The cost of saving a life

in hospital varies enormously but I had reason to do some rough calculations yesterday.

"Computer S...." phoned me yesterday. He is the morbidly obese man I mentioned some days ago. 

He had already spoken to Middle Cat. Middle Cat had moved things along a little. She had spoken at length to a member of the medical team. (Whether this should have happened or not is dubious. She has been his physiotherapist in the past and she told them this but she has no actual role in his current treatment. I suspect it was desperation which made them talk to her and try to find out more.)

S... called me after that and I have sought his permission to say something here. He has been in hospital for too long now. He is taking up a very rare private room in a public hospital. The reason for this is that he is so obese he cannot fit into a normal hospital bed in a normal ward. The little cubicles on wards are simply too small. He weighed 198kg when he went in. Over the last three weeks he has managed to lose 14kg. It is not nearly enough. 

S....has multiple medical issues. He is now on fourteen different medications. (I wonder how these are interacting.) He still cannot go to the bathroom unaided as he has a stress fracture in one foot - brought on by his obesity.  Despite that they suggested he might go home today...and then on Friday. 

Yes, they could send him home but he will need help. Middle Cat and I are not offering right now. There are several reasons for this. One is that we don't really have the ability or time to do what is needed. Another is that we think he needs to really have to face his issues. A third is that we believe it is the role of the medical and allied professions to work on this. It will be all too easy to send him home with some sort of minimal "care package" and just hope things sort themselves out.

They won't. While I was talking to him the afternoon tea trolley arrived. I know, having seen it many times, you can get a cup of tea or coffee or something we call "Milo" - a sort of chocolate milk drink. You can also have biscuits or fruit.  I could hear what S... was asking for of course. It was the Milo and a banana because there were no biscuits left. He could have had tea or coffee (he drinks both) and an apple or a mandarin - both of which were also offered. The Milo is sugar laden. Bananas are good food of course - but not if he supposed to be losing weight. I doubt he has really lost any actual body fat, just some of the excess fluid which has accumulated due to his poor kidney function. 

I wonder what the hospital has been doing about all this if anything. Perhaps they have just given up? 

When he goes home he can eat whatever he likes of course. His diet is not good. If he manages to get himself to the supermarket he will continue with old habits even when he knows he should not. It is very hard to change those things. If someone else does the shopping for him he is going to crave those things he should not have and he knows he should not have.

Somehow I don't think all our suggestions like having Meals on Wheels (for which he would be eligible in the short term) are going to work. His current hospital stay has cost the taxpayer close on $200,000 minimum but it will be wasted if there is no long term follow up and his cooperation. I don't think it is going to happen and I am wondering what it would cost to save a life in these circumstances.