re: Why can't people understand that socialized medicine will ultimately fail?

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Ball game. My uncle's best friend from England died due to the socialized medicine over there. He had to wait 6 months for a doctor's appt. When the time came for his appt, they called and asked if he had any new symptoms. When he said no, they canceled his appointment. Unbeknownst to him, his emphysema had developed into lung cancer. by the time he saw a doctor, it was stage 4. frick socialized medicine!

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That's a pretty shitty scenario, but it sounds like smoking killed your uncle's best friend. Also, emphysema cannot "turn into" lung cancer. He had emphysema and also developed lung cancer. The diseases have completely different processes and one cannot lead to the other, though they can have a common cause (probably smoking, since smoking is the leading cause of both emphysema and lung cancer).

I'm guessing it was smoking because the second leading cause of lung cancer, radon gas exposure, does not cause emphysema.

With that said, he should have been diagnosed sooner because it sounds like he was a high risk individual and should have been screened for lung cancer more thoroughly. It probably wouldn't have saved his life though... I'm not sure if patients with emphysema are surgical candidates. He was in very bad shape, from the sound of it.