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posted by martyb on Friday August 03 2018, @09:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the think-of-the-children's...-mother dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The US has a shameful record when it comes to caring for its moms. As Ars has reported before, the rate of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth is higher—much higher—than in any other developed country. By some estimates, mothers die in the US at a rate six-times that seen in Italy and three-times the rate in the UK, for instance. And of those that survive, tens of thousands suffer devastating injuries and near-death experiences each year.

Nevertheless, health researchers, hospital organizations, policy makers, and state task forces have been working to understand and reverse the horrific numbers—often doing so with limited resources and reliance on volunteers. While reports have offered glimpses of the problem, a new investigation by USA Today provides one of the sharpest pictures yet.

Many of the pregnant women and mothers who suffer and die in this country do so from easily preventable, common complications—and hospitals know exactly what safety features and practices are needed to spare mothers' lives and suffering, they just aren't using them. Women are left to bleed to death because doctors don't bother monitoring blood loss. Women suffer strokes and seizures and even die because doctors and nurses fail to treat their high blood pressure in time. The bottom line is stunning, simple negligence.

[...] While high blood pressure is one of the top causes of maternal deaths and complications, experts estimate that up to 60 percent of hypertensive deaths are preventable.

Hemorrhaging is another common but easily treatable complication. Women can bleed to death in as little as five minutes during childbirth. Yet experts estimate that 90 percent of maternal deaths from extreme blood loss are preventable. Such strategies to avoid harms are simple things, like weighing bloody pads to monitor blood loss (not relying on inaccurate visual estimates), having medications and supplies to curb blood loss readily available in a mobile cart, and responding promptly to signs of trouble.

Such simple steps have been recommended by experts for years. But in interviews with USA Today, many hospitals admitted they weren't following guidelines.

To put the data in real terms, USA Todaytold the story of 24-year-old Ali Lowry, who bled internally for hours after delivering by Cesarean section in an Ohio hospital in 2013. Her blood pressure registered at alarmingly low levels—52/26, 57/25, 56/24, 59/27—for more than three hours before staff responded. By the time she was airlifted to another hospital for life-saving surgery, her heart had stopped and she needed a hysterectomy. She eventually settled a lawsuit with her doctor and the hospital, which denied wrongdoing.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @05:49PM (13 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @05:49PM (#716819)

    Governmental regulation makes such competition unlikely.

    I'll take Freedom over your Paternalism, thanks.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @06:33PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @06:33PM (#716851)

    Take a look around you. Everything you see is contoured by the elite who own 80% of everything, and your "competition" concept is laughably naive. Git educated son.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @06:56PM (11 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @06:56PM (#716888)

      The point is to have a culture and a legal framework in place that allows for at least the possibility of competition.

      Under such a system, it doesn't matter if control over society's resources collects under a few elite; those few will have proven themselves good stewards of society's resources. The same can never be said of an organization that commandeers stewardship at the point of a gun.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @07:47PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @07:47PM (#716933)

        Ah, so then we can have a one world government that is proven to generate philosopher-kings. Perhaps even kings with healing hands who are angelic in nature! These wise angels governing over us would also gladly allow alternatives to flourish, and it would never occur to their pure hearts to use anti-competitive tactics to shut down competition.

        It's almost as though somebody has already analyzed this argument before.... It's like something that came up a few episodes ago on the hit Netflix series SoylentNews: Of Men and Angels.

      • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @09:41PM (9 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @09:41PM (#716987)

        That is what we have now genius. Technically if you can secure the funding you are able to create just about any business you'd like. You're 100% free to do so, just find the $millions to even get on the same level as your competition. Sadly this system also allows for the shady few assholes to corner markets and do lots of shady shit to make you go under. That is the result of your "possibility of competition". Technically it is true, but in reality that competition you so value becomes collusion and pseudo-monopolies.

        The only real way for the average person to compete is to create tax payer funded alternatives, this lets them cut out the rent-seeking profiteering behavior and create more efficient services. However people such as yourself cry foul and support the corrupt POSSIBILITY of competition system we have now. You're so naive it hurts replying to you.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:20AM (8 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:20AM (#717051) Homepage Journal

          The only real way for the average person to compete is to create tax payer funded alternatives...

          You have an extremely limited mind.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:09AM (3 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:09AM (#717112)

            Or you suck at reading comprehension. Possibly you just glazed over everything else until you saw something you could criticize. My money is on you being too dumb to understand the reality unfolding around you.

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:24AM (2 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:24AM (#717121) Homepage Journal

              Nah, see I have this thing called an "imagination" that I can use to come up with new ideas completely out of the blue. I know it hurts when you first start using your brain but it does get easier after a little bit.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:55AM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:55AM (#717147)

                Maybe it hurt you, that first bout of usage must have created some serious damage that never fully healed.

                #reeeeeeeetard

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:18AM (3 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:18AM (#717116)

            We're waiting for you to propose an alternative that is not tax funded and does not suffer from the inherent contradictions of capitalism.

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:21AM (2 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:21AM (#717119) Homepage Journal

              Sorry, until I see some individual thought from you lot, I'm not pitching in to help on something that isn't my problem. Help yourselves or you get no help from me.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:57AM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:57AM (#717148)

                Can we just settle for no help from you? Safer that way >:D