Saint John woman broke from costly Lyme disease treatment

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lymegreen

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A Saint John woman maxed out her credit cards and had to sell her home after resorting to costly U.S. medical care for long term treatment of Lyme disease.

Nancy Searle struggled for years to be diagnosed and treated for the disease.

She says she now requires a cocktail of antibiotics to manage her pain, but Canada's healthcare system doesn't recognize the condition known as chronic Lyme, and advises against long term antibiotic use.

I had to stop treatments in March, but I maxed out all my resources. I ran out of money … I now live with my daughter and I just work enough to try to keep the credit card people away from me," Searle said this week in an interview with Information Morning Saint John.

"I'm trying to find somebody to sign off on my prescriptions so I can have them back again, but so far no luck."

Nancy was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia instead of Lyme which is something that seems to happen a bit.

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It's scary to see the situation that our health system is in, I mean, we get a treatment and we get broke?

It definitely makes me sad - so many people end up in situations like this, not just with Lyme but with a whole host of illnesses. I think that treatment costs need to be reasonable, it's one thing that so many countries seem to battle with :(
 
US residents can get income based healthcare now, but whether it will cover the treatment or not is another matter. I don't think people can just come here and get on these plans though unfortunately. It's sad that people have to come to the US and face financial ruin to get help with Lyme disease. Healthcare costs in the united states are out of control across the board and nobody can agree on how to fix it. People with difficult diseases like Lyme disease suffer because of it.
 
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