ananova.com Dec 29, 2001

< a href="http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_483455.html?menu=news.quirkies">UFFDA

Son expecting mother's hospital return gets wrong woman

A son in Norway expecting his mother's return from hospital was shocked when ambulance workers delivered the wrong woman.

Ralph Ellingsen says he didn't realise it was the wrong person at first because she was wearing an oxygen mask.

The mistake has now been cleared up and his 95-year-old mother, Ragna, has returned safely.

"When I got a closer look at her I saw right away that it wasn't her," Mr Elllingsen told the Bergensavisen newspaper.

According to Aftenposten, both women had been in the same hospital in Bergen, but the woman delivered to Mr Ellingsen should have been sent to a nursing home.

"Unfortunately there was a mix-up during the busy Christmas season. The mistake was noticed at once, so we did not send Ragna Ellingsen on to a nursing home," said hospital spokesman Jon Arne Fauskanger

-- (lars@indy.net), December 29, 2001

Answers

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-- (lars@indy.net), December 29, 2001.

Well, at least they didn't do something like amputate the wrong foot, as happened in the U.S. some time ago. Not that I'm a fan of socialized medicine, but our own system has had screwups which dwarf the Norwegian disaster described above.

-- Peter Errington (petere7@starpower.net), December 29, 2001.

Sheesh! Sure glad WE don't have a national health care system. I prefer making the HMO's rich, they NEVER make any mistakes.

-- (blind@and.dumb), December 29, 2001.

I really got into this a few years back when my family was complaining about some deaths in the family because they never made it to the "list" in time. THEN, I listened to the stories of medical treatment via HMO's and the VA right here and didn't feel so bad anymore. There's always going to be SOMEONE [and it might just be one of your family members] who will be ignored by the medical establishment in the US, just as there will always be SOMEONE ignored by the socialist medical systems in other countries. Each system has its priorities, I suppose. The best thing about both is that if you never get sick, you won't need them.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), December 30, 2001.

Anita,

Poor Cherri's family comes to mind.

-- Stephen M. Poole (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), December 30, 2001.

You understand it perfectly Anita.

Recent journal canted towards medical administrative professionals ( IPA & HMO bosses ) queried California speciality docs about their future. 43% said they'd be out of practice within 3 years. Either retired, quit or moved. All named HMO influence either in terms of profit or practice perrogratives. Assume half were lying. That's 21%. I figure that within 10 years you'll have trouble finding a doctor that has english as a first language. Figure it must be what we want or we'd pay for something else. Capitalist way ya know.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), January 01, 2002.