To my US friends:
Apparently you’ve been watching a commercial with a Canadian comparing our health systems.
To hear the Canadian tell it, if it hadn’t been for the Mayo Clinic, she’d be dead.
She’s lying and getting paid to do it, and she is also doing the talk show circuit in the US for PatientsUntiedNow.
 She knows she is lying.
It’s no big deal if a Canadian choses to go to the US for treatment.
Dealing with the fear of a cyst is one thing, lying and shilling is quite another.
She is also suing the Ontario government because she didn’t want to deal with triage and wait.
Her lawsuit however, is about more than her money and her fear.
Her name is Shona Holmes.
This is what she says in the commercial for PatientsUnitedNow:Â
“I am a Canadian citizen, and as my brain tumour [sic] got worse, my government health-care system told me I had to wait six months to see a specialist,” Holmes says in the commercial. “In six months I would have died.”
Buckets at Bouquet of Grey has dug up who is funding her lawsuit against the Ontario government.
She knows she is lying.
The group funding her in Canada knows she is lying.
They dug deep for the US lobby group, Shona Holmes went to the US four years ago.
Shona Holmes was not denied treatment in Canada.
The US group running the commercial (Americans for Prosperity)Â was a lead group in the recent US tax ‘tea parties.’ I’ll get to the Canadian group in a sec.
What is bizarre about her decision to seek treatment in the US is that on her Mayo Clinic testimonial page, she states she flew to Arizona a day after phoning the clinic, then had weeks of tests before surgery to remove a cyst which was possibly threatening her vision.
She had a 50% loss of vision in one eye, 25% in the other, so she obviously wasn’t asymptomatic.
I can appreciate some people would freak out if they were experiencing headaches, dizziness and vision loss from what is called a Rathke’s cleft cyst. Treatment is conservative, they are drained or removed.Â
A Rathke cleft cyst is not a tumour, they are benign.
Shona Holmes did not have cancer.
Death was not knocking at her door.
The mortality rate for a Rathke cleft cyst is zero.
In her own words she admits it took weeks before The Mayo Clinic did surgery.
Within 10 days, Holmes returned to Canada with a confirmed diagnosis — and a growing sense of dread. She needed brain surgery immediately, and the thought of leaving home again was daunting: “Traveling so far from home and being far away from my family was a big deal for me, and then having them go into my brain — this was huge!”
Holmes returned to Mayo Clinic for several weeks of tests, and then got ready for the surgery. This time, her husband, David, was by her side.
By accessing Holmes’ brain through her nose and sinuses, surgeons were able to remove the cyst without a single incision on her face. Holmes was discharged from the hospital four days later, cured of her disease.
Her vision is normal, she has paid a chunk of change for peace of mind, has a mortgage to pay the 97 thousand dollars, noteriety and a lawsuit.
Shona Holmes chose not to wait.
Chose.
Any Canadian with money who wants treatment in the US can go get it.
The Mayo Clinic doctor said:
Their further tests revealed an increase in the size of her cyst over a short period of time as well as progressively worsening vision. “I was concerned that the pressure on Shona’s nervers was causing her to become blind,” says Dr. Patel. “We needed to remove the cyst to save her vision.”
Makes sense.
Would have made sense to whomever the Canadian neurologist and endocrinologist she was given appointments to see.  Made sense to the GP who referred her.
Her decision to go to the Mayo Clinic is not what people are angry about.
She is publicly and willfully lying to US viewers.
The Americans for Prosperity Foundation opposes US healthcare reform, and decided to use a Canadian to peddle their views on the evils of socialist medicine to people who believe our ’socialist’ system is killing us.
It makes sense they’d partner with The Canadian Constitution Foundation to find one.Â
To my Canadian friends:
Shona Homes is suing Ontario to recoup her Mayo Clinic costs.
She is not only suing for cost, she and The Canadian Constitution Foundation are going after Canadian health care.
There isn’t a taxpayer in Canada who would begrudge her treatment, tax payers are not going to be happy about having to fund her lawsuit. The CCF is a registered charity, we’re paying for her challenge to dismantle our healthcare.
Shona Holmes has managed to tick people off on both sides of the border.
Shona Holmes won’t be remembered as a Canadian with a cyst who appreciates The Mayo Clinic.
She won’t be remembered as a shill who got some US face time.
She won’t be remembered for being a patsy for a Canadian fringe group.
She’ll be remembered as a cross border liar.
There is more about the Canadian Constitution Foundation and who is behind the Holmes lawsuit at a creative revolution.
I’m putting The Mayo Clinic testimonial below the fold in case it disappears.
Shona Holmes
Treatment of rare brain cyst restores vision
Shona Holmes
Shona Holmes was in trouble: The list of her symptoms included headaches, sleeplessness, dizziness, low libido and, worst of all, rapidly deteriorating vision. Her family doctor in Canada ordered an MRI, and a brain tumor was detected. But it would take months for her to get on the appointment calendar of a neurologist or endocrinologist in Canada.
“I knew in my gut that I had to see someone and could not wait five to six months,” she says. So she called Mayo Clinic and got an appointment the same day.
For Holmes, a 31-year-old native of Waterdown, Ontario, traveling far from her husband, other family members and friends was difficult. She knew there would be several appointments and a battery of diagnostic tests. But she knew it had to be done. So, flying solo, she headed for Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Once there, her fears were instantly calmed. “I received the most humane treatment of my entire life,” she says. “Everything was wonderful — the ambiance — from my treatments to my first encounter at the check-in registration desk, every physician and nurse, was absolutely out of this world.”
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.
Their further tests revealed an increase in the size of her cyst over a short period of time as well as progressively worsening vision. “I was concerned that the pressure on Shona’s nervers was causing her to become blind,” says Dr. Patel. “We needed to remove the cyst to save her vision.”
No time to waste
Within 10 days, Holmes returned to Canada with a confirmed diagnosis — and a growing sense of dread. She needed brain surgery immediately, and the thought of leaving home again was daunting: “Traveling so far from home and being far away from my family was a big deal for me, and then having them go into my brain — this was huge!”
Holmes returned to Mayo Clinic for several weeks of tests, and then got ready for the surgery. This time, her husband, David, was by her side.
By accessing Holmes’ brain through her nose and sinuses, surgeons were able to remove the cyst without a single incision on her face. Holmes was discharged from the hospital four days later, cured of her disease.
‘There really are no borders’
“I’ve never been sorry for a second,” says Holmes. “And how fortunate I was to have Dr. Patel as my surgeon.”
When she first saw Dr. Patel, Holmes had lost half the vision in her right eye and 25 percent in her left eye. After the surgery, her vision was 100 percent restored.
“Dr. Patel is my hero,” she says. “We laughed, giggled and cried together.” Holmes said she also was comforted by the fact that some of her doctors were Canadian. “It made me realize there really are no borders,” she says.
She’s safely back in Canada now, reunited with family, friends and her golden retriever, Magnum. “It was a big deal leaving home for treatment, and not having that support with me in Arizona,” she says. “But my husband was determined to get me help — and I found it at Mayo.”
One thing that honestly does get mentioned in our debate stateside is that the US serves as a safety valve for Canadian budgetary mistakes; if there is a shortage of doctors in a field creating a backlog, most Canadians are a hour or two’s drive from US hospitals. If I remember the stat correctly, 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US.
If the US has a similar system, we won’t have the US to bail us out of our mistakes.
However, you shouldn’t use trumped-up stories to try and prove your point.
Unfortunately, hyperbole is the stock-in-trade of political activists (i.e. the “tea party” metaphor seems to cast Obama as King George II and Washington D.C. as colonial England) and people often forget to note the difference between spinning the story and lying.
Save the seals. Save the whales. Save the Americans from (*gasp*) government funded health care.
Save the trees….save the animals….
My point? Save all of us from single-minded individuals who can’t think outside the box.
Both countries have acted as each others’ safety valves. Americans used to go to Canada for free treatment to such an extent that tamper-proof healthcards had to be issued to stop it.
We’re missing the point here. Six months! She would have lost her eye sight. That is totally totally unacceptable. I live in Canada and my wife experienced a similar situation years ago. The only difference is we went to Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. I’ll never forgot for the rest of my life what we experienced. Can’t blame the professionals though, its the system!
JJ:
Ms. Holmes lied about having a tumour, we don’t know what else she is lying about, including wait time for an appt with an endocrinologist and/or neurologist.
There is a great deal wrong with Canadian health care, and it is not an us/them issue.
JJ:
If you look at the statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court
she went to her doctor in March, and presented symptomatic.
http://tiny.cc/1yVmg
(She is listed as 43 years of age in the claim)
This is a pre-existing condition.
If she had lived in the US, a health care plan probably wouldn’t have covered treatment, Don’t know how much she would have paid for diagnosis.
It seems in the claim she was diagnosed in Canada and had scheduled treatment.
She was experiencing panic attacks and believed she could die. Permanent loss of vision is listed in the claim as a possibilty.
It is also clear she chose to be re-diagnosed and treated in the US.
It appears from the claim that Canadian specialists were aware of her decision to go to the US.
From March to July/September, she could have lost her vision.
Unless I’m really reading this incorrectly the primary issue needing to be addressed for Ms. Holmes is wait time. Her secondary is reimbursement.
ie: 110. vision loss wouldn’t have been diagnosed.
????
This is not at all what what she is claiming in the US commercials.
It’s okay for her to lie in US commericals and on talk shows four years later?
I had a go on The Shotgun on Global TV’s coverage of the ad last week.
What bothers me now is that Patients United Now should have quoted her as saying “I was going blind”…which is supported by the Mayo diagnosis. The commercial would have still made a striking point.
“I was going to die…” Well, I’d want the U.S. doctors to be backing her up on that…
(I would add that something is fundamentally wrong with a system where you are going blind and are told to wait. We should be able to get faster private treatment… But I can respectfully agree to disgree as that’s another point.)
I don’t disagree there is something fundamentally wrong with a system where you are going blind and have to wait.
Medicine is an art and a science, populated by people with egos.
It services consumers with needs.
People fall through the cracks.
The goal is to improve the system so people don’t go blind waiting.
I wonder if her initial trip to the US hampered her jump to the front of the line. It shouldn’t have, but it could have.
And here’s her website: shonarobertson.com
I don’t get it, people here in the U.S are under the illusion that you get right in to see a Dr. And, thats a load of crap! My Mom’s husband was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer last summer. He had Ins. and I thought Cancer! Well he’s front of the line for sure. No. it was 5 wks before he was seen by a specialist, and another 2 weeks to start Chemo. He’s gone now but, my point is Even if you have an appt with a Dr. you could be waiting an hour. And if you go to the E.R it’s not a stretch to be sitting waiting, for 3 hrs to be seen. Well, unless you come in with something major.
And another thing I don’t understand. Why didn’t Shona Holmes at least go to a closer clinic to where she lived? maybe she wanted to experience some of Arizona’s dry heat. At any rate, the story doesn’t fly with me.
Canadians are often waiting weeks, WEEKS and MONTHS to see an oncologist. This is even before they have a treatment plan for the cancer treatment. I’m Canadian, and this is the truth. People are suffering and dying thanks to uncompassionate waiting lists. The system in Canada needs to change, the sad irony is that too many Canadians are brainwashed from the cradle. They actually believe the system will be there for them in their time of need, sadly, many Canadians also lie through their teeth to “protect” the system.
The Canadian system is best for very, very minor things like stitches, but not for chronic or life threatening illness.
“We’re missing the point here. Six months! She would have lost her eye sight.”
Uh, temporarily. Christ, everyones a doctor now?
Try researching before spouting off ‘facts’.
Machinator:
Public fear and politics is the point.
According to the Mayo Clinic’s patient site she didn’t get immediate treatment there either. The doctors monitored and performed tests “for several weeks”. If her condition had worsened in Canada, I would they would have bumped her up the queue here as well. Those wait times aren’t “set and forget it” dates.
Secondly, wait times are a fact of life in the States too. The key difference is that they are closely guarded by the insurance companies as opposed to put on government websites for all to see. Most Americans are aware of THEIR wait times but don’t see it as a systematic problem. But they are often worse than many public systems (and these are the lucky ones who have insurance.)
Business Week had a story here: The Doctor Will See you in 3 Months
In Canada, in some provinces, people are waiting up to one year to see a specialist for brain surgery, lung disease, etc, so if I had to choose three months versus twelve, I’d go with three any day.
This is an Ontario family’s experience. Many Canadians are waiting a long time to receive their healthcare.
Year-long wait for skull surgery
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/216280
Bene D: You’re right; she would never be covered in the US under any insurance plan under the current US health plan; check what I found: “Beaton had dutifully signed up for individual insurance when she retired from nursing to start a small business. She had never missed a payment, but that didn’t matter. Blue Cross cited two earlier, unrelated conditions that she hadn’t reported to them when signing up–acne & a fast beating heart–and rescinded her policy.”
Here’s the link you can find the above quote.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/profile.html.
Imagine, being turned down for ACNE & fast heartbeat!! Think she would get coverage?
Jill: I don’t where you’re coming from. Everybody I know; anywhere in Canada; if one’s situation is dire, life threatening; one does get to the front of the line. Rathke’s Cleft cyst doesn’t qualify: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/07/31/medicare-ad-exaggeration523.html. There are plenty of other resources you can research this.
I have a friend with non-hodgekin’s lymphoma; he started round 1 of chemotherapy not even a week later.
Also, check this video out: 2 Americans living in Canada because they can’t access any coverage state side for their issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TWuO5dBYjo&feature=channel_page.
I have other sources on this subject.
Jill, I ask you; do you honestly think Shona should jump ahead of some kid with cancer? Or a victim of a drive by shooting?
Do you honestly prefer a health care system that prioritizes socio-economic class as is in the states or by urgency like here in Canada.
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Greetings,
This situation appears to me to be remarkably disgraceful and quite uncouth of her.
Hell is saturated and full of this type of lying deceitful selfish female sinner who is seeking one thing, and that one thing is money $$$.
She loves the money $$$- need I say she is at the root of all evil- her love for the monetary funds.
Well that’s what this appears to be based on what is writ here and seeing that distasteful high-treason political sabotage subterfuge for pure greed and selfishness.
Respectfully yours – Father Howard
Dominus Vobiscum
Amen +++
They’re playing this lying ad on cable this weekend before the election. Not only is it misleading, it’s irrelevant: None of the bills in Congress ever suggested a Canadian-style system where it’s not legal to bribe doctors to take your case ahead of others.
So it lies that she had cancer, and it lies that any lawmaker in the US was even proposing a Canadian-like medical system.