Newspaper article: surgery postponed after weigh in

shandi_b

Not sure if this is the first place to post this or not.......
This article in a local Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) caught my eye last week and the story made the national news over here:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/hospital-postpones-mans-surgery-after-weigh-in/story-fnii5smq-1226673930728

In a nutshell, in Australia, we have a system called Medicare, which every taxpayer pays into and then it provides subsided health care etc without the recipient person having to pay much - if anything. The person in this article would not have paid anything for his surgery but would have been on a waiting list, would not have been able to choose the hospital or the surgeon etc. (people with private health cover pay out of pocket costs but can choose their surgeon, don't have to wait as long and can often choose their hospital).

What riled me about the article is that when has putting on weight and morbidly obese become a case for discrimination when it comes to surgery? Any surgery is risky and the risk increases as you put on more weight - why does a grown adult need that spelt out for them? The hospital that postponed the operation (based on the advice from an anesthetist as that he had put on 22lbs since January) was small country hospital that doesn't have the facilities to cope with the weight of the patient. And when does it become a government responsibility instead of a personal responsibility to take care of yourself before surgery ?
(bear in mind that they have only postponed the surgery not cancelled it entirely!)

onwarddownward

I wonder how he put on 22 lbs while waiting for gallbladder surgery. I could hardly eat anything before mine. I was in such pain all the time.

jstout365

What riled me about the article is that when has putting on weight and morbidly obese become a case for discrimination when it comes to surgery? Any surgery is risky and the risk increases as you put on more weight - why does a grown adult need that spelt out for them? The hospital that postponed the operation (based on the advice from an anesthetist as that he had put on 22lbs since January) was small country hospital that doesn't have the facilities to cope with the weight of the patient. And when does it become a government responsibility instead of a personal responsibility to take care of yourself before surgery ?
(bear in mind that they have only postponed the surgery not cancelled it entirely!)

Never. It should never be the government's responsibility to keep you from gaining weight prior to surgery. If you are unable to maintain a certain level of health prior to a surgery that would improve your quality of life, then you have to deal with the consequences of your actions in having a surgery postponed for safety reasons. Asking that a government step in to control personal behaviors on that level (controlling daily intake of food) would be asinine and open the door to allow for even greater government control. At some point, people will have to start taking responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming others and asking that someone else (often the government) step in to save them from themselves.

Yes, there are risks in all surgeries, but screwing up the anestesia can be fatal. The postponement was probably all part of a risk mitigation effort to ensure that the person walks away only missing the gallbladder, as intended. Many smaller hospitals do not have the facilities to deal with higher risk surgeries, not because of the ability of the doctors, but because of the facilities to provide adequate care in the event something did go wrong. They are not discriminating based on weight. They are protecting themselves against something going wrong with the patient because the original health profile has changed.