The next time I complain about the quality of medical care in this country, and I’m sure I will, if for no other reason than that I love to complain, please remind me that, at least, I’m not in Venezuela. I just read an interesting news story that makes me just a wee bit doubtful of the medical care one might receive there.
The story concerns 33-year-old Carlos Camejo. Seems Camejo was pronounced dead following an auto accident and his body was taken to the morgue for an autopsy. The only problem is was that his body wasn’t exactly dead.
The story goes that when the medical examiner cut into Camejo’s face, he began to bleed. The examiner, according to the news report, immediately knew something was amiss. I wonder how many years of training it took so that he could immediately recognize a warning sign when the corpse begins to bleed. Anyway, apparently, the medical examiner continued to do the autopsy. I mean one bleeding face does not a live person make, does it?
The examiner didn’t actually stop cutting until the corpse began to complain about the excruciating pain in his face. A scalpel can do that. It was reassuring to read that as soon as Camejo began to complain, the medical examiner stitched him up. And, it appears that Camejo is still living, which is rather surprising, considering he’s still in Venezuela.
I wonder what the criteria is down there for being declared dead. Evidently, you can still be breathing, because Camejo had to do some breathing to stay alive. At least that’s my non-medically trained opinion. I wonder if the doctor who declared him dead ever thought to check for a heartbeat, because, I’m guessing the guy’s heart was still beating as well.
But you know the most important thing about this story is the moral. Yes, there’s something to be learned here. And that is that sometimes there are worse things than waking up with an excruciating pain in your face.
In a semi-related story from England (related in the sense that sometimes things turn out much better than it would appear on the surface), a young boy underwent brain surgery to remove fluid caused by a rare strain of meningitis. The doctors held out little hope for the boy’s survival. However he did survive, but lost his ability to read and write. Anyway, after several weeks recovering in the hospital, here’s the amazing thing: The boy, whose mother is a music teacher, is reportedly playing the piano and trumpet much better than he had previously.
Some people have all the luck. I know that if I’d been killed in an auto accident, I’d have never awakened in the morgue. And, as far as improving my musical abilities, forget it. I had hernia surgery several years ago and I still can’t play a musical instrument. Heck, I can’t even read music. What kind of doctors must I have had…Venezuelans?
But, here’s something even more amazing about this kid in Britain. Before the surgery, he had a thick Yorkshire accent, now, the story says, “He speaks like the queen.” Hmm, he plays the piano and speaks like the Queen. I wonder if boy has become Elton John. Just a thought.
Anyway, the boy’s parents say that when he began speaking several weeks after the surgery, “He sounded really posh.” I’d like to sound posh. Even if I never played the piano, it would be cool to sound posh. I wonder if I started poking around in my head if I could lose my southern accent. I’m going to go find a scalpel. I’ll let you know what happens.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Now You'll Know the Rest of the Story
Call me naive if you will, but this thing with O.J. Simpson has really blown me away. Just when I thought this young man had begun to pick up the pieces and get on with his life, here he is in trouble with the law again. This poor guy might well be the unluckiest human on earth.
First he's framed for his wife's murder. I still remember that that glove didn't fit. When I saw that powerful demonstration, that poor guy struggling to slip a glove on his allegedly blood-stained hand, it wrapped the case up for me. And now he simply goes to retrieve his rightful belongings and wham - out of the blue - he gets arrested.
So what if he brought along some heat, as we say on the streets. Sometimes the man needs a little back up (picture my fist raised in the air at this point).
Anyway, O.J. is back in the big house, although technically, I guess at this point he's in the little house in back of the big house, since he hasn't been sentenced.
I guess I really shouldn't be all that worried. His lawyer has publicly said he's innocent and, well, I guess that pretty much settles that. But still, justice can be so blind sometimes and, often color blind as well, if you get my drift.
I do have a theory I'd like to run by you, and before you quickly dismiss this as the ramblings of an amateur, let me remind you that I have sat through 80% of several Law and Order marathons on the USA Network. Now that I have your attention, here goes:
You know they said there's an unidentified fourth suspect (or maybe fifth, I'm not keeping score here)? Well, do you suppose that this unidentified guy could possibly be Fred Goldman? Now, play along with me here. Fred stands a lot to gain over this whole deal. It seems a little too convenient that the very day Fred's new book, written by O.J. comes out, O.J. goes and pulls a stunt like this.
I mean, let's think about it. O.J. Simpson was a great athlete, but he's no rocket scientist. He not even a Fred Goldman. I've seen Fred on TV. He's smart. He's clever. Even if he wasn't in the hotel room with O.J., I'm pretty willing to bet he put the bug in O.J.'s ear to go get his stuff.
Sales of O.J.'s make-believe confession are through the roof and every penny goes to the Goldmans. So who really stands the most to gain by putting O.J. back on TV? O.J.? I don't think so. Even if he'd pulled the heist off, all he would have gotten were things he owned in the first place.
But now that Fox TV has predictably fallen in love with this new O.J. story, it's like a 24 hour infomercial for the book...Fred's book, if you will. While I'm on this subject, let me just say that it's a good thing another terrorist attack didn't occur this weekend, because if you're tuned into Fox News, you'd have never known about it. Greta is so stunned over O.J.'s arrest, she even came in to work Sunday night. That's how big this whole thing is on an international level.
But back to the subject at hand...when will this evil man be stopped? Fred Goldman, I mean. Hasn't he done enough damage to the Simpson family. He wasn't satisfied that a jury of 12 intelligent, impartial men and women found O.J. not guilty. No. He had to run out and buy a civil judgement against Simpson.
Now, he's using this poor murderer as a pawn in his evil scheme aimed solely at self aggrandizement. If you ask me, it's Fred Goldman who should be behind bars.
Oh yeah, that's right. You didn't ask me, did you? Okay, well, let me wrap things up. This is just an opinion. Maybe you agree. Then again, there's a slight chance you disagree with me. And, when you think about it...isn't that what makes this country so great...this, and the fact that we have a 24-hour-a-day network devoted exclusively to O.J. Simpson.
First he's framed for his wife's murder. I still remember that that glove didn't fit. When I saw that powerful demonstration, that poor guy struggling to slip a glove on his allegedly blood-stained hand, it wrapped the case up for me. And now he simply goes to retrieve his rightful belongings and wham - out of the blue - he gets arrested.
So what if he brought along some heat, as we say on the streets. Sometimes the man needs a little back up (picture my fist raised in the air at this point).
Anyway, O.J. is back in the big house, although technically, I guess at this point he's in the little house in back of the big house, since he hasn't been sentenced.
I guess I really shouldn't be all that worried. His lawyer has publicly said he's innocent and, well, I guess that pretty much settles that. But still, justice can be so blind sometimes and, often color blind as well, if you get my drift.
I do have a theory I'd like to run by you, and before you quickly dismiss this as the ramblings of an amateur, let me remind you that I have sat through 80% of several Law and Order marathons on the USA Network. Now that I have your attention, here goes:
You know they said there's an unidentified fourth suspect (or maybe fifth, I'm not keeping score here)? Well, do you suppose that this unidentified guy could possibly be Fred Goldman? Now, play along with me here. Fred stands a lot to gain over this whole deal. It seems a little too convenient that the very day Fred's new book, written by O.J. comes out, O.J. goes and pulls a stunt like this.
I mean, let's think about it. O.J. Simpson was a great athlete, but he's no rocket scientist. He not even a Fred Goldman. I've seen Fred on TV. He's smart. He's clever. Even if he wasn't in the hotel room with O.J., I'm pretty willing to bet he put the bug in O.J.'s ear to go get his stuff.
Sales of O.J.'s make-believe confession are through the roof and every penny goes to the Goldmans. So who really stands the most to gain by putting O.J. back on TV? O.J.? I don't think so. Even if he'd pulled the heist off, all he would have gotten were things he owned in the first place.
But now that Fox TV has predictably fallen in love with this new O.J. story, it's like a 24 hour infomercial for the book...Fred's book, if you will. While I'm on this subject, let me just say that it's a good thing another terrorist attack didn't occur this weekend, because if you're tuned into Fox News, you'd have never known about it. Greta is so stunned over O.J.'s arrest, she even came in to work Sunday night. That's how big this whole thing is on an international level.
But back to the subject at hand...when will this evil man be stopped? Fred Goldman, I mean. Hasn't he done enough damage to the Simpson family. He wasn't satisfied that a jury of 12 intelligent, impartial men and women found O.J. not guilty. No. He had to run out and buy a civil judgement against Simpson.
Now, he's using this poor murderer as a pawn in his evil scheme aimed solely at self aggrandizement. If you ask me, it's Fred Goldman who should be behind bars.
Oh yeah, that's right. You didn't ask me, did you? Okay, well, let me wrap things up. This is just an opinion. Maybe you agree. Then again, there's a slight chance you disagree with me. And, when you think about it...isn't that what makes this country so great...this, and the fact that we have a 24-hour-a-day network devoted exclusively to O.J. Simpson.
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