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"A former soldier cut off two of his gangrene-ridden toes with a pair of tin metal pliers without anesthetic in his living room after becoming frustrated at a six-week delay to being operated on by the National Health Service (NHS)."
[...] "He says he eventually developed gangrene and his doctor said his infected toes would have to be removed. Rather than wait six weeks for the operation, Dibbins took matters into his own hands.
He says the operation, performed without pain killers and in his living room while biting on a rolled up towel, took about an hour. His wife of 40 years was in the house but says she did not want to look.
“Knowing that it would take at least another six weeks to get me in front of a surgeon again, that’s when I bit the bullet and cut off the toes,” Dibbins told the North Devon Journal.
“I did it because it’s what had to be done. My doctor told me my toes were going to kill me."
https://www.rt.com/uk/364152-gangrene-frostbite-toes-cut/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:01PM
From the RT article, sourced from that source of renowned journalism, 'Celeb Starz News' —
He says he then discharged himself from hospital and thought surgeons would call him in a few days to re-book an appointment, but claims they never did.
...
Dibbins says he resorted to treating his own wounds over nine months
So, this guy leaves the hospital without talking to the doctors. Then spends 9 months dicking around "waiting" for the doctors to call him.
And the sum total of the reporting on the story is his own account because the NHS can't violate medical privacy laws.
Are we really going to take what this obvious idiot says at face value?
This is Daily Heil quality stuff. Oh, surprise! [dailymail.co.uk]
Come on editors. I won't fault you for posting 'off-topic' or 'political' stories because no topic should be off limits. But is there no minimum level of journalistic trustworthiness?
Is Soylent becoming a supermarket tabloid?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:23PM
Even assuming everything you say is the unvarnished truth, and a totally reliable representation of the facts at hand ...
... they didn't call? They didn't suggest a follow-up appointment? They didn't check to see if there were side-effects?
"Oh, good morning mister ... Dibbins. Yes, I'm just calling in regard to your wounds on your ... toes, is that right? Right, so you checked yourself out of the hospital, was everything taken care of? Oh, it wasn't? Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that, can we arrange for an examination, at least with a triage nurse to see if there might not be a problem we could resolve? How's Q3 of next fiscal year for you?"
Nope.
Not even a phone call.
The best, most charitable interpretation that I can possibly squeeze out of this series of events is that the management of end-to-end health care supposedly trumpeted by the NHS is a festering turd. Even my damn dentist can arrange a postcard suggesting I come in for a cleaning. Someone leaves a hospital and they just carry on with a shrug and without so much as a checkup?
And you think that's the GOOD news?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @12:27AM
> ... they didn't call? They didn't suggest a follow-up appointment? They didn't check to see if there were side-effects?
Who knows? We only have the word of an obviously crazy guy. Nobody else gets to talk because of medical privacy laws.
Everything he says is suspect.
(Score: 2, Funny) by aristarchus on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:32PM
This is Daily Heil quality stuff. Oh, surprise! [dailymail.co.uk]
Is Soylent becoming a supermarket tabloid?
Well, at least it wasn't the Washington Moonie Times, or Brietbard deadguy News!!
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:36PM
There's that, but who amputates because of infection these days? It's been decades since that was medically necessary, but it still happens because quacks don't know how to properly kill the bacteria.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:08PM
From what little I could gather from the incoherent rambling, he apparently has poorly controlled diabetes bad enough that he is up for a below the knee amputation anyway, which would take care of the toes as well. If his circulation is that badly damaged, antibiotic treatment would be futile.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:52AM
From what I understand, amputation is a common occurrence with diabetics. Something about the immune system going bad that I'm either not sober enough or smart enough to grasp. A rather large CS professor that I took classes from took a few months off some 10 years ago due to an infection in a toe resulting in such an amputation.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Sunday October 30 2016, @07:22AM
As I understand it, the cause is not well understood. For a long time the leading theory was that the excess blood glucose itself caused nerve and capillary damage. Now, the idea that the same immune malfunction that destroyed the beta cells in the first place might also attack the lining of the blood vessels is gaining ground.
The conventional wisdom was that tightly controlling glucose levels would prevent amputations. However, since that is not proving out even now that we can control levels very closely with a pump, the immune theory is gaining ground.
In any event, the guy in TFA was supposed to have his lower right leg amputated. If his toes condition was diabetic related, it would be dry gangrene which moves slowly and doesn't invade healthy tissue. If he had done nothing, they would have literally dropped off on their own. Antibiotics wouldn't have changed anything.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:08PM
Amputation in diabetics is usually a matter of circulation and nerve damage.
Basically, if you've got pain insensitivity you're more likely to hurt yourself without knowing that you've hurt yourself, so you're less likely to clean the wound or even know it's there. That's one of the main reasons that diabetics are encouraged to come in regularly to have their feet examined by doctors for things like that.
To add insult to injury, diabetics often times have circulation problems which means that if there is an infected wound, the body has less of a chance of being able to fight it off or remove the buildup of puss and whatnot that results from the blood cells killing the bacteria.
But, amputating because of an infection is something that shouldn't happen anymore because the techniques necessary to save even extremely infected limbs has been around for decades now and is less expensive than the cost of amputation.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:04PM
Nope, I've seen pictures of those kinds of infections and amputation isn't usually necessary unless there's more than just a massive infection. If a 2nd world country like Georgia doesn't need to amputate for that, then I'm not sure why a developed place like Britain would still be doing it.
The only reasons to amputate a limb are because the vascular system, bones or nervous system has become so damaged that the limb no longer functions. Basically, if you haven't got adequate bloodflow the tissue will die, infection or no infection. And if it no longer has connections back to the brain, it's pretty much inevitable that something will happen to require amputation.
The pictures tend to be rather gruesome, but I've seen feet that were black with infection that were ultimately saved through appropriate treatment. Basically they cut the foot open and slather a mixture of phages into the wound and let it drain. In most cases the amputation isn't necessary.
The worst thing about it is that the only reason that treatment isn't available in the UK is that it can't pass the necessary drug trials fast enough to be approved. You use a different strain on each infection and those would have to be independently approved.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:41PM
I have seen phage therapy and it does look promising for infections. However, in diabetes the problem is generally loss of circulation due to damage to the blood vessels and nerve damage. Frostbite is similar It is not not an infectious process.
Diabetic ulcers might be helped by hyperbaric oxygen, but dry gangrene means the disease process is too far along for that.
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:58PM
I dunno about this particular AC or this story but I know I absolutely do intentionally submit bad articles sometimes just so we can have fun ripping on them occasionally. We're (all of us, staff and non) not here to curate what's good and what's bad in the news but to discuss what's out there being said. Like we're weighted towards science and tech but not exclusive, we like to be weighted towards well researched and written stories but the bad ones need talking about as well so folks can be witness to the suckness of them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @12:24AM
What's the point of getting worked up over a lie?
There is plenty of legit absurdity in the world, why submit fake absurdity?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 30 2016, @12:53AM
Strong word, lie. You got something in particular in mind and evidence to back up your claim or are you just talking shit?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @01:31AM
This story, duh.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 30 2016, @02:14AM
Be specific. What's untrue?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday October 30 2016, @02:21AM
I'm weighted more towards the middle, but I just need exercise! :)
Anywho, I like a variety of stories: I don't care for something, I don't read something.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Capt. Obvious on Sunday October 30 2016, @04:43AM
I'm responding assuming you either are staff, or are somehow speaking for them/known them.
No. I'm here to discuss stuff that is happening. I'm here to discuss new technical discoveries. I'm even here to discuss different divides in base modes of thinking (e.g. liberal/conservative, osx/linux/windows, etc.) I'm not here to discuss easily disproven rumors, clickbait, etc.
Curation is a vital part of developing a set of news stories I want to engage in. Something is not news just 'because it is being said". Something is not news just because news agencies are covering it. Frankly, there are better sources of echo chamber like news (e.g. cable).
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 30 2016, @10:29AM
Which is exactly why I sub the occasional shit story. I want us to rip on bad journalism instead of letting it slide on by unremarked as if we approve of it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Monday October 31 2016, @01:17AM
Nowhere was I aware that "ripping on journalism" is part of this site's expected outcomes. If that's the case, it should be explicitly marked as such, because I was confused by it, and I'm pretty smart. I highly recommend that that use be either clearly flagged as such or pushed to a different site. Because, as of now, it's like being "ironically racist". I cannot tell the difference, and am going to treat you accordingly. That is, far from using the power of SN to condemn something (which I only was aware of because it was on SN), you've soiled SN's reputation in my mind./p.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 31 2016, @02:23AM
We've had promoting good journalism as a founding principle since forever. Part of that is necessarily pointing out bad journalism for contrast.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Monday October 31 2016, @04:31AM
You didn't point it out, you merely included it in with other stories. And I don't believe its necessary to refer to bad journalism on invented topics. There's enough on important topics.
(Score: 2, Touché) by fritsd on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:59PM
These are the closest attempts to this story I could get, using the Daily Mail-o-matic headline generator [qwghlm.co.uk]:
- will political correctness give taxpayers' money diabetes?
- will feminism give hard-working families diabetes?
- will lesbians give pensioners diabetes?
Yeah, yeah, I'll go to bed now...