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A group calling itself Patients United Now has been heavily running aniti-healthcare reform ads on our airwaves. The group is actually a front name for the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, a cartel of Right Wing PR mavens best known for hatching a psychotic and ongoing National Global Warming denial campaign (they consider Al Gore the White Devil) and more recently, dropping viral misinformation bombs on the President’s Stimulus package.
Now, the Foundation has focused its attention on defeating Healthcare reform. They are being aided by a seemingly bottomless pit of cash along with a hired pile of human refuse - prefabricated "private citizens" whose paid function is to mask reality with the stench of their unmitigated and poorly rehearsed lies.
The current star of the Insurance Industry cabal is Shona Holmes, a whisky-voiced Toronto woman of ample aggregate and dubious honesty. See TV Spot Here.
According to Ms Holmes, she was diagnosed with a “brain tumor†sometime in 2005. In scores of interviews, she consistently claimed she could not receive timely treatment in Toronto and was forced to seek medical care at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Shona is a wannabe-be poster child for the Worldwide failings of government run Healthcare. She spins a shocking yarn, one that would make Socialists everywhere bow their Public Option heads in shame –
if only her story was true.
Over the 4 years since Ms Holmes’ cyst was removed from the ample cavity between her ears, her condition has worsened. Not her actual physical condition, but rather, the ubiquitously reheard and revised description of her medical odyssey.
Back in the Summer of 2007, the propaganda machine at the Mayo Mayo Clinic decided to print Ms Holme’s human interest story in an internal Clinic publication. Her healthcare horrors served nicely as a double-sided win for Mayo. On one side was the sweet story about the Clinic’s responsiveness to Ms Holme’s plight as well as the Clinic's ample expertise in repairing her medical problem. Secondly, it served as a bonus dig against the growing call for Public Healthcare in the U.S. by painting the Canadian system in a negative light. After all, the mere words "Public Healthcare" are the bane of the usery Private Insurance companies and Hospitals administrators alike. But more interesting was the Mayo Clinic’s choice to reprint the story this Summer, and this time, afford it a prominent berth on their Web site – just in time for the Healthcare reform battle. Yet, the most fascinating information was to be found in the Mayo Clinic’s own description of Ms Holme’s medical condition.
The Clinic wrote:
"Dr. Naresh Patel, neurosurgeon, diagnosed Holmes as having a Rathke's cleft cyst (RCC). The rare, fluid-filled sac grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain and eventually can cause hormone and vision problems. Dr. Patel joined forces with Drs. David W. Dodick, neurologist, and Michael D. Whitaker, endocrinologist, to work on Holmes' case."
Rathke’s Cleft Cyst can indeed cause more serious symptoms if left untreated, but it is generally very treatable through minimally invasive surgery and NOT a “brain tumor†as both Ms Holmes and Right wing hack writers contend. It's a fluid build-up and has nothing to do with cell division as occurs in Tumors.
Additionally, the direness in the retelling of Ms Holmes’ story grew progressively more horrifying after the Presidential election and as the Healthcare battle began to percolate.
Horror stories of waiting non-specific "months" for treatment in Canada soon gave way to claims of four to six month delays (an experience 180 degrees contrary to that of the scores of Canadians I've personally seen or heard quoted on the subject).
Here is a modest sampling of the plethora of Right Wing reportage on our Ms Holmes:
Sep 7, 2007:
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"In spite of these symptoms - and an MRI scan revealing the tumour causing them - Ontario's health system told Shona that she would have to wait four months to see a neurologist and six months to see an endocrinologist."
July 15, 2008:
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"Shona found out that the free health care she was promised came with life threatening strings. She was told that she could not see a specialist for at least six months...six months which, according to the Mayo Doctors, she didn't have the luxury of waiting for."
The tumor claim was no misquote, for on every occasion, Holmes didn’t hesitate to confirm this bogus diagnosis. Obviously, a tumor sounds bad –whereas a cyst, albeit a surgically complex one to excise, sounds like no more than a glorified pimple.
Here’s just one of many examples from Shona’s personal press tour that began anew just as the general election campaign was about to heat up.
July 19, 2008:
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“No one should be forced to travel thousands of miles to obtain accessible good care. Yet that is exactly what I was forced to do after being diagnosed with a brain tumor three years ago.â€
By May of this year, Shona’s tall story was to take another turn for the worse - this time, courtesy of Fox News, and just in time for the shank of the Healthcare debate now raging on the Hill.
Shona had become the star of her own :30 second TV spot, engendered through the combined effort of Wingnut fantasy and Insurance Industry money. Now, Shona was to get her 15 minutes of fame on Fox News, dutifully and dramatically retelling her story for the umpteenth time – but this time with a twist that only Fox News could conjure. As Shona is introduced to Fox viewers, the Chyron reads:
It seems nothing short of “brain cancer†would be sufficient for "Faux News"..
Certainly, no one would confuse a "brain cancer" diagnosis with a pimple!
Poor Shona Holmes – at this rate of deterioration, she’ll be dead by…well…2005.
As a Canadian I'm pretty disgusted by the vicious fabrications told in this ad campaign. My mother had Breast Cancer and they took immediate action. My Grandfather had Alzheimers as well as Emphysema and they gave him first rate care until his death at age 72 after fighting it for 20 years or so.
There are long waits in Canada for the "low priority" surgeries, sure, and the system isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd rather be guaranteed health care than get dropped from my company's private health insurance because my wife contracted leukemia like in this story
Edited, Jul 21st 2009 11:20am by reavenance
