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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
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Friday August 03 2018, @06:04PM (3 children)
That's probably true except for the "forever" part. One thing that libertarianism fails to acknowledge is finite natural resources.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:49AM (2 children)
You mean like socialism fails to acknowledge finite piles of Other People's Money?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by shortscreen on Saturday August 04 2018, @08:54AM (1 child)
No, I meant like how socialism fails to acknowledge the existence of soulless, self-serving psychopaths who are attracted to the levers and buttons of power.
"Another View of Stalin" which was written by a communist, portrays Stalin as someone who was competent, devoted to the cause, and who ultimately accomplished a lot despite being constantly frustrated by saboteurs, external foes, and political opponents like Trotsky (a sore loser, the Soviet Union's Hillary). But he still got thrown under the bus at the end. So ironically, if you can believe this story it would seem to indicate that the system was pretty fragile and doomed to fail once it lost its great leader. The ambitious types were ready and waiting to take the reins for their own purposes.
Your quip about other people's money must be aimed at a peculiar definition of socialism. Worker control of the means of production doesn't require other people's money.
If you want to talk about growing economic parasites feeding on dwindling supplies of other peoples money, I think you would need to include the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate sector, as well as the military-industrial complex and the government generally.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @10:01PM
It really doesn't matter how you portray one of the world's top five murderers in history.
Sure. I have no issue with including them in the discussion. There's plenty of fucked-up-edness all over the place and nobody gets a free pass on scrutiny.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.