The State of American Healthcare Based on the technology and innovation of the twenty-first century, one would like to think that the American health care system is healthy and always in the best interest of the patients. However, this is not always the case. Susannah Cahalan tells her own story through the eyes of a patient being drastically affected by America’s crippled healthcare system. Upon completion of medical school, most medical doctors will take the Hippocratic Oath, essentially pledging to not knowingly harm patients. Building upon this oath, one thinks they can safely assume that doctors keep up with new technology and discoveries, but this may not always be true Cahalan’s Brain on Fire sheds light on the failing health
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In the book, Susannah Cahalan comes to terms with the disease that tormented and crippled her, but instead of blaming the doctor, blames the system. “In the spring of 2009, I was the 217th person ever to be diagnosed with anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis. Just a year later, that figure had doubled. Now the number is in the thousands. Yet Dr. Bailey, considered one of the best neurologists in the country, had never heard of it. When we live in a time when the rate of misdiagnoses has shown no improvement since the 1930s, the lesson here is that it’s important to always get a second opinion.” In both my mom and Susanah Callahan’s stories, a second opinion could have drastically affected the outcome. Then, the big question comes, “ If it took so long for one of the best hospitals in the world to get to this step, how many other people were going untreated, diagnosed with a mental illness or condemned to a life in a nursing home or a psychiatric ward?” In the twenty-first century, one should not have to worry about going untreated, being misdiagnosed, or being shoved in a psychiatric ward. Diseases need to be understood, and not looked over. There will never be a point where scientists no longer have anything to ponder, thus there should never be a point when medical professions stop informing themselves of the medical and
In the book, Susannah Cahalan comes to terms with the disease that tormented and crippled her, but instead of blaming the doctor, blames the system. “In the spring of 2009, I was the 217th person ever to be diagnosed with anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis. Just a year later, that figure had doubled. Now the number is in the thousands. Yet Dr. Bailey, considered one of the best neurologists in the country, had never heard of it. When we live in a time when the rate of misdiagnoses has shown no improvement since the 1930s, the lesson here is that it’s important to always get a second opinion.” In both my mom and Susanah Callahan’s stories, a second opinion could have drastically affected the outcome. Then, the big question comes, “ If it took so long for one of the best hospitals in the world to get to this step, how many other people were going untreated, diagnosed with a mental illness or condemned to a life in a nursing home or a psychiatric ward?” In the twenty-first century, one should not have to worry about going untreated, being misdiagnosed, or being shoved in a psychiatric ward. Diseases need to be understood, and not looked over. There will never be a point where scientists no longer have anything to ponder, thus there should never be a point when medical professions stop informing themselves of the medical and