Noncompliance, system abuse, stupidity. There are lots of words for it, but what absolutely drives me crazy in health care are the cases of people who go out and purposely abuse their bodies, knowing full well based on numerous warnings in the past, that they shouldn't do it, and then come to the hospital expecting us to fix their problems.
I'm not talking about the skier who has broken his leg again, or even the diabetic who has been told to loose weight to help her disease. I'm talking about the 30 year old who has the heart of a 130 year old from years of cocaine abuse. He has a biventricular pacemaker/defibrilator paid for by his Medicaid/Medicare. He takes multiple heart medications to help his limping heart along (again paid for by my taxes and yours). And he shows up to the hospital with chest pain after a weekend Coke binge. It becomes my job to fix the problem, and I wonder why.
I'm clearly not the first person to ponder these things. Check out these clips from the movie Bringing Out the Dead.
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