2:18pm September 24, 2014

➸ They're telling my friend she can't get routine cancer surgery...

annekewrites:

thisisthinprivilege:

webmuskie:

youneedacat:

1. Because she’s fat, and they’re afraid to operate on fat people. (Well, they’d be fine doing much more invasive weight-loss surgery on her, but the less invasive and much more straightforward hysterectomy, they’re scared of. That tells you everything.)

2. They spent a long time eyeing her…

I do think it would be a good idea to let Fletcher Allen, and its oncology department, know that people know about this crap.

The hospital has a contact form at https://www.fletcherallen.org/about/contact_us/

But if you prefer other ways, here are the critical cut-and-pastes:

Customer Service: (802) 847-0000 or (800) 358-1144 (toll-free)

and

To speak to someone about your experience at Fletcher Allen: contact Patient and Family Advocacy at (802) 847-3500. Or you may use our online contact forms to share a compliment or share a concern.

Gynecologic Oncology

Medical Center Campus

Main Pavilion, Level 4

111 Colchester Avenue
Burlington, VT, 05401

Phone: 802-847-5110

Fax: 802-847-0496

This. This is what we’re dealing with. They’ll do the damaging and sometimes life-threatening weight loss surgery, but not the life-saving hysterectomy.

And before any trolls start moaning about how surgery on fat people is SO HARD and SO DANGEROUS: it’s difficult because surgeons don’t practice it in medical school and then refuse to do it when they graduate, so they don’t know how to do it well and they don’t develop good techniques for doing it; and it’s only “dangerous” because there aren’t good guidelines for anesthesia for fat people, because, again, doctors aren’t developing them.

This is massive fatphobia and (if you look at the original post) ableism. They are literally saying that this woman’s life is not worth saving because she is fat and disabled. FATPHOBIA AND ABLEISM KILL PEOPLE.

Yes, yes they do. And if surgery on fat people is SO DANGEROUS, then WLS shouldn’t even be possible.

Not to mention the obvious: they’ve known since the 1900s how to remove a uterus (and connected parts) through the vagina. So if the anesthesia isn’t the issue, just the surgical procedure, prop this woman up in the stirrups and GO ALREADY JFC.