Guaranteed Healthcare

In 1983 I had an aortic graft for an aneurysm of the aortic root resulting from Marfan syndrome. In 1992 I experienced a dissection of the ascending aorta which was repaired the following year. A year or two later, I began experiencing very unusual pains in my abdominal area, which only lasted a few minutes at a time but which were extremely intense. My doctor at Kaiser Permanente refused to authorize an abdominal CT. She did send me to a doctor working under contract to Kaiser who declared my complaints "vague." She called in a vascular specialist working on the Kaiser staff who ran his fingers up and down my belly and declared that he could feel no aneurysm. My doctor then sent me to a physical therapist on the Kaiser staff. The PT had me do exercises which did not help. After a few sessions she advised me to go for massage outside of Kaiser. Eventually I found a new job with new insurance. In 1998, shortly after my new insurance went into effect, I went to an emergency room for abdominal pains that did not go away, and tests revealed a massive dissecting abdominal aneurysm extending from the level of the kidneys into the iliac arteries. According to the surgical report, there was evidence in the arteries that they had dissected previously. Surgery was done on an emergency basis; in cases like this, my understanding is that the survival rate is only about 50%. It is much better to do the surgery on a non-emergency basis, so Kaiser's refusal to allow a CT put my life at significant risk. However, Kaiser did succeed in shifting the cost to another insurer.