Question

Illness and the Uninsured

Evelyn (Eve) O’Conner, 30, has been a graduate student at a prestigious state school on the West Coast, studying for her master's degree in Health Psychology. She has attended school part-time because she must also work and allow enough time for all the hours of fieldwork mandated by her program. Due to a chronic health condition, Eve must be cautious about not overworking or overstressing herself, another reason for not attending school full-time. As a junior in high school, Eve was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. While there is no cure for Crohn's, there are several medications and life style modifications that can keep the disease in remission the majority of the time. It is normal for patients to experience cycles of remission and relapse and to go through the periods of flare-up with relatively few severe consequences. Without proper care, however, patients are more likely to experience flareups. The more severe and the more frequent the flare-ups, the higher the chances that the patient will require surgery because of permanent damage to the intestinal tract. Until a few years ago, Eve had only experienced a few minor flare-ups of her disease. She had taken control of her health from the time of her diagnosis and was able to keep herself relatively healthy by seeing her Crohn's specialist regularly, taking the necessary medications, eating healthily, and exercising frequently. Since graduating from college, however, Eve's health has been declining. No longer covered under her father's PPO (preferred provider organization) health insurance, she stopped going for regular check-ups with her IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) doctor and could rarely afford the out-of-pocket expenses for medications. She had been able to continue her healthy eating habits and activity level while living at home, but since starting graduate school and moving away from home, that has not been the case. Time and money constraints do not allow Eve to properly care for herself, and the stresses of school and her disease have contributed to her worsening flareups. In the past year she has been experiencing shorter and shorter periods of remission followed by longer periods of relapse. Unable to continue at the same pace, last month Eve had to take a leave of absence from school, so that she could continue her job as a waitress and support herself. Last week, Eve began to experience excruciating lower back pain, chills, fever, malaise, and fatigue. Eve had suspected kidney stones as this was a periodic occurrence; she had developed kidney stones in the past and assumed that these would pass just as the others had. She resisted going to the doctor because of her lack of health insurance. While it is not unusual for patients with Crohn's disease to develop kidney stones, because of Eve's severe flare-ups, her body was so dehydrated and malnourished that the stones couldn't pass and only grew larger. She had eventually come to the point of being unable to eat or drink anything. When her friends saw how rapidly she was declining they stepped in and brought her to the emergency room where routine blood and urine tests were done, and an abdominal x-ray was ordered. Based on her symptoms and health history, dehydration was suspected and nurses immediately started Eve on IV fluids while they waited for all the test results to come in. Eventually, doctors determined that Eve needed to be admitted. Not only was she dehydrated, but she was also severely malnourished. In addition, she had two very large kidney stones, which had caused an infection. Once she was admitted, nurses continued the IV fluids, started Eve on IV antibiotics, and inserted an NG (nasogastric) feeding tube. Eve spent five days in the hospital until doctors were convinced that she could keep enough food and fluid in her system to remain sufficiently nourished. It was no mystery to Eve why this crisis happened; she knew as well as the doctors that she needed to start taking her Crohn's medications again. She was discharged with strict instructions to follow up with her Crohn's specialist within the next few days and to start treatment accordingly. The nurses at the hospital also set up a pre-op appointment for surgery to remove the kidney stones. Because of the size and location of the stones, and the infection, the stones must be removed by percutaneous nephrolithotomy. In this procedure, a surgeon would make a small incision in Eve's back, insert a hollow tube into her kidney, and remove the stones through the tube. Doctors had wanted to do the surgery while she was in the hospital, but Eve refused, knowing that she could not afford to pay for the surgery. While the procedure is relatively minor, it does require anesthesia and a hospital stay of two or three days. It also requires a catheter be inserted into the kidney to allow it to drain and heal. Without health insurance, Eve knew that covering the costs would be impossible, and she chose to leave AMA (against medical advice) to take some time to figure out a plan and decide what options were available to her, if any. As she had already taken a leave of absence from school, given her current condition, Eve decided to take some time off work and go home to stay with her family for a while. Although Eve is close to her family, she has not told them about recent occurrences, and they have no idea that she spent several days in the hospital. Eve's father recently lost his job, and her mom has only been able to find part-time work. They have been struggling for the past eight months to make ends meet, trying to raise their two other children on a part-time salary without any benefits. Eve has been aware of the situation, and for that reason, has not wanted to bother her family with her situation. With nowhere else to turn, however, she now decides to go home to focus on recovering and figuring out what do from here.

Reflection Questions

1. What is the responsibility of Eve’s Crohn's disease specialist?

2. What is the hospital's ethical obligation in this situation? Could the hospital have done anything differently?

3. Do Eve's friends have an ethical obligation to inform her parents, the physicians, or the hospital staff about Eve's circumstances?

4. Do we as a society have an ethical obligation to provide access to health care to Eve and persons in her situation? Expert Answer

Answer 1

ANS 1: In this senerio Eve's Chrohn's disese specialist could have discussed the reason for being unregular for follow-up (however it is right of the client not to disclose or discontinue treatment).If brought to notice about her crisis,her specialist could have made her aware about the health care group working on Crohn's clients or social workers who could extend help.

ANS 2: The hospital ethical obligation as i note was to provide explaination and risk involved in her condition and to take consent for treatment .

The hospital could have discussed her matter with her parents/guardian to discuss her condition and treatment available for her and discuss her condition to her specialist to work out whats best for her.

ANS 3: In my opinion it could have been for the betterment if they had disclosed about Eve's circumstances to the concern people as they can work out together about the treatment.

ANS 4: Giving my opinion ,Cetainly we do,however it depends upon Eve's wish to disclose her circumstances in her own consent because thats the basic and first step .For instances in this senerio she wished to have kept things to herself for which the condition went out of hand.Therefore if at all she seeks for help then we as a society have an ethical obligation to provide access to health care to Eve and persons in her situation.