Another HPSP success story

[IgD]

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A colleage and good friend of mine developed a form of head and neck cancer while during the first year of his GMO tour. He was taken off the ship and underwent a neck dissection. He was then permitted to enter residency. Just over a year into residency, he developed a painful recurrence of the cancer at the base of his tongue. He had to undergo a second more extensive neck dissection. This time the Navy ENTs took a piece of muscle from his forearm and replaced part of his tongue with it. My friend then had radiation treatments. He had to have some of his teeth removed and get fed through a tube for a few months.

Every part of the Navy rallied around this guy and supported him. He was given basically a sabbatical year for research and to recover. All the other physicians in the department worked hard to pick up his patient load. The military paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of health care costs. For example he must have had a dozen MRI's. My friend did not pay a dime for his treatment.

Presently, my friend has pretty much fully recovered. He speaks clearly. He and his wife recently had their first child. He also recently became board certified. (The Navy paid $5000 for that too). Unofficially he is off the table for deployments and will remain at the big Navy hospital where he can get periodic follow-up care with ENT and serial MRIs for a few years.

Could and would a civilian residency program do that for you?

Because of his cancer, he would have a lot of trouble getting any form of life insurance or health insurance as a civlian. He gets it all from the Navy.

 

[militarymd]

This will be insensitive, but it needs to be said.

So, he is essentially a civilian reject that will have a home in the Navy, holding a position but not really....non-deployable, means all his colleagues will have to take up the slack.....taking a paycheck without the full responsibilities of that paycheck....

Great for him, but how is this great for the Navy or anyone else in the Navy.

 

[Homunculus]

This will be insensitive, but it needs to be said.

So, he is essentially a civilian reject that will have a home in the Navy, holding a position but not really....non-deployable, means all his colleagues will have to take up the slack.....taking a paycheck without the full responsibilities of that paycheck....

Great for him, but how is this great for the Navy or anyone else in the Navy.

milmd-- always there to give the negative spin on things.

do you really think *anyone* in the navy would want to switch places with this guy to get his cush non-deployable responsibility free life?? seriously, your bitterness toward the military is altering your viewpoint to an extreme.

"Great for him"??? you gotta be f-ing kidding me. As if he prefers this over being deployable and healthy and done wiht his residency.

--your friendly neighborhood disgusted caveman

 

[IgD]

Civilian reject? LOL. He is a board certified specialist with research publications on his CV. He is one of the finest physicians around and carries a full workload at the busiest hospital in the fleet. The truth is he volunteered for a deployment to Iraq and is leaving in a few months.

My friend complained about the pain. The best thing about him however was he never whined about his situation.

 

[Globus P]

milmd-- always there to give the negative spin on things.

do you really think *anyone* in the navy would want to switch places with this guy to get his cush non-deployable responsibility free life?? seriously, your bitterness toward the military is altering your viewpoint to an extreme.

"Great for him"??? you gotta be f-ing kidding me. As if he prefers this over being deployable and healthy and done wiht his residency.

--your friendly neighborhood disgusted caveman

I agree wholeheartedly Caveman! I too am very disgusted with his comments on this physician's condition and outcome.

Unfortunatley I continue to read ex-MilMD's posts, hoping for a small gleem of something constructive and/or positive. Only to be disappointed as he continues with another very negative post. His arguement of all of us being simply niave and blind has worn thin too.

Well I'm back to skipping his posts. Yet reading his posts are like seeing a bad wreck on the highway; I want to look away, but just can't turn away, only to be disgusted and disappointed with what I saw.

 

[militarymd]

I figured and counted on the responses.

No one would trade places for him, but the position he fills goes against the mantra that the Navy chants...."the needs of the Navy comes first"

In his case, and in many exceptions which don't follow and rhyme or reason, "the needs of the Navy/military comes first" when it is convenient to whoever is in charge at the time that the decision is made.

Well, if this fella is deploying, then good for him and good for "the needs of the Navy", and that is the way "it is supposed to be"

"civilian reject" is a harsh phrase that i use on anybody (their fault or not) that would not have survived in the civilian world.....the OP said himself, this person would not have done well in the civlian world.

I call it like I see it. If you don't want candor....keep me on your ignore list.

 

[militarymd]

do you really think *anyone* in the navy would want to switch places with this guy to get his cush non-deployable responsibility free life??
--your friendly neighborhood disgusted caveman

My commentary is on military medicine, not on this poor saps personal situation.

I'm talking about a system that says one thing and does another. The Navy talks about needing every billet to be a deployable billet....They will kick you out for being fat....one of my mentors (awesome physician AND officer) got kicked out at 19 years for being fat.....and they keep this guy?

They talk about doing more with less....how are they accomplishing that by treating and keeping non-deployable physicians....

Like I said...great for him, but military medicine is an awful system.

 

[Globus P]

....keep me on your ignore list.

Yes, will continue to do so.

 

[IgD]

...I call it like I see it...

Denial is a wonderful thing. Is there really an ignore list?

 

[USAFdoc]

A colleage and good friend of mine developed a form of head and neck cancer while during the first year of his GMO tour. He was taken off the ship and underwent a neck dissection. He was then permitted to enter residency. Just over a year into residency, he developed a painful recurrence of the cancer at the base of his tongue. He had to undergo a second more extensive neck dissection. This time the Navy ENTs took a piece of muscle from his forearm and replaced part of his tongue with it. My friend then had radiation treatments. He had to have some of his teeth removed and get fed through a tube for a few months.

Every part of the Navy rallied around this guy and supported him. He was given basically a sabbatical year for research and to recover. All the other physicians in the department worked hard to pick up his patient load. The military paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of health care costs. For example he must have had a dozen MRI's. My friend did not pay a dime for his treatment.

Presently, my friend has pretty much fully recovered. He speaks clearly. He and his wife recently had their first child. He also recently became board certified. (The Navy paid $5000 for that too). Unofficially he is off the table for deployments and will remain at the big Navy hospital where he can get periodic follow-up care with ENT and serial MRIs for a few years.

Could and would a civilian residency program do that for you?

Because of his cancer, he would have a lot of trouble getting any form of life insurance or health insurance as a civlian. He gets it all from the Navy.

What a great story this officer has in terms of making the most of a terrible situation and being a great sorce of inspiration to his comrades. I thank the USNavy for supporting him as well.

I have as negative view of military medicine as anyone, however, military medicine is NOT 100% broken and evil and whatever adjectives you want to use. There still are excellent people in the military and great things the military does (there are ways to consider this a glass half full).
HOWEVER;
there are WAY, WAY, WAY to many ways to consider the "glass half empty".
I am not expecting perfection from a health care system, I am expecting doctors to be given the opportunity to succeed if they are willing to work hard, and what I have seen in the USAF Primary care world is a health care system that is compromised on too many levels (you can read my other entries for details). These "compromises" continue to place patients at risk unnecessarily, burnout staff, and waste taxpayer money.

So, my prayers go out to that Navy doc. I thank God this doc has done so well. My prayers also go out to the future docs and patients of the USAF primary care clinics. God can do what our surgeon General won't.