The Future of Mastectomies...

From a nurse's perspective:

I'll never forget the look in my patient's eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the drains, new exercises and no breast. I remember begging the doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies. So there I sat with my patients, giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet 'Thank You' they muttered.

A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important. Please take the time and do it really quickly! Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you're receiving this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to this website and vote on this issue and that you will recruit others to lend their support to this vital cause.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy', where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their Web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on.

PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the Web site below. You need not give more than your name, e-mail, and zip code number.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php

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This bill is in Congress as HR 119 and S459

AMA Letter to Representative Rosa DeLauro Supporting HR 536, the "Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2001"

May 3, 2001

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro

U.S. House of Representatives

2262 Rayburn House Office Bldg.

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative DeLauro:

On behalf of the American Medical Association (AMA), I am writing to express our appreciation for your introduction of H.R. 536, "Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2001." The AMA applauds this bipartisan effort aimed at providing coverage for the reasonable treatment of breast cancer.

Your bill focuses on the fundamental concept that medical decisions should be made by patients and their physicians, rather than by insurers. The AMA feels that decisions regarding medical matters, including a patient’s length of stay in a hospital, must reside with patients and physicians. Moreover, decisions impacting an individual patient must be determined by the specific circumstances affecting that patient. We believe that H.R. 536 meets these objectives.

The AMA will continue to work to ensure that appropriate medical decision making is left in the hands of physicians in consultation with their patients.

Respectfully,

E. Ratcliffe Anderson, Jr., MD

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Of course, that was in 2001. The bill was introduced four times (199, 2001, 2003, and 2005) and languished in Congress every time. Online petitions usually don't get very far, as it is impossible to verify the signature of the signers. I think that petitions may have some usefulness in addition to email, telephone calls, snail mail, faxes, and presenting questions about the bill at campaign events, in that they can bring a cause to light. Remember thought, I did a post not long ago about how people will sign petitions not knowing much about the cause.