Sunday, June 24, 2012

UK: Doctors' strike means cancelled brain surgery for baby

Why socialized medicine sucks:

A baby with a condition that could leave him with brain damage had an operation cancelled because of the doctors’ strike.

Leon Gough, suffers from craniosynostosis, which caused his skull to fuse prematurely, leaving no room for his brain to develop.

Doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital warned his parents, Sharon Mitchell and John Gough, that if the ten-hour operation to cut holes in his skull was not carried out before he was six months old, he risked brain damage.

A first operation on June 12 was cancelled because of an emergency, but the second date was scheduled for Thursday – the day of the strike – and this was also scrapped.