I've read and re-read this and her only complaint seems to be that they took a medical history before operating on her.
Admitted lax about maintaining her blood pressure post surgery, (the likely cause of the aortic tear,) and not specific at all about what anyone did wrong, although I think that she's implying that when she went in on the 8th, with some pretty non-specific symptoms, she was given tests that showed noting really wrong at that time and was sent home. Seems like the same care you'd get in the States, unless it was five years ago when she was broke, at which point they wouldn't have run the tests the day before at all, and wouldn't have done the repair until she coughed up the cash.
Maybe they should just let her die next time, or send her to the States, or do the surgery and kill her during it because they didn't do a history to find out that she was allergic to something.
Arrgh. Makes me angry.
This message has been edited by anoncanada on Jul 4, 2009 2:01 PM
but, I know and have met several people from Canada that come down to the Mayo Clinic to have surgeries because they are on a waiting list in Canada. A waiting list for life-sustaining surgery. That is unconscionable to me. Not saying the US system is better, but I think there are pros and cons to both side of this fence.
I just had this discussion with someone else on a different forum (over at Lifehacker). For critical cases, Canada actually has better (shorter) wait times than those in the US despite appearances, because US stats list someone unable to pay (and therefore turfed from the building) as zero. Nighttime emergency care is substantially faster. In almost all cases where (with regards to emergency or critical care,) Canadian wait times come out longer, it's in studies based on patient perception, not actual wait times. Of course it's not just speed that counts. Outcomes in virtually every lifethreatening case are also significantly better in Canada including "a significant survival advantage in 13 out of 15 cancers, a 47% smaller mortality rate for renal disease, and 10% greater access to bone marrow transplants. Our system also costs our government a third less on a per-capita basis (total population, not just those uninsured.)
That said, if you want a knee replaement, it'll take you four weeks instead of two. That's quite the trade off.
People who can afford to pay for surgery at the Mayo clinic will always be able to jump to the head of the line. Or at least find some line they can pay for the first place in line. Such people will always be able to take care of themselves and their own (up to the point that taking care is possible). It's the rest of us who have limited options.
We seem to have developed this idea that medicine is a magic wand. Just go and they will give you a pill and everything will be okay. Or more dangerously, do whatever you want, eat whatever you want and live however you want and somehow the doctors will be able to undo the damage. It just doesn't work that way. Never did and probably never will. Surgery in particular is dangerous. Often necessary and often advisable but things can and do go wrong. The same with medicine. It's not a controlled laboratory experiment. There's no way of knowing what the outcome will be, only what the likely outcome will be and often we see lawsuits in the US that are based on the unreasonable idea that doctors are gods and that medicine is an exact science. It's absurd. I'm sorry for people's losses and mean no disrespect. But there are no guarantees and people need to stop acting like children in this regard and grow up.
Houndentenor
"Get the trash off the street and back on the stage where it belongs." -- Bette Midler
I just wish she would stop her endless self promotion. If she really is an "opera" star, shouldn't she actually sing more opera? This is just another way for her to keep herself in the public eye. She's not interested in being a singer...she's interested in being a "star". Sit down already!
Shouldn't we be grateful to singers who are bringing a bit more attention to the world of opera? I would think that it could only help us in the long run.
I don't think you can fault her for wanting to be successful..I would rather be in her shoes (minus the heart probs obviously) earning enough money to have a comfortable life doing spots on TV than being poor, scraping together money between singing gigs at a brutal joe job.
I say good on her for keeping herself in the spotlight. I think she's a lovely singer and deserves the attention.
I would be more grateful if she brought the right kind of attention to the art form. It's all hype, and no substance. It's not about the music...it's about her. Or at least after watching Canada Am, that is what I thought.
I completely agree with Kleinod Mein. I feel badly for the fantastic singers who deserve the coverage and don't get it because Measha is sucking it all up for herself. Singers like Adrianne Pieczonka, who can sing circles around Measha, but don't get the publicity for who knows what reason. Singers like Erin Wall, Alexandra Deshorties.... true Canadian opera stars! But we never get to hear about them....
It really does get old, watching her promote herself ad nauseam when the true Canadian Opera stars cannot get a look in. Unfortunately the general public is too stupid to look past the packaging to the truth. I mean, how can she call herself an "Opera Star" when she has sung less than a handful of operas in her entire career. It's sickening.....
Opera certainly doesn't mean as much to the general public as it does to us. Young singers and operaphiles know who our singers are and lets face it..if we were going in to this business to be 'stars' we would be entering the wrong field..I think for the average person perhaps Measha puts on a less intimidating face on the art form. At least Measha can sing and isn't some Canadian Sarah Brightman. For me personally, I like Measha's voice but I hate hate hate her persona..I find her really annoying..but if she brings an audience (hopefully a younger one!) with her then I totally applaud her efforts at 'getting out there'
As far as her opera work goes, I don't think that's entirely fair. As a very heavy woman she was probably having difficulty getting the work, now that she is thinner she is doing more opera and I think she is a very effective performer.
To say that anyone out there sucks up ALL of the media attention. I would just prefer to see it spread around a little better, too, but in this biz, you have to buy publicity. She's obviously making enough that she can afford to, so I guess she's entitled to do that.
I do agree that she hasn't sung many operas yet. I've seen her perform on three separate occasions now, and twice it was the same rep: the not very difficult or inspiring (in my opinion) Emily Dickinson songs of Copland, and the Rachmaninoff Vocalise, which I personally have always found rather ho-hum. Her best performances have always been her spiritual encores, in my opinion. It may be, as someone else suggested, that she's had trouble getting cast because of her weight (fair enough; lots of people do!), but that still doesn't change the fact that she hasn't sung a lot of opera yet. I mean, I'd be a fabulous chef if only someone would hire me to be one, but the fact remains that I'm not a chef. (Yet! If opera doesn't pan out for me... lol!)
dude... Deshorties? she got booed off the stage in Entfuhrung at the Met a few years ago. She's a "Canadian opera star"? wowza.
Erin Wall is pretty good. Pieczonka is great. But to say she can "sing circles" around Measha is just stupid. Pieczonka sings Sieglinde and Arabella and Tosca and Leonora. Guess Nilsson could sing circles around Sutherland, hmmm??
I think one of the reasons Measha get all that attention is that she seeks it out (PR firm that she pays) and that she seems to genuinely love it. If she can show people that not all opera singers are stuffy, snobby, divas, and break down that stereotype, more power to her. Whether it makes her the best singer is a different question.
I'm one of the "other" Canadian sopranos and I can tell you why I don't get that attention.
#1. I don't want it. Doing TV, interviews, radio etc makes me very uncomfortable, and I do them when I have to (as it's part of my job) but I don't seek them out and I don't ever see myself doing it. I don't have the gift of gab, I always say the wrong thing, and I never, ever feel comfortable in front of a camera or a microphone.
#2. I don't want that kind of career and I actively stay away from creating or having a persona. I want to do my job as best as I can, give performances, and go home to my husband and family, a life as close to normal as I can create considering the demands of a full-time singing career. I have no interest in selling a product or being a brand. I only want to be a musician, and hopefully a good one. I also don't let other people tell me how to run my career, and I don't give up control to others, which means no record contracts and no PR, and managers that understand I won't be pushed around. It's tricky.
#3. Until recently, I didn't live in Canada so it's understandable that I was considered "less than fully" Canadian.
Maybe some of the others want the attention that Measha is getting, but not all of us do. I have a particular kind of career in mind, and it is not world domination I'm after.
Brava! We are all different! We all want different things! The squicky wheel gets the oil (or however that saying goes). Some people just don't want the oil! That doesn't make them more or less of a person....just DIFFERENT!
Sometimes I sit and mop about attention or gigs I haven't recieved, but then I think real hard about myself and the person who did succeed at getting hired, or getting more attention. And 9 times out of 10 its because I didn't go after it like the other person did. I'm a bit shy, I don't stick up for myself in certain situations and am embarrassed to ask for what I want. Its usually those times that I don't get what I want. I either have to accept that unless I'm more proactive I won't get what I want or be content with what I get.
Measha makes no qualms about going after what she wants. She works hard for it! She uses every opportunity to her advantage. In an Opera Canada interview I believe she even said that a lot of her media success has been because she hired a good publicist (Britney Spear's I believe). I bet half of you never even looked into getting a publicist in the first place? I know I sure didn't....but now that I see the success that Measha has brought to herself I realize that when I am vocally ready there are so many avenues and branches that I can take! And I find that exciting!
Once I read an interview with Joseph Volpe and he said not everyone like Angela Gheorghiu but we hire her because like it or not she always sells out and fills the seats....further proof of that is when you look that they've hired her to do Carmen this year! A soprano! But I know she will fill the seats and like it or not that is the bottom line!
We all have different opinions about certain singers but its usually only the really successful ones, or the ones that are in the media that we complain about. If Measha wasn't all over the press I'm sure people wouldn't bad mouth her as much as they do, but that doesn't mean that she would sing any differently. She'd probably have more fans because then we would consider here "a real opera singer" instead of an Opera Star obessessed with attention. Its sad that in this career the more successful you become the more bullshit you get from your fellow singers. We all want success, and we all want it in different ways, that doesn't make it right or wrong. Its DIFFERENT! And lets face it...being different is what gets you to the top no matter if the top for you is being a host on Canada AM or being content to be a career singer with a family and a home! In each case you get there because you've worked hard and you had something different to offer!
Okay... despite the fact that I shrugged this off on the first thread (we aren't so gossipy on this forum!), this second thread has a different tone.
What I like about Measha's non-singing work is how she provides an "other" face behind opera, one that isn't snobbish about art in general but is down-to-earth about it overall, for all persons (I'm thinking of her frequent presence on book-related CBC radio shows). I actually didn't know she'd changed her hair as well. Seeing her now, one doesn't feel like she's pushing quite so hard. I also have friends who are colleagues of hers.
By the same token, I've known who she is for nearly ten years. If I were 18 or 19, I'd probably also be tired of having mostly only one Canadian soprano put in my face as an example of the "opera singer" I was trying to be. She does seem to perform a lot of art song (I have not the affinity for it!) and out of the country, but I think that's a fault of what the public considers and "opera singer".
In the middle ground.... SOMEONE has got to speak up for mediocrity one can encounter in Canada's medical system. I realise that in HER case, it wasn't necessarily the malpractice to which she's softly inferring (Thanks TenorDoc), but I lost my father to a cancer that probably could have been diagnosed and treated, had my family not been considered country bumpkins who weren't worth of being 'bumped up' on the cancer center wait list, just because we weren't as local as other patients.
I don't blame the doctors, I blame the overloaded system. I just wish I knew what to do about it. At least Measha has the attention of media....
for the Canadian system. Overall, Canada has one of the best health care systems in the world. I know there are a lot of problems, and a lot of things could be better, and some people do slip through the cracks, but this is one of the best countries in the world to be sick.
It's dangerous to make generalizations based on one case. Because even with the best people working, and the best systems in place, and sometimes the absolute best care, mistakes will happen, things will be overlooked, or bad things will just happen, and people will get sick(er) and die.
I can't comment about either Measha's case or your family's RedM, but I do have to say as a bit of an aside that as a society, we seem to have developed an idea that doctors (and hospitals) are angels of mercy who should be perfect all the time and will wave magic wands of perfect care over each patient and there must automatically be a perfect recovery. Anything less is lawsuit-worthy.
But in reality, health and disease are random, chaotic entities, and health care delivery in the 21st century is an enormously complicated and stressful occupation (as opposed to 50 years ago where we didn't have nearly the same amount of things we could do to people to make them live longer; most of the time we could just make people comfortable while they lay around getting better or not). And people often confound us with their unexpected recovery or deterioration. And hospitals are horrible places to be, and sometimes people refuse to take care of themselves and end up with something horrible that they could have prevented. And sometimes doctors and nurses are so burnt and stressed out that they end up resenting their patients, and the patient feels as if they're not being taken seriously.
In general, I think one of the problem with Canadian Health Care, is the expectations of the Canadian public. We can't have the perfect health care system (without spending an enormous amount of money).
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*I am not a doctor, and any opinions I express on this forum are my opinions only, and should not be confused with real medical advice given by a licensed professional. If you are concerned about your medical condition, always see a doctor!
I saw her on Canada AM on Canada Day while I was trying to figure out what to make for breakfast.
I am so happy that she is recovering but, man, she is hyper. I can't believe she co-hosted the entire show. I think she is brave to be out there. I just worry. I don't know her personally but, I think she needs to think of her health. I am not saying she should be a recluse. But, this woman LIVES for live performances. She was so PASSIONATE on the show. I don't know....She is probably like this in real life too, just bigger than life ....
This is a serious surgery and I don't know that I would have the energy to be doing a matinee show.
No, I don't fault her for loving performance. I just wonder how much she pays for all of that publicity, because there are actually other Canadian singers on the scene, working more, and being advertised a whole lot less. I'd love to see it spread out, but I know very well that the coverage you get is, much of the time, the coverage you pay for. I think it's a good voice and I wish her well with her health and career both. It's not Canada's best voice, but our media touts it as though it were. It gets a little old.
Oh, she pays, to be sure. She's with Susan Blond Inc, a PR firm with clients who have included James Brown, Prince, Ozzy Osbourne, Julio Iglesias, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson, Sarah Brightman, Boy George, Toni Braxton, Cyndi Lauper, Usher, Lenny Kravitz, Foxy Brown, Jeff Beck, Alice Cooper, Criss Angel, and Britney Spears. Also, Armani, AMEX, Bacardi, Target, and EMI.
It's expected to be $7,000-10,000 per month (MONTH!) for that kind of representation and it doesn't include the bonuses (up to $10,000 for a choice appearance). For that kind of money, I'd want more than Canada AM
Yeah, those are about the figures I was predicting. A director of mine was once talking about what those feature articles in Opera News cost. Kind of amazing that you can just buy that kind of face time. Ah, for the days when I still thought that talent had something to do with the rankings in this biz. :P
Dissection of the aorta is rare, and hard to diagnose. Measha is probably right that her family doc saved her life, but that doesn't follow that the ER doc who saw her first was a bad doctor.
This is what John Ritter died of. It can mimic the symptoms of anything from a heart attack to a torn muscle in the chest wall. Just be glad you're alive already.
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*I am not a doctor, and any opinions I express on this forum are my opinions only, and should not be confused with real medical advice given by a licensed professional. If you are concerned about your medical condition, always see a doctor!
It sounds to me like she ended up having a bad experience but I don't think necessarily that means that the system is bad, more that she didn't present a "classic" case.
I too had an experience where I had strange symptoms (seemingly harmless back pain) and went to the ER (hoping to get some tylenol 3's really). In my case I'd just had a baby so the ER doc decided to send me for a CT scan just to be sure (I had many blood clots in my lungs). That ER doc very possibly saved my life.
Since I had just been through severe preeclampsia (and again, very possibly kept alive myself by various doctors) at the time and my daughter was being kept alive on a daily basis in the NICU, I must say that I was very, very happy to be in Canada's healthcare system: in the US we would have lost everything that we had financially.
The guy who wrote rent went to the Emergency room twice and they even took a check x-ray and sent him home, missing that he had an aneurism that was about to burst and kill him.
Houndentenor
"Get the trash off the street and back on the stage where it belongs." -- Bette Midler
I used to think that Canada Health Care was shit...until it saved my mothers life 2 mth ag
July 26 2009, 10:31 AM
So I lived in NYC for 4 years and had basic Canadian Motor Association Travel insurance and every time I got sick I received amazing fast care. Even in NYC I waited only a few hours in the emergency. Then I moved to Montreal and spent days just waiting in a clinic to get a perscription renewal. I was so fed up of having to pay up front for my care in Quebec because I wasn't a Quebec resident and than mail my receipts to my province for re-imbursment.....this didn't seem like "free health care to me" and there was so much bull shit always it made being sick a real hassle.
Then 6 weeks ago my mom called and told me she had been diagnosed with Colon Cancer and was going in for surgery 2 days later! I couldn't believe how fast she got in for surgery and I am so greatful that she did becuase she is recovering cancer free!
Now this doesn't mean that I now believe the system is terrific...I mean she had to wait almost a year just to get the colonoscopy that discovered the cancer....furthermore, they didn't ask her what metals she was allergic to and the staples they used to stitch her up she ended up being allergic to and was back in hospital. But for the last month a home care nurse has been coming to the house and changing the bandages as the wound got infected and now they can't stitch it up so she has a gaping hole in her belly until it fully heals.
All of this to say that after this experience I have a lot more respect in the Canadian Health Care System. As soon as she was in need of immediate care she received it and we are both so happy with all the care she received in the hospital. Doctors are human, they are not gods. I read somewhere that more people die of complications from being in the hospital then of anything else. This maybe true, but think how many people we actually do save who otherwise whouldn't have the same care if they were in other countries. At the time this happened I was in Russia studying. The lady I was staying with told me that she also has colon cancer and has been waiting months for the same surgery. I was very blessed to know that my mom was given top priority once they knew she had a life threatening problem. I wouldn't want to be living in Russia, knowing that I was dying of cancer with nothing I could do about it!
They're shockingly rare in this field!
