarion6400 In China on average we have less resource but everyone can receive treatment when they need...
My kids are NOT YOUR kids. You'd be best not to go around telling parents that.
This is how you exploit your workforce. It is not only happening in Kids ICUs. These nurses and doctors have no choice: they have to care for the patients, no matter what. No matter how many hours they have already worked, no matter how burned out they are, no matter how underpaid they are. It is the same in Europe. We all have a responsibility to vote and influence politics to care for these people, not exploit them. Many of them will not give up until they fall apart. All the warning signs are there. We cannot wait until the health care system collapses entirely.
What I wish for is that paying taxes and being involved becomes a good thing again. That we put the well-being of ourselves and the people around us over fighting over tax cuts, profits, or interest rates. A good society is not one with a lot of money in bank accounts, it is a society that provides us with all we need in abundance and high quality. There is a tragic disconnect between our vital interests and the way we see politics and money.
Well said.
they can quit the industry. some do. there is a famous nurse here on CZcams who quit nursing and went into the winery industry.
The sad part is that the tax cuts only benefit the wealthy. They lie to poor people who sadly believe them when they say they're cutting taxes for them. KY is a prime example, their legislators want to cut taxes.
@@defaultworkouts In Germany, many thousand nurses have already quit. This creates a ripple-effect: the remaining ones are even more overworked. There is a severe shortage of staff (and money to pay staff) in the German health care system. It is at severe risk of collapsing. We had already many days without any free beds in ICUs in large areas. There are avoidable deaths in care for the elderly and a crisis of misuse of mental health medication to keep demented people calm. At some point in our lives, we are all dependent on the health care system, so it has to bother us all. And there is no possibility for change if we do not put more money in the system (and also throw out those who make large profits from tax / insurance money within it). Nurses need to have fair working conditions, but this is only possible if we increase their number - and therefore the amount of money spent per patient / elderly person.
why so many nurses quit
It's horrifying but doesn't surprise me. Hospitals and insurance companies are for profit businesses. As long as profit is the bottom line this will not stop. I was a claims specialist at a insurance company for 6 years. What Hospitals charge vs how much insurance will pay is staggering. And that was Medicare claims. My heart and prayers go out to the little ones suffering and their families.
And that's why the Medicare reimbursements are too low [for them].
Long time ago I had to go to an emergecy room for pain, it seems it was probably just a kidney stone. The doctors actually didn't end up doing anything. They sent me a $2,000 bill. I asked them for an actual description of the services they provided like an itemized list and they couldn't. It's weird how that works. There should be a federal bill that directs hospitals to post publicly how much the services actually cost. People are never told upfront what the cost of anything is going to be and that is unlike any other business. I had a minor biopsy done and my insurance didn't cover it. Well what can you do but live while you can I guess.
This is what happens when a society doesn't value their children.
not society, just the 1 percent whos greed knows no bounds and prioritize making money above basic human life
@@yungcris5211 I believe that is much more than just the 1 percent. The oldest generation has sacrificed all younger generations, and they did it for luxuries.
They don't value you, so why would they value your children?
like Carlin said, they are useless until they turn 18 and can be soldiers.
All part of the plan
Lack of universal healthcare is a crime against humanity. My mom's friend almost died of stomach cancer because she couldn't afford to go to the doctor while paying for her parents end of life care. It's sick.
how? why? I myself have no health insurance and that is my problem, not that of society. I exist therefore I am my own source of problems or happiness. why should someone help me for free?
Canada has universal healthcare and now it's encouraging euthanasia.
@@defaultworkouts It is true and it is not true. The society is a complex collective of human interaction, it will affect you some way or another whether you want to be a part of it or not. You're problems will be come the societal problems one way or another whether you like it or not.
@@francismarion6400 talking about suicide,please look at US statistic on suicide rate. Beside suicide is an individual making their own life choices, it has nothing to do with the society. Beside, suicide has a lot to do more about the mental health than lack of food/shelter .
@@ntcsie9530 suicide does have to do with society at a macro level though. A person chooses to commit suicide because they believe the alternative, living, is unbearable. For example, a well known cause of suicide is bullying. While you could say “The kid should’ve told someone” or “they should’ve fought back”, there are still many variables out of the individual’s control. What if they did tell a teacher but no action was taken, or worse, the bullies were protected instead?
Then it becomes a societal problem (at least at the scale of the school), because it means people can be bullied with little to no consequences, which will probably cause higher depression and possibly suicide rates in the student body.
Tldr; if you’re interacting with other people society does affect you.
Nationalize the entire system. And jail the executives of the old one.
The Brit NHS is doing so well. Not.
@@yvonneplant9434 well the thing about the NHS, like all other government services, they only work as well as the people we elect do. Elect radical right winger who openly talk of sabotage and destruction of services so they could privatize them and let them run more efficiently like your cable companies or airlines.
👊
@@yvonneplant9434 Because it got privatized and defunded, and nurses cut.
@@yvonneplant9434 Because conservatives routinely sabotage public services to argue that they should be privatized. Why do they do that? Because they're c**ts who care more about money than people's lives.
And yet we call ourselves “ the greatest country in the world “, If we can’t taking care a beautiful little life , how great we are ?
True, but I think very few people think of the US as the greatest country on earth. At least people who have the slightest idea of how people live in other countries.
why should I pay for other people's children? because the money has to come from taxation to service these kids. how does that benefit me when I did not create the problem (the brith of the child) in the first place?
@@defaultworkouts That's a problem with your selfish attitude. Me, me, me. At one point, you were a child yourself benefiting from the very taxes you're whining about. Everyone benefits from taxes going toward children, who are going to end up wiping your butt in a nursing home because I can't imagine you have anyone in your family who tolerates you with this attitude.
@@amberforbes3151 you are yelling at someone who is not a capitalist nor has any stake in profiting off anyone. it is amazing how emotional people become when you show them the realities of life, be it capitalism or anything else.
@@defaultworkoutsWe rely on tax-funded goods that not everyone uses: roads, trains, cheap fuel, military. Why should I pay for your kid to die in war when I'm a pacifist? Because we all work together to make the country and world we live in.
Protecting each other's children is how we grow strong as a nation. Abandoning each other will only ensure our mutual self-destruction and misery.
Children don’t vote and they don’t really have special interests that represent them like seniors or social and work related groups.
Frankly, we don’t value spending money on kids like we do other groups. Id like to see that change in our society.
Universal healthcare, universal childcare, free school lunches, and other basic provisions would help kids more than anything else. Conservatives who pretend to care about children while denying them these basic rights shows how awful they are.
there is no incentive to do so. and WE do NOT decide if money gets sent to Pakistan for gender education (really it is in the bill), or to Ukraine for a war or free stuff for illegals hopping the border down south. that is all decided by powerful people who you mean nothing to (as do i). you are nothing more than a cog in their system of lobbyists and profiteers
Yep, and have their genitals mutilated in American hospitals.
@@theflaggeddragon9472 factual
@@theflaggeddragon9472 oh please like the baby hating left would stop preening in the mirror to life a finger for kids...these are the same people who throw a massive fit if a mother has to leave early to pick a sick kids up from school because "thats their choice and not my problem". I heard a term I think fits its called childism...its like being racist or homophobic but towards children
Wow, this is so hard to watch as a parent.
As a trauma nurse of 36+ yrs California has multiple Children's hospitals. None of our hospitals in Southern CA have closed their doors or closed their Peds units. I personally audit them along with the different health plans.
RSV cases are more common during winter months and jump on them. We track and trend and prep for them.
In CA we have CCS with paneled facilities and providers(Peds Specific) CHDP, EPSDT, Medi-Cal, and managed Medi-Cal in addition to private insurance. Majority of ERs are equipped with trained personnel to treat all ages. You must be PALS and NALS in addition to ACLS Certified. Only small community hospitals lack these services.
Now working on the insurance side Peds is covered and audited separately to determine IPA compliance & to prevent member harm. So I don't quite understand what is happening on the East Coast.
Nurse burn out has been around since my mom's time & she became a nurse in the 1950s.
Those nurses who are burned out are the ones who care about their patients, go above and beyond and are unable to stop second guessing themselves when they are off duty.
NYS has seen rural hospitals loose peds and maternity at a shocking rate, but it’s more than money, it’s how these things are feast or famine. That makes it wicked hard to retain nurses who are very good at what they do. As well as hard to develop new talent. Additionally the way hospitals acquire smaller hospitals and further gut their services makes it worse. Franklin County lost one of only two hospitals that deliver babies and the other one won’t do VBACS because they just don’t have the coverage they need. Neither has a real pediatric unit, nor does Plattsburgh. If your child needs pediatric care in Franklin County it’s going to be in Burlington VT, Albany or Syracuse, all of these are a minimum 2 hours form most locations in Franklin county. Then there’s Essex County, No peds, No L&D anywhere in the county, people go to Glens Falls, Plattsburgh, Middlebury Vt or Burlington to have their babies. Most peds admissions go to Burlington or Albany. I don’t know if the hospital in Glens Falls still has peds.
What's "happening on the East Coast" (portrayed here by the NYT in a hospital not that far from their metro area) is happening all over the country, worse in more rural areas. Perhaps the better question to ask is what's going right in S. California.
@@Laura-kl7vi I've worked in Southern California as a nurse for 20 years and the only facility with a PICU in my area is County. The other hospitals closed their peds units.
Very difficult to watch. I was so relieved that Theo made it. I'm in Canada however unfortunately these powers are at play here and in Europe that look to the US for examples on increasing profit over lives.
Thank you Alex, and everyone else who worked to make this video. This is something that every American, and especially every lawmaker, needs to see.
It's wild how Healthcare is so expensive, and yet hospitals are understaffed and underpaying their nurses. The greed of the higher-ups is ridiculous!
I'm a pediatric ER nurse (ENPC).
I think that the underlying problem is the lack of nurses. We really need to open up more spots in nursing schools and ensure that nurses are paid regular professional wages.
The seven month at the start with RSV is a pretty typical "sick child" for us. RSV normally lasts 10 days with a peak around day 5. Kids are pretty resilient so they can bounce back. And if it's a really bad case then they might need to be intubated for a few days. Overall, with advanced care when necessary, then the prognosis is good.
It's interesting that you mention the nursing schools. My daughter is in college taking the necessary courses to one day enroll in actual nursing school here in NJ. She has mentioned to me that although she has a 4. GPA and attends weekly tutoring just to ensure that she "really does fully understand everything", she might still be unable to attend nursing school. I mention the extra studying because classmates have asked her why does she spend so much time in the library when it seems she doesn't need to. I should add that she also truly enjoys helping people and did not choose this path based on financial criteria.
In spite of all this, she tells me that there is a good chance that she won't be able to get into nursing school right away and that many can wait years. I do hope that she does well with the other requirements for admittance such as essays and interviews. It seems that the main issue is a lack of nursing schools (brick and mortar buildings, mainly) as well as a great need for qualified nurses in teaching roles (willing to make much less $, although still respectable) and clinical teaching sites.
Now we have many more students applying to nursing schools than there are openings to accommodate them. It's a shame, especially when demand for nurses is currently so high. I read that there are surprisingly high rates of nurses in the workforce that actually walk away from the profession after their first or second year. Many will be retiring in the next few years as well. Very demanding field.
Also an RN, ive been really frustrated with the direction of nursing academia for a while now. I don't understand why larger nursing organizations have been centered around a push for more nurses to get online masters/NP/DNP degrees, instead of empowering a strong workforce of bedside nurses. Recent surveys have shown that a majority of nursing students these days report planning to leave bedside nursing very early in their careers to earn higher degrees. Not only does this ultimately dilute the value of a higher nursing degree, but it takes away from a critical and necessary workforce of bedside nurses. The burnout is definitely a problem, but I also think that the direction nursing education has been moving for the past decade or two, has contributed to this vastly. Nurses hardly ever reach their potential or utilize the skills they learned in nursing school because they are constantly picking up slack from other jobs (food service, social work, housekeeping, transportation, facilities, etc). if hospitals actually enforced staffing ratios and job performance in all departments, nurses would be able to apply their skills in a way that empowers them, rather than making them feel like glorified maids, and I hope that would draw more young adults into the profession.
Nurses already make good pay but you are right about being overworked and understaffed
@@mustang8206 this is only true for some, unfortunately a lot of nurses are severely underpaid for all the work that they do 😢
need to work on keeping the good ones too, my hospital closed down the peds units and fired the nurses...
I'm an area nurse, I interviewed at the PICU out of nursing school and they paid NOTHING for nurses. I questioned that and I think that's why they didn't hire me because the manager liked me. I love children, but I can't imagine a more stressful job and to be so specialized and not be able go other places with those skills. I ended up working in a nursing home, earning more with less stress. Just my experience there.
Weird isn't it? I used to work in a PICU and found out that one of our nurses worked part time in a nursing home while we were often short. She seemed to love working in our PICU so I asked her why she worked in a nursing home. Her reply was that while she prefer working in our PICU, the nursing home paid a lot better. I was not expecting that.
That's insane, for such a rich country that spends trillions of dollars on military and does not provide universal healthcare
America isn’t rich. The government doesn’t produce anything. Individual Americans are rich, but their money is not ours. Yes, we forcefully remove it from them. No American has ever paid more in taxes than Elon Musk, yet some still feel entitled to more of his profits - profits which he earned by way of innovation that have markedly improved all of our lives. We need adults to grow up and take charge of their lives instead of feeling entitled to their neighbors’ hard work and achievements.
@@jessicak4223
Do you think those few rich people would have become rich without the government making roads to deliver their products, putting in utilities to reliably deliver electricity, educating children to become adult workers?
The _entire system, paid for by all of us,_ allowed them to get rich.
That's why they didn't go make a billion in Africa, the infrastructure and culture we all built ENABLED their wealth.
So it's really reasonable to ask them to cough up for upkeep of the system **They owe so much to.**
@@jessicak4223
Oh, and note: the top 10% of people own 75% of the wealth.
The bottom half owns less than 2% of our nation's wealth.
...So people have an estimated 3% chance of going from the bottom 20% to the top 10%.
Pull those bootstraps. Sure.
@@jessicak4223 The U.S. health-care system is “shot through with rampant waste” and has become “immoral,” billionaire investor Charlie Munger told CNBC on Monday. Buffett said earlier this year that health-care spending is a “tapeworm on the economic system.”
@@marcosffontes Corporate guilt. Many wealthy individuals have it, so do many middle class young adults.
One thing not mentioned here but is also important to consider is that the same disparity in payments are present in adult vs pediatric primary care. This makes providing adequate primary care and preventative care to the kids who need it the most even more challenging.
If the government pays for the health care for children, the government should build small paediatric hospitals everywhere, where it’s needed and run them. I know that for Americans everything is business, but I think that every normal person will draw the line at children’s lives.
We also need the doctors and nurses to care for these children. It would be best, but very hard, to have critical care teams to dispatch to regional hospitals to care for these children because it takes training and experience beyond nursing school to provide this care and it’s not easy to get the people.
@@autumnmoonfire3944 it’s not a typical solution for America, but you can use the army system, where you « train » someone for « free » in exchange for a long contract… but even I have to admit that it’s almost communist like.
Yeah and we tell ourselves we do everything for the kids right?
What angers me most is that most folks who are "pro-life" don't also advocate for programs and funding that are necessary support the whole life of a child!
Dude you are absolutely correct. Why not start with the obvious well known problem rather than a controversial (abortion etc). Thanks for a good idea.
We advocate, found and fund basically all of them. YOU'RE the one who refuses to advocate or fund outreaches to children. You're so lazy that all you do is throw money at the government and say, "The envelope says to use for foster kids, but I don't care if you buy another yacht. You do you."
what programs and funding?
@@sandiipants21 Medicaid programs, the critical care act mentioned in this video, food stamps and WIC, expanding parental education programs… there are so many programs that would benefit children and are constantly blocked by the same conservatives who claim be pro-life. They don’t actually care about children, if they did, they would fund solutions.
Medicaid was seen as a Safety Net not an end all, be all solution. You aren’t addressing the problem of women getting pregnant whether outside of wedlock or through dark purposes; therefore, abortion should be addressed in tandem to this epidemic and bleed on the conscience of Americans in a healthcare system that wants everyone to feel like they matter, but they are absolutely stupid in thinking that controversial issues make someone a hypocrite. You are not a judge; therefore, you need to shut your mouth.
My son was in the hospital for 8 days with rsv when he was 5 months old it was terrifying listening to him gasp for air. I was luck had a great family doctor who warned us how dangerous rsv can be she told us if he got worse don't wait call her and go straight to the er. I was also lucky we live 20 minutes from on of the best hospitals for children our state. Thankfully he got better is now a healthy 13 year old.
This kind of footage--of scenes that are usually only seen by healthcare workers--is so, so important to be able to show to the general public. Thank you for doing this crucial work.
My 4 year old son had Covid, RSV and strep A. I’m so grateful beyond words that he made it through all of them
I was told in nursing school that regardless of who comes in...after you are in the hospital for 3 days, the hospital loses money. So they tend to push out whoever they possibly can ie., Patients right after surgery to recover at home or a rehab center, children that tend to bounce back in most cases, ect.
State health depts keep records on hospital bounce back statistics. Some facilities even get fined for high bounce back rates.
But yet they have millions of dollars to give to the execs while they have never worked on the front lines.
It is utterly disturbing that saving kids is bad business. Saving lives shouldn't be a business in the first place
I’ve been sick all my life and I’m so incredibly thankful to live in NJ where there are so many pediatric hospitals nearby. Without them I never would’ve gotten the chance to become an adult patient. That’s lucrative too. Sick kids that survive to become sick adults is in the hospitals interest.
Why should sick people, of any age, be considered "lucrative"? That's psychotic. Healthcare should be free.
I was diagnosed with a chronic condition as a teenager. Thankfully I grew up in a city with 2 incredible children’s hospitals. I had awesome pediatric specialists who prepared me to transition to adult care and they inadvertently made me an intimidating figure for fellows and even attendings.
@@theflaggeddragon9472 How would it be made free, though? Every single item in healthcare costs something.
And before you say “fund it through our tax dollars”, it would only mean that rich politicians would become the profiteers instead of corporate shareholders.
@@aycc-nbh7289 Politicians are paid a salary and make all their money through dealings with private corporations. How would they get rich off publicly funded healthcare?
@@aycc-nbh7289 oh, so you're fine with your tax dollars going towards trillion dollar stealth jets that literally can't fly, but healthcare is a bridge too far?
i say this as a lifelong US residents, why dont americans understand that normal, non-evil countries just have laws that ban, or (at least, though not enough) restrict political lobbying by corporations/ private interests? your entire argument evaporates if this is just legislated properly
Thank you to all nurses & doctors ♡ My son was in the NICU for a month immediately after birth. The nurses & doctors there were INCREDIBLE, they saved his life and I'm forever thankful.
Frightening!
Shortsighted, cowardly, evil!
🇸🇪❤️
the fact that healthcare the US is being considered as BUSINESS, is disgusting.
This also applies to maternity health care in our country. Glad you are putting attention on this topic.
As a NICU nurse THANK YOU for shedding light on this!
It’s sad, I watched pediatrics shrink at my local hospital and saw it close when the hospital was acquired by a large hospital. One of the reasons it shrank to nothing was the absence of trained pediatric nurses. Even in the best of times it can be hard to train and retain pediatric nurses because most children will never be admitted to the hospital. Those who are, are very sick indeed. So they need some top notch care and it shouldn’t be a profit based thing, it should be based on population and in rural areas we need to bring pediatric critical care teams to smaller hospitals to care for children when there is a surge. It’s still going to be extremely hard because respiratory illnesses surge in the winter.
Fundamentally we need to completely change how care is delivered in the US.
With the current problem around the world today I think it's best everyone invest more in digital asset than Saving in banks, anyone you can manage don't live a life with no investment . Just my thoughts
Even with the economic recession or downturn, I'm so happy I've been earning $60,000 returns from my $12,000 investment on Short term
Wow I'm just shocked you mentioned expert Robert O’Brien,thought I'm the only one trading with him
Mr Robert is the right person to start trading cryptocurrency with.. he knows his way around the crypto world.. he has been helping me increase my investment every day for over months..
That's amazing, I have been hearing about mr
Robert O’Brien . and his genius mind in the crypto market, please how did you earn such good amount?..
Actually I trade cryptocurrency on a platform, with assistance from their top crypto expert Mr Robert is my professional assistant, I have been trading with him for 8 months now... I've really made a lot from his strategies in trading of cryptocurrencies.
Dude, I was really crying watching this, we have to fix the system!
I'm a nurse and worked in hospice for many years. There's a similar phenomenon with hospice services. It's so sad that areas of care like this are stretched so thin due to poor reimbursement from insurance providers.
The healthcare system in USA is based on reimbursements that are set by Medicare, are then followed by private insurance companies. The system reimburses procedures and imaging. That is why all the most competitive specialties for medical students are ones that have lots of procedures and thus make much more money per hour. We need to move to a wellness model, where you reimburse for keeping patients healthy.
Um **WHERE ARE THE PROLIFE PEOPLE WHEN YA NEED THEM? WHERES THE SUPREME COURT?**
I was always angered about the fact that there is no pediatric ER or ICU in my city. I was told by the nurses after I gave birth that I would have to go to their other hospital for pediatric care, which is about 25 minutes away from me. It's not the farthest but still. The fact that there are none in my city is sad. That hospital must be overwhelmed.
Man we got RSV in November, then we were slammed by influenza in December. My kids did well, but I honestly thought I wasn’t going to win the battle at one point. I tried so hard to keep our immunity diverse during the pandemic by getting a job in a daycare where I brought all three of my kids to work with me, but obviously it wasn’t enough.
Corporations will call their staff family, but God forbid you want to take care of family at home, LOBBYISTS. 👀 🤮
Corporate greed has caused this. Hospitals should be regulated to ensure that they keep a certain number of qualified staff and not allow the cost cutting crap we are seeing, just so Execs and CEOs and their shareholders can make big profits. Pay nurses adequately and make sure hospitals have enough rooms and medical machines, etc., to ensure there are no shortages.
More people should see this video. Thank you for bringing this growing problem to light. Children deserve better than this
This happened to my 13 month old on Xmas eve.. trip to ER, then transferred to CHOC in Orange County California. Excellent care! We were lucky to receive good care right away.
As a person that's also in the ER for trouble breathing I feel u little guy poor kid
This is one of the reasons why I'm child free. It would be selfish to bring a child to this world just for it to suffer.
This is one of the saddest stories ever! I truly despise what our healthcare system has become in America! I hate that big corporations own healthcare and only care about profits! Been saying that for years. Drs aren’t free to treat people as they see fit. They have to follow rules to save money instead of lives.
Either way, someone is going to profiteer from healthcare, whether it be corporate shareholders or greedy politicians.
I've always said the US health care system is BS. Money over care. So glad I live in Australia
dont you guys have the same NHS bs that Britain does?
Australia is the best country in the world.
As a 30+ woman, people always ask me why I am childless. I ask them, why would I want kids? They are a burden to me financially and mentally.
A lot of people are choosing not to have children now. I have 4 of my own and no grandchildren yet. Do what is right for you, Noone else's business.
I believe you don't want children and shouldn't if thats your attitude...but I've known people like that who accidentally had a baby...they loved it so much they had another one. My point, Love is the reason people have children (or should be)
💯 especially a sick child
...And yet this barely makes a ripple in politics-addled America. Actual crises are now normal, and the headlines reek of the trivial issues of those who mismanage everything, not the human costs.
As someone who isn't American the idea that there is a single children's hospital for a whole state is horrifying. Where I live, there are three hospitals that specialize in children anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours from where I live. And even hospitals that don't specialize in pediatrics at least has a pediatric department, allowing for only the complex cases to be sent to those specialized hospitals if they're not local.
This makes my blood boil! How can healthcare for any segment of society, any age group, be monetized? Because we have for a profit health care system, and to my mind, that is morally wrong.
Because it merely exists. If components cost money, then someone stands to financially benefit from selling it, whether it be corporate shareholders or politicians.
@@aycc-nbh7289 we can control politicians more than shareholders
@@brunowhitehead8105 Are you sure about that? They keep running on the same old platforms and make promises to their constituents, but they never end up getting anything done. They also have tendencies to misrepresent facts and manipulate people into doing as they are told.
Both of the major party candidates for the Representative of my constituency in the last election seemed to be guilty of this. One of them spoke of the other one supporting extremists while using abridged video clips of him and not telling the full story, while the other one pointed to crime that may not have even existed and may even be outside of the constituency borders if it did.
When not for profit hospitals were bought by for profit hospitals things began to nose dive.
I work at a not for profit hospital. The top ten people in the company all make millions of dollars per year, meanwhile the nurses have to beg for equipment and staff. They tell us that we can’t hire more because they’re isn’t money in the budget... I wonder why.
I remember the children’s hospital in my neighborhood, vividly. I remember how safe I felt walking through the doors there with a late night high fever. I can’t imagine not having that memory of safe medical care.
Saving kids doesn't have to be a business at all, actually.
Cripes almighty.
This is why my five year old is missing out on what should be his first year of kindergarten. We may be bored but at least only that. Boredom. And that never killed anyone. My solemn condolences to the babes, parents, and front line workers.
Hi, i from Brazil
this information does not reach here, could you explain to me what is happening to children in the United States? tks
@@amandaflora63 RSV generally harmless to adults but deadly to children. It is mostly a regular epidemic though in the US worsened by their handling of the health care where private hospitals (which is most of them) don't profit enough from children
@@filipsichrovsky Thanks for answering, here in Brazil there is public health, it's called SUS, everything is free, but with a certain precariousness in some regions, here vaccines are made free of charge.
I also have a 5-year-old daughter and we wanted to go to the US, I want to do an English exchange, but I'm terrified of the cold making my baby sick.
your condolonces do not pay rent nor produce a paycheck. the world does not run on sentiments or feelings or ideas of whatever righteousness people decide. it runs on profit and benefit
Thank you for reporting on this. It cannot be easy to see this and carry that with you but I can honestly say that I had no idea.
Resident Evil Umbrella's motto - Our Business Is Life Itself
Well, instead of saying "savings kids doesn't have to be bad business" we could say "saving kids doesn't have to be business". At least that's what we think in EU and I'm glad we do. US is such a backward country sometimes I can not wrap my head around it.
How is the U.S. a backward country if they were the ones to invent the coronavirus vaccine and have so many businesses that exist across the globe and make lucrative amounts?
In fairness, though, there are some regions that may be “backwards”, but the entire country is not like that.
The difficult thing too is Medicaid keeps "expanding", but the reimbursement rates are still a fraction of what the care costs. And this is one of the many consequences unfortunately. It's not sustainable and has caused many healthcare facilities to close, especially in rural areas.
I love your videos. especially on healthcare and covid. they're informative and straight to the point. like everything else, healthcare is a business first and helping people second. I hate that the most vulnerable people in our society; the elderly, disabled, and youth are honestly the ones who suffer the most. I use to work for the Medicaid helpline. so many parents complained that their services weren't paid or partially paid by Medicaid. from teeth braces, self-help devices, and psychological hospital stays. ect
I’ll never forget my infant daughter in an oxygen tent in the pediatric ICU when she had RSV way back in 2000. It is heartbreaking to see how badly pediatric medicine has declined.
Very good video NYT! Thanks Alex for producing this.
I'm from Australia and have 2 kids with rare diseases. My son in particular has cp, epilepsy and lung problems. Our paediatric system here is excellent. He has just graduated into the adult system and I was worried that he would not receive the same comprehensive care he got when he was in the paediatric system but it has proved me wrong with 3 hospitalisations for lung issues in the last 6 months with absolutely NO out of pocket expenses. It doesn't matter what you earn in Australia, you get the same healthcare as everyone else. Medicines from the chemist are also heavily subsidised, especially if your are on a low income as I am, being a single parent on a carer pensioner. I pay $6.90 per script! I cannot imagine what our lives would be like if we lived in the US. I have friends in the US who have the same disease as my daughter and she gets treatment for free that is totally out of reach for people in the US because either their insurance company does not cover that particular rare drug or they don't have enough money to pay the out of pocket expenses for treatment. Many are simply left to suffer in agony. The notion of health care being a business run for profit is a terrible one. In Australia we pay a medicare levy in our taxes which is directly related to your income. No income, no levy. High income, higher levy. The government has a vested interest in keeping hospitals running as cheaply as they can because they are paying for it put of this revenue and putting up the medicare levy is bad for voters. No one benefits from higher hospital fees and so the costs are kept in check. People from the US have said to me that we have the same system in that we simply pay the government instead of insurance companies but this is far from reality. There are no insurance company profits to pay or shareholder interests. Our medicare levy is a portion of the cost of what people in the US pay for health insurance. The costs of health care in the US per person is staggeringly high compared to Australia. In the USA approximately 17.2% of GDP is spent on health care whereas in Australia our system costs us about 9.6% of GDP. (OECD Health Statistics 2017). There is no argument that a universal health care system is far superior to a private enterprise system yet many I speak to are still against it for various reasons which make no sense to me. The fear of anything that smells of socialism in the US is holding the country back, I fear. I've also heard people state that they don[t want universal health care because they don[t want to pay for someone else's abortion! This sort of thinking sees average Americans who have actually suffered personally from a very costly, broken system shoot themselves in the foot. From where I stand, it all looks a little bit paranoid and not a little loopy! To learn that children are especially suffering under the US system is beyond belief. Something really needs to change but will people put aside their prejudices and paranoias and actually vote for change? From what I hear, not any time soon and it's a crying shame.
My family has been able to get health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act (government subsidy for health insurance in the US). My parents don't like the ACA and are against government funded healthcare, even though we've benefited from it. It makes no sense. Like you said, the fear of anything resembling moving towards socialism is paralyzing our society and keeping us from improving.
Ask them if they will be happy to receive their Social Security checks.
I knew 2 people who died because of lack of medicine.
@@grmpEqweer I'm not surprised to hear that, sadly.
@@MaineCoonMama18 it's a crazy way of thinking, isn't it? A capitalist system benefits from, and is controlled by, big business which has only itself and its profits in mind, is supposedly a fair and equitable system, yet a government that is supposed to be a representative of the people and can be held to account through voting, etc, cannot be trusted to provide quality healthcare? It's all very skewed.
I am a Level IIII NICU RN, that is also highly trained in PICU. I cannot tell you how many times a hospital has shut down my units because they weren't profitable for the company. I thought we were supposed to serve our communities...it just sickens me, so much so, that I have walked away from my nursing career. I miss my wee ones...
I work in healthcare and the aspect of hospitals making a profit and measures they go to in order to do so have always made me sick.
The admins responsible for closing pediatric departments in the name of profit should be held criminally responsible in some way. I know it's not realistic though. Hospitals should be public services and not motivated by profit.
staff has to be paid and must turn a profit. service and medical products do not fall out of the sky. poor people should not be having kids in the first place. then they cry foul and blame everyone else for not getting free medical care. what a JOKE
@@defaultworkouts STFU. The kids are here, they're born, and they need help, so telling poor people not to reproduce doesn't help anything because even if those children are put into the system, THEY STILL NEED CARE.
@@amberforbes3151 if you do not have a child, you do not have a mouth to feed or stress over. YOU control that destiny of expenses in the family planning dept. it does not fall out of the sky. if people cannot control their sexual urges and keep having children, that is their responsibility to cover those costs.
@@defaultworkouts many modern countries have figured out healthcare. Countries in Europe provide free healthcare with better outcomes while still paying less overall as a country. There is no reason besides greed for the current system in the u.s. middlemen like insurance companies and admin raise costs while not improving patient outcomes. The u.s. is the only country who's rich while still having higher infant mortality than all of Europe. The system does not work as it stands.
@@defaultworkouts profit should not be the motivator behind healthcare. We as a country are paying more per person while receiving no care.
Almost all comments: Money-money-money money money money portfolio investment and money
Few Comments: Its all about that freaking green paper note isn't?
Me: So when are we going to have a civil war thanks to the 1% and the business?
When will politicians be held accountable for this disaster?
How is it not a legal requirement that every county in the United States that has more than 10,000 people must have the pediatric ICU with a hundred beds per every 100,000 children
The United States, a country that cares so much about cell clumps, until it sees daylight!
I am so happy for Theo, May you long and prosper ... Inshalla
Throughout my childhood I was either treated in the E/R or hospitalized at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) for my asthma. It was a big deal for my mother to take me there because she was a single parent and couldn’t drive. It could take an hour to get there if we couldn’t get a ride from family or friends but her experiences with my local doctor had been so problematic- he would recommend home remedies instead of prescribing medication- that she made the switch. I can’t imagine my mom having to leave not just my city but our state just to get what in this story is life-saving treatment for KIDS. Our healthcare system has been morally bankrupt for decades, but the fact that so many people- chiefly our elected officials who listen to insurance companies’ lobbyists over health professionals and constituents- sleep peacefully at night when their actions (and inaction) cause needless crisis is so infuriating.
I remember how rough a normal Rsv season on peds during med school was. I can’t imagine being on the floor during this.
And the destruction of roe vs wade, it’s gonna get a lot worse.
Until we as a Society can put Human life over MONEY, this is only going to get worse..
So sad to see that pediatric intensive care unit at Beaumont hospital in Michigan has closed. I was in that unit for a few days after surgery in 2011.
The only NICU I’ve been in has been Madigan, part of JB Lewis-McChord in Washington state. What many folks don’t realize is that our military hospitals function in the same way universal healthcare hospitals in other countries function.
Those NICU docs and nurses were amazing. My niece had a congenital issue when she was born (which they knew ahead of time) and we were so thankful they could just do their jobs without the constraints and red tape of insurance companies. The quality of care was fantastic and the same for everyone.
And my sis and bro-in-law were not burdened by co-pays, deductibles and percentage caps. They paid ZERO.
I used to live in Switzerland and was there when they changed their healthcare system. There was fierce opposition, but fast forward 10 years and those who were in opposition changed their minds. It’s as they say there now, “No one loses their house here in Suisse like they do in the US over medical bills.”
I’m pretty sure that the myth of people losing their houses, etc. over healthcare costs is just a myth, especially since there is such a thing as charity care.
Does Medicare underpay? Or is healthcare wildly expensive?
It pays, but not as much as using the space in the hospital for other things. The executives who run hospitals would rather use that floor for something they can charge a premium on to fatten their pockets than build another wing
The title of this video alone is disgusting. Bottom line, if you're not wealthy you're screwed
At the moment of coming back to Teo's home, I am really happy. And then, the caring staff in the ICU is amazing. Sometimes, I feel very sad when a baby is sick.
Just like they let my baby die for being premature. After doctor came to ask me if I had more kids, I remember that feeling of not caring about this one because I had children already. I remember crying begging to save her and then she passed. A nurse told me that they didn't put any of the necessary stuff to keep her alive. I haven't been able to close that chapter, it's very painful. I pray 🙏 the medical system change to what it used to be, a field where doctors and medical professionals act as humans and not treat patients like a lucrative source to get rich.
That's good ol' American capitalism.
As usual the problem is capitalism
I’m so thankful that when my little cousin was born, doctors were able to provide her with adequate medical care right in my city as we have a very big children’s hospital. My little cousin was born with her ventricles in her heart on opposite sides. Without charity organizations like ronald McDonald house, or St. Jude’s even my cousin would possibly not be here. I want to try my best to give and donate to these organizations more as they really really helped saved my family during the time my cousin had been in the NICU.
This just breaks my heart. Two hospitals I worked for just recently removed their pediatric units and became adults only. They kept the pediatric ER but if any child that needs additional care, they would have to be transported to the nearest children’s hospital.