Diagnosing Nick

I'm sorry to hear that some of you have been turned away from the Mayo Clinic because of the lack of insurance. Is that even legal ?? Mayo touts itself as treating everyone regardless of ability to pay, yet we keep hearing these stories over and over again of people being turned away. I, myself, am sickened by this. Who are we if we can't take care of each other, yet we spend millions and billions of dollars in other countries to care for sick people. I know they need help, but I say charity starts at home, and shame on ANY hospital that turns patients away due to their inability to pay for services!!

okay if he was my son i would drive to every state just to cure him, the doctors must be really stupid and i am 13 and yeah that is crazy and i have a baby

so wat did he even have ?????

Maybe the Mayo clinic has improved since the 80's. I was there twice and they couldn't find their hind ends with both hands. My visits with doctors were perfunctory, by the numbers and brief. I saw no evidence of original thought.

Some good doctors found what was going on a helped save my life but they weren't at Mayo.

This story is the story I considered writing! My son was ill for two years with chronic cough. The endless prescriptions and doctor appointments never helped until we went to Mayo Cllinic. Within a day and a half, my son had had five appointments and left with a plan that worked. It was a life-changing experience. The level of concern shown by the doctors and staff and the attention to facts of the case were unmatched. My son continues to be cough-free.

Thank goodness Nick is making good progress and that he was able to make those connections for himself--he sounds quite mature for his age! Thank you for this example of the plight of patients in our dysfunctional health care system. I think you've done everyone a great service by conveying a story that illustrates how broken the system is.

I'm grateful that Nick is on the way to recovery, thanks to the Mayo Clinic. I have a different story. My teenage son, Paul, was having trouble breathing. His pediatrician started treatment for asthma, something Paul had as atoddler but treatment then got rid of it. Then the school nurse from his high school called and said Paul couldn't breath and wanted his Mom. I picked him up and drove him to Denver's Children's Hospital's ER. His lung had collapsed. He went through tests to see why and then surgery to remove the lung. What was discovered was a huge lymphoma not seen on xrays that had strangled his lung. So the cancer treatment started. But his manisfestation was unusual and no matter what was tried nothing worked so he ended up dead at seventeen. If he had a team in the beginning I believe he might have been saved with the cancer caught early. I know Paul's oncologist at Children's did the best he could given the curcumstances of a late discovery it was cancer after three months of delay from the onset of his difficulty breathing. A team at the beginning would certainly have put several brains to work on the odd problem that a "Superb Speciman" as the intial doctor's said he was really had a life-threating cancer. Susan

Despite the broken healthcare system, places like mayo do offer a beacon of hope and a method for how to fix the system. Mayo was a godsend for a chronically ill friend of ours, but more than Mayo, this article is about how desperately a patient needs an advocate. Without this child's mother he would still be suffering. I applaud her diligence and her determination. If everyone had an informed advocate perhaps people would not have to suffer for as long as they do.

A moving story. I had similar experiences with two separate problems on different occasions- lyme disease and a celiac condition that were both dismissed until I found concerned doctors, a detectives really, who found the answers.

I take a lot from this tale. Including how expensive getting to a proper diagnosis of a tough case can be. Our whole medical system needs substantial changes, especially the insurance part. But none of that will change the difficulties associated with tough calls. Medicine, it must be recalled, only became a 'winning' art (i.e. it cured more than it killed) after Semmelweis (1818-65) - around the turn of the 20th century. So I see the story as also about how limited is the knowledge of experts, as in any field. The real experts are hard to find.

How lucky for this young man that his family had decent health insurance. Try calling the Mayo clinic without any - their caring team approach would have been completely off limits, as would the physical therapy, diagnostic tests, and medications.

This is not a story about positive thinking - this is a story about how broken our health care system is.

Nothing positive about it.

I could feel the emotions of the mom when dealing with doctors who make a profit per visit ,versus the team approach. Doctors have to treat each patient as they would to their own family member. Are we just a number?

What a wonderful story. It's nice to be able to see what families really endure when doctors have no answers. The persistence of the mom to find an answer for her son just goes to show it is a lot of work for the American family to find a true diagnosis, but there is also hope in the end.

A moving story, and I'm sure the family -and Nick - brave beyond the words that appear here. Thank you for this view into heart and hope.

It's quite frustrating not having a diagnosis. Nick is very lucky to have such a tenacious Mom. I've always believed that you have to look out for yourself - don't rely on doctors and don't give up. It's nice to see that Nick is doing well. Your story is excellent and inspirational.

The Mayo Clinic didn't provide a new diagnosis; they provided hope and caring. Makes you wonder whether medical schools need to "teach" hope and caring to the students, since many doctors seem to lack the hope and caring needed for a patient to get better. Thought-provoking article.

my son is 26 yrs old and doesn't have insurance, He's been sick for 2 years and has been to doctors and specalist. he called the mayo clinic and they wouldn't see him because he doesn't have insurance. They mostly care about money!

Wow! What a story! It's so frightening to have a child with an undiagnosed illness and run into an uncaring medical system. She's lucky to have found Mayo. Nicely written piece.

A true testament of how persistance pays off BIG TIME! I applaud this mother's tenacity.