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News & ArtsWednesday, September 2, 2009
Chow / ??!! Fat Chance: The Follow-up
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 4:13 PM
Remember Jake, the college student asking for online donations to pay for his gastric bypass surgery?
Seattle's Swedish Medical Center is giving him the surgery for free. Swedish says Jake qualified for their charity care program, which, as a nonprofit, is part of their mission.
7
Good for Jake. He sounded pretty motivated to change things, so maybe this will be a turnaround for him. And good on Swedish.
8
That is one nice big drag queen kid. And how 'bout that Swedish PR department! Reminds me that KUOW did a good report on local charity care. Since I just had coffee, lemme tell ya.
Ever since the feds gave up requiring hospitals to provide substantial amounts of charity care in exchange for nonprofit tax status, the gold standard has dropped to 2.5 percent of overall care for a nonprofit such as Swedish. In our state, only three hospitals recently managed 2 percent, all of them Catholic. Swedish's charity care was 1.5 percent in 2007, while Virginia Mason's was only half that.
So Swedish has promised the kid a good bite of their very small charity pie.
Ever since the feds gave up requiring hospitals to provide substantial amounts of charity care in exchange for nonprofit tax status, the gold standard has dropped to 2.5 percent of overall care for a nonprofit such as Swedish. In our state, only three hospitals recently managed 2 percent, all of them Catholic. Swedish's charity care was 1.5 percent in 2007, while Virginia Mason's was only half that.
So Swedish has promised the kid a good bite of their very small charity pie.
12
Why did you post this in the "Chow" section? Treat this like the medical condition it is. You have NO idea why he is at the weight he is.
15
Fuck me, and you wonder why healthcare costs are so high that fat fuckers who can't control their eating expect insurer/public/charity to shell out and get their stomachs stapled for them.
Maybe he should get his mouth stapled shut. I could do it for under a buck and I can guarantee fat boy would think twice about stuffing ding dongs in there after I'm done with him.
Maybe he should get his mouth stapled shut. I could do it for under a buck and I can guarantee fat boy would think twice about stuffing ding dongs in there after I'm done with him.
17
$500 says that we won't hear a peep if he:
1) dies on the table or within the first year from complications (which is what happens to nearly 4% of gastric bypass patients... compare that to the around 1% who die within the first year after a triple coronary bypass)
2) when he remains at least 400lbs and still has all the issues he has now
3) when in 5 years he starts putting the weight back on anyway because the body adjusts to lower food intake by storing fat at the expense of creating muscle, because it thinks it is in a famine
4) when he develops nutritional deficiencies, such as scurvy, pellagra, or rickets, or when he starts losing his hair because thats what happens to some anorexics (which is ALL this is, surgically induced anorexia), or when he is forced to wear wrist braces for the rest of his life because the slightest little bump will cause your bones to shatter due to brittle bone disease...
If anyone actually cared about this poor boy at all, they would suggest he try living for a year on no more than three cups of food a day (thats 24 ounces). At least then his anorexia will be curable, rather than permanent.
1) dies on the table or within the first year from complications (which is what happens to nearly 4% of gastric bypass patients... compare that to the around 1% who die within the first year after a triple coronary bypass)
2) when he remains at least 400lbs and still has all the issues he has now
3) when in 5 years he starts putting the weight back on anyway because the body adjusts to lower food intake by storing fat at the expense of creating muscle, because it thinks it is in a famine
4) when he develops nutritional deficiencies, such as scurvy, pellagra, or rickets, or when he starts losing his hair because thats what happens to some anorexics (which is ALL this is, surgically induced anorexia), or when he is forced to wear wrist braces for the rest of his life because the slightest little bump will cause your bones to shatter due to brittle bone disease...
If anyone actually cared about this poor boy at all, they would suggest he try living for a year on no more than three cups of food a day (thats 24 ounces). At least then his anorexia will be curable, rather than permanent.
18
@17 -- Lemme guess: You're fat, right?
Since you are obese, I am sure you have investigated the longterm problems associated with fatness. Surgeries like he is requesting have been found to be less dangerous than maintaining the excess weight.
PS: I lost 80 pounds without surgery and have maintained it for 6 years....It is a daily struggle.
Since you are obese, I am sure you have investigated the longterm problems associated with fatness. Surgeries like he is requesting have been found to be less dangerous than maintaining the excess weight.
PS: I lost 80 pounds without surgery and have maintained it for 6 years....It is a daily struggle.
19
I have thought about bypass surgery myself in the past, but then I think: You are limited in what you can eat and if you mess up, you could die. (And yes, there are health risks to obesity.) So, why not just eat better, wouldn't that be cheaper (you can still find some fruits and veggies for under $1/pound and some not-lean but not-unwholesome meat for under $1/pound) than the surgery and less likely to be harmful, since it's done naturally? So, I ate smaller meals and more often, food that was much closer to its natural state and walked and walked and walked and found that I didn't need surgery after all.
Well, I'm still not anywhere close to an ideal weight, but even while being pregnant I have managed to not gain any weight (which is okay for me, since I started high) (and gives me hope that I can keep losing once done with this baby).
Well, I'm still not anywhere close to an ideal weight, but even while being pregnant I have managed to not gain any weight (which is okay for me, since I started high) (and gives me hope that I can keep losing once done with this baby).
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