Lumbar Surgery – Helping the Patient or Boon For the Surgeon?
Years ago, I was an insurance adjuster. I handled claims for large farm labor companies in California and I was the worker’s compensation adjuster. When people were injured, they heard from me. I learned what happened and I paid them their disability benefits and also paid for all of their medical bills. I estimate that over the 3 1/2 years that I adjusted claims, I paid for at least 150 lower back disc surgeries. The average cost of these surgeries was $60,000. I would routinely authorize $10,000-$12,000 bills to be paid directly to the main surgeon. Some of these surgeries would last 3-4 hours and sometimes up to 8-10 hours. I had one surgeon who used to do 2 surgeries per day.
In order to perform 2 surgeries per day, office staff including nurse practitioners and physician assistants are the ones who see the patients before and after surgery. This kind of impersonal service is what is required to make $20,000 per day. At that rate, is the focus on the patient or finances of the office and surgeon?
I believe that most surgeons are well-meaning, honest individuals who want to help their patients. But, as my dad used to say, ‘When you’re a hammer, before long, everything looks like a nail.’ I think most surgeons simply get caught up in seeing and scheduling their patients for the treatment that they perform. Very little thought is actually given to alternatives and potential side effects of the treatment.
After seeing hundreds of patients have surgery, when I was an adjuster, I quite my job with the aim of trying to help some avoid the surgeries they were recommended. I went to chiropractic school in order to help the very people I was seeing suffering. While some recover after having surgery, most end up the same or worse than when they started; at least 50% of all surgery cases I’ve seen have failed and lead to devastating outcomes.
A neurosurgeon once told me when I was an adjuster, that there is no such thing as a one-time surgery. All backs that undergo surgery will need further and additional surgery in the future as the operated zone of the spine becomes weakened and other areas around it are damaged over time. Thus, by doing one surgery, the surgeon is ensuring his future surgeries as most people go to the same surgeon again since the surgeon “knows my back.”
In practice, as a chiropractor I have helped literally hundreds over the past 10 years avoid surgery even when they have been recommended for surgery by surgeons. Conservative chiropractic and physical therapy can work wonders are removing the cause of the need for surgery. Rather than cutting open the spine and removing a bad disc; chiropractic and physical therapy can help the disc to heal and reabsorb the herniated portion taking pressure off the nerves and removing the pain.
While no treatment or modality of any kind works 100% of the time, starting with the least invasive and moving your way up is the most prudent method to ensure long-term health and vitality of your spine. Going for the most invasive, most expensive and most damaging choice first is irresponsible and disrespects the research and knowledge the medical community has.
Unfortunately, when you can make $20,000 per day the best interest of the patient and their health becomes blurred.
Find out how to avoid back surgery through natural means and avoid all of the possible side effects and catastrophic problems associated with surgery. If you’d like to learn more about how to avoid back surgery visit our website.