China: A Stroke Survivor's Alternative to U.S. Health Care

My sister-in-law opened a letter from the insurance company today. It appears they have denied her husband's $20,000.00 life-flight claim. Apparently he should have taken an ambulance instead of the helicopter to the Intensive Care Unit. Or maybe after suffering a massive stroke, caused by a bleed in his brain stem, Devin and his wife should have asked the Emergency Medical Professionals to wait before putting him on a respirator and loading him into the waiting chopper. Understanding of course, that while his very life is at risk, they should call the insurance company, navigate their complex automated, answering system and make sure they can get pre-approval for this fancy helicopter tour of Louisville, Kentucky.

It was 4:45am when my 40-year-old brother, Devin, was working out in the gym and began feeling numbness in his right arm. Next came the blurred vision and slurred speech. From there his conditioned deteriorated rapidly. Eventually, he was put on life-support and flown from Central City, Kentucky to the University Of Cincinnati Medical Center where he spent three weeks in intensive care. While fighting for his life, he endured the insertion of a brain stint, a tracheotomy and a stomach feeding tube. He was also put on and off a respirator until his body was able to safely manage breathing on its own.

To date, all of these procedures have been reversed. And although Devin is still incapacitated; unable to walk, unable to stand, difficulty swallowing, difficulty speaking, double and bouncing vision, and numbness on his right side, doctors remain optimistic. Given Devin's relatively young age and his extremely healthy condition prior to the stroke, they feel that he is a good candidate for recovery given the proper rehabilitation and care.

And proper rehabilitation and care was exactly what he would get at the Frazier Rehabilitation Center in Louisville, Kentucky. While staying at the rehab facility, Devin worked extremely hard with the very talented and compassionate staff of physical therapists, occupational therapists and the speech therapists. He was beginning to make strides towards recovery. He was now able to eat solid foods and speak enough to communicate. Walking twice a day at the parallel bars was starting to take hold. Then another limit was reached. Six weeks was all of the in-patient care his insurance would cover. Just when things were starting to move forward, Devin found himself going home and entrusted to his family's care. His insurance would cover some outpatient care. Not a day nurse or anything like that, but they would cover 20 days of physical therapy. So, his family figured they would spread it out by scheduling two days a week, as opposed to the two times a day, five days a week he was receiving. This would give him ten more weeks to try and get better. Unfortunately, the decrease in the frequency of therapy had the family fighting to keep Devin's condition from slipping backwards, when he should be pushing forward.

Needless to say, we found ourselves extremely frustrated and feeling like helpless victims of a broken health care system. A system you hear about every day of this election season. A system that seems to move you from healing to a maintenance program as quickly as possible. And a system, that in just over 6 months time, has reached its limits in giving my brother a real, fighting chance at recovery. A recovery that his medical professionals are saying is still very possible.

Well, thank God this is America and we have a choice. And we have chosen China! On April 30, 2008, Devin, his wife, and two documentary filmmakers will board a plane heading for Beijing. From there they will be greeted by Ruth Lycke, an American stroke survivor and owner of the China Connection LLC, and driven to the First Teaching Hospital Of Tianjin, in Tianjin, China. Here Devin will be enrolled in a 90-day, in-patient, stroke rehabilitation program. A program that as been integrating Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine to successfully treat stroke victims from all over the world. A program that charges less for it's medical care, than the roundtrip tickets it takes to get there. And a program that invites Devin to stay as long as he needs in order to recover.

As one of the filmmaker's traveling alongside my brother on his quest for survival, I am grateful to him for his courage in refusing to be a victim of the American Health Care Bureaucracy. And I am happy that he has agreed to share this intimate and courageous journey with our cameras, hence all of you. I look forward to keeping you updated on his progress, and to sharing with you, what I hope to be an adventure of healing and transformation and a successful alternative to a broken system.

We are currently fundraising for both his treatment/travel and the accompanying documentary. If you would like to get involved, donate or get more information, please visit: www.oneinarowfilms.com.

To be continued...

Comments

[hrhme08]

This is a very touching story and a very worthwhile subject for a film if only to further alert the masses to the health care crisis in our country.

Good luck to you and your brother!

[angryoldman]

This is just another example of the absurd situation the insurance conglomerates have foisted upon us. First of all, the rates for insurance are ridiculously high and second of all, thier mission in life when you do file a claim is to do everything possible to deny care in order to avoid having to part with any of thier ill gotten blood money! ...ONLY IN AMERIKA...

[ShawnMichel]

As long as the sheeple refuse to revolt, the sheeple will get mistreated.

(That means 99 of a hundred of you reading this.)

Good luck to your bro, Doug. Godspeed.

[angryoldman]

Exactly sir, and there is no hope of any type of revolution being offered by ANY of the so called candidates of change ( and they all claim to be so )!

[emerywood]

You seemed to have great confidence in traditional Chinese medicine. Eventhough this is for rehabilitation and physical therapy, there is no scientific evidence that traditional Chinese medicine offers any advantage in this regard. The only advantage seems to be it's low cost. I wish your brother well and hope everything works out. How did you find out about the merits of traditional Chinese medicine and exactly what do they do that is different and better ?

[GuyRC]

The point of this article is that he is getting frequent affordable physical therapy that he can't get in the US. It has absolutely nothing to do with traditional Chinese medicine.

[captaindougd]

I do have confidence in TCM. Some from personal experience, some from stroke survivors who have used it in their recovery, and some form scientific medical studies that have been published on the subject. I have listed a few below if you are interested. Also, check out www.chinac­onnection.­cc for specific information on the program in Tianjin.

http://www.acubriefs.com/wkstone/webkeystone.py

http://acupunctureinmedicine.org.uk/search_results.php

http://jrm.medicaljournals.se/article/full/10.2340/16501977-0032

http://thomasland.metapress.com/content/t258317nt5322134/

And there is also frequent, affordable physical therapy available at the same time.

[Independent voter]

Thanks for universal healthcare hillary. Nice work

[speakeasy]

This is a conflicting story because I'm all for the guy getting better, but I absolutely am against anything China right now. Who knows how many Chinese peasants were "experimented" on to make this treatment possible to the wealthier.

The bigger story here is American Health Care. As long as health insurers (any insurance provider really) are publicly held companies (i.e. stock holdind and selling corporations) than there first responsibility is to stockholders, growth of revenue and dividends. Then comes C-level mgmt,and the Board of Directors and then, finally, come the insured.
As a private entity, they could still invest profits, but they would have to be safe investments and regulated so the insured doens't have to pay the price for bad investment decisions (as happens every day).

How can a company making billions in profit have the nerve to cut off treatment or rehab? Good christian men no doubt... They and the trolls here who defend profit at any costs have no soul and if there is one thing I know in this world to be true is "what comes around, goes around". So I bide my time until I can see these bloodsuckers go down...

[captaindougd]

I agree with being conflicted over a government's human rights actions. I have similar feelings with China, as well as with my own country here. But our decision to go to China for health care was about transcending border's and boundries and politics and connecting with the individuals who are providing affordable, alternative, compassionate health care for those in need of healing.

The professionals that cared for Devin here in the US were superb! Compassionate, caring and extremely talented. And they certainly did save his life. And my extreme gratitude goes out to them. But we do not have access to them any more. And we certainly do not have access (especially through his insurance company) to Traditional Chinese Medicine. A practice, when combined with Western Medicine, is producing very promising results in stroke recovery. This was also a very big factor in our decision to travel to China.

Hopefully we will have the opportunity to learn about some of the things mentioned in these comments together, first hand. And my biggest hope is not that any of us are right or wrong, but that on a human spirit level we discover a universal community of support and care. Above and beyond the politics and bureaucracy and corporate profits. And that we will become aware of the additional choices we have, on a global level. And of course, that Devin comes back to this wonderful country, grateful to his entire "international team" of health care angels.

[speakeasy]

Sorry I harped on China. My issues with China is less related to health issues than trade agreements. I would do the exact same in your shoes. My father was the victim of a massive stroke at my current age. He was in the military so they took pretty good care of him, but they made a huge error before he had the stroke. A couple days before the big stroke he was having several TIA's (mini strokes) and my mother took him in tot eh hospital. They could not detect a blood pressure in his left arm. So what do they do? Set up an appointment for the next week.

If I may ask, where was his blockage? Neck was where my fathers was...

By the photo your brother looks to be in good shape, I think he will do well in any therapy. Good luck!

[Jonahson]

You and your husband could have gone to Cuba for treatment. It is almost free there.

[Geauterre]

You are fortunate in having the option to follow up a common sense approach. Meanwhile, the rest of us just suffer lip service, incompetence and malpractice.

[kfdan]

The health care system in the U.S. is built on the same motive as other corporations ~ make money any way possible and that my friends is why we seriously need to have a government not obliged to corporations. The only way for that to occur is to stop corporate interests from owning politicians! Health care in America is bad news for normal people as Devin and his family have just found out. Go to China, go to Cuba, go to Canada if possible to get care ~ if you can't do that you are truly screwed.

[Suzie813]

Haven't you noticed that none of the candidates are proposing a healthcare program that eliminates the bloodsucking insurance companies in favor of a federally operated system? We need national health and we need it now.

[CaliforniaNurse]

Exactly.

On the national level, the bill for that is HR 676 (Conyers).

[NotMyPrez]

Sicko, the Sequel it seems.

[dadw5boys]

Pray you never become disabled and the only insurance you can arrod is medicare. In a case like this with a stroke you would become an organ donor. See the hospitals will profit from you in so many way.

Wait till you have a doctor sets there and watches you suffer but will not treat you with clot busters because of your insurance.

[ResidentChimp]

Thank God this is America and you can sell your story. In China, you would never hear of a anomoly in their system and they would never be aallowed to go some where else or complain about it afterwards.

[maddogbitesback]

Resident Chimp you are so wrong. The Chinese not only hear about anomalies in their system but they get out on the street and protest them. And their protests sometimes are on televison. And their protests actually do achieve something. So far nobody I have seen is protesting the corruption, the lies, the madness, the cruely and the general loss of rights in America.

[Schallvain]

Have you been to China?

Go to one of their general health care facilities that is available to most of the Chinese population and then come back and try to re-write your same statement with a good conscience. I think you'll find it difficult if you have any moral sensibilities.

[ProudNeoCon]

Like Tibetian monk who got killed for their protest... Like people who get 5 years in jail for posting critical article on internet,., what are you smoking..

[dadw5boys]

WHAT??????

China does not care if you knock their system it speaks for it's self.

[vippy]

And you missed the point entirely!

[wolfgangmo]

Troll alert

[JScott]

I think there's been stories like this before-medical tourism and not just China, but India and Thailand are big on this.

I am also a stroke survivor, fornately for the one I had my health plan covered it. But one is changed after that. I still have slight problems with balance and memory that I have noticed, but from other stories that I have heard I am very lucky and I thank my stars.

[PalleKuling]

Medical tourism is common all over Asia and Eastern Europe. Whether it is a good thing or not is debated though.

On one hand it brings a certain element of technology transfer and improves quality becnhmarks in the industry. On the other it diverts resources (doctors, nurses) away from the public/local health care system.

Me for one believe that in the long run medical tourism also benefits the local population.

[emsique]

I had the dubious pleasure of getting carbon monoxide poisoning this year in China. Ambulance ride,
emergency room, 2 EKG's, a bed, oxygen, and an hour in a hyperbaric chamber and I was more or less OK. Things weren't as high tech and shiny as our hospitals and there were guys smoking in the hall, but my level of care was good. My wife brought me take out. The total tab was $100. It would have been at least ten grand here, and the food would have sucked. A middle class Chinese person could have paid this and not needed a second mortgage.

However, quality health care is not available to the masses at no cost. There is a severe shortage of medical care in the rural areas, and even $100 could be impossible for some. My brother in law there is a doctor who works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week because there are not enough doctors. Perhaps it's an attempt by the government to experiment with market drive health care?

[myname]

Doug,

This is such an incredible story. As a physician who spends most of the day treating stroke patients I am surprised with the survival and then the progress achieved by your brother. The surface area of the brain stem is about the cross section of our thumb and the difference between life and death can be the expansion of the bleed within few millimeters. The fighting spirit in your brother is admirable and I look forward to hearing the progress he makes in the future.