They removed his spleen, and he's expected to make a full recovery. However, he's going to be left with some major medical bills, as Spencer Ackerman notes. There are multiple relief funds set up, but the more the merrier; if you want to help Brian out, you can PayPal me the money at mmmcardl@gsb.uchicago.edu, or you can send a check to me via the Atlantic, 600 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20037. Try to write a note on any PayPal transfers about what it's for, but I don't get that many, so I'll know anyway. Brian's pretty awesome in person, but he's also a hell of a journalist, and he's done a lot of great work on issues like FISA. It's horrific enough being shot; doubly so that it should be financially ruinous. I strongly urge any readers who are familiar with him or his work to contribute.
Update I thought this went without saying, but apparently not: divisive political issues. Not going to be debated. On my blog. In reference to the shooting. You are severely testing both my patience and the limits of my good manners. Liberals who want to make the point that health care is expensive can consider it made. Conservatives who want to make the point that national health care shouldn't be necessary can do so by sending Brian money to help cover his medical bills. End of discussion.
You mean DC does not have a victims' compensation fund? It was one of the victim's rights issues that I worked on after my wife was murdered. We passed a victims Bill of Rights.
It is one place where government should intervene and be held responsible for failure to protect its citizens.
The government has not failed to prevent the victims, as it has no responsiblity to individuals about crime.
This is arguable as a position, but not as a point of law; the courts have held it.
(As a position, I would be seriously worried about diverting attention from preventing the victims in the first place.)
After looking at a couple sites asking for donations to the relief fund, I have to say that I would feel more comfortable donating (and be more likely to do so) if I knew how high the medical bills are and could see how close the goal is to achievement -- and that the recipients get the money. Otherwise the request is rather opaque to those of us who don't know anyone involved personally.
If this sounds cynical, that's not how I mean it. It's just that I wish skepticism were more widespread when it came to financial transactions in our society. Instead, P.T. Barnum's dictum remains as relevant today as ever, and we thus get property bubbles, phishing and bilked consumers crying for more state regulation "for our own protection."
Conservatively, the bills will probably be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and since we just started fundraising this morning, we're nowhere near that goal.
I wish your friend a full and speedy recovery.
The rest can be dealt with in due course.
Actually, you will find that you cannot sue the government for "failure to protect" which would indicate that there government is not responsible for the protection of it's citizens.
Should of taken him to a vet, the bills would have been much cheaper ;) I had a kidney stone removed from my cat: total bill was $2k. My kidney stone was close to $100k.
I'll chip in within my means via PayPal, since I already use the service, and in acknowledgment of your forthcoming response. Political differences aside, I hate to think of anyone burdened by such financial debts not of their own making. If he's like the rest of us, his family will probably help him out, too.
I also have a side story. A girl who grew up on my street out here in the boonies was shot in a bar about two years ago. She's quite a few years younger than me and we hardly had anything to do with one another, and then when I came back from Germany several years ago, my mother and I ran into her and her mother at a local restaurant. The girl had grown into an tall, attractive young woman who was working her way through school to an associates degree in something-or-other, living at home with her mother. The world was her oyster. She had been a good person and was attempting to
"bargain in good faith with destiny," as Vonnegut called it.
She was closing the bar where she worked on that fateful night. Some local wannabe gang-banger who had left the bar came back with a loaded pistol to settle an argument with someone else at the bar. Instead, he shot her when she stepped out into the parking lot. Right in the neck. She was an instant quadriplegic. For a while there were donation jars at local convenience stores, but I can't imagine her mother ever collected enough to cover the multiple life-saving surgeries on her daughter's neck and spine.
She still lives at home with her mother, and will be fully dependent on others to care for her for the rest of her years. I imagine she gets some disability benefits from somewhere. But this will never compensate her or her family for the whole raw deal.
And somewhere else here in America, on the taxpayers' dime, the guy who committed this senseless act lives out the rest of his years behind bars.
"Life is pretty damned personal," a friend once remarked to me when I was going through lengthy, needless familial complications. He was right. It's full of horror and wonderment, all the way to the end.
Thank you for the up date on Mr Beutler. I'm pretty sure I've read his stuff. The name seems very familiar. Which made me sorta anxious about how he was doing.
If the surgery & repairs were limited to a splenectomy, he should be fine. Something like 30 or 40 % of NFL player have given up their spleens before they leave the game. Abdom gun shot wounds are funny (if you have the warped sense of humor that trauma nurses grow). Bullets take weird curly-gue paths. There's lots of fairly empty space there; sometimes nothing vital is hit. Other times--you're dead on the street.
He was not alone when shot. Anyone else injured?
Your impatience with those who would use your friend's misfortune to make political statements is perfectly correct. Good for you; stick to your guns and don't put up with them!
What coverage did he have in place?
Health insurance is only part of the picture. There's also short-term disability for whatever time he spends not working. Hopefully he's got both in place and all we're talking about is deductibles and exclusionary periods here.
Thankfully, long-term disability does not seem to be in the cards. But this story ought to be a lesson to everyone in how important it is to keep at least some high-deductible major medical coverage in place.
Fortunately, losing a spleen is no big deal. Brian can even get a new one here!
http://www.brianbeutler.com/2008/04/lost_in_transla/
I'd hold off on any donations until people find out what he's actually billed for.
A lot of times, there are programs (public, private, or both) in place to cover the uninsured when they get shot in the stomach. His doctors will certainly wait a little while before they start putting him on collection, anyway.
Make sure he gets rid of the dog, maybe even the cat.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/Eid/vol12no02/05-0783.htm
This problem is lethal, but many physicians are not aware of it in splenectomized patients. Also educate him about malaria and babesiosis. His docs will likely tell him about pneumnococcal vaccine.
Points of law are nice. I lost the nuances after my wife was murdered. She was killed by a parole violator who had previously shot a toddler in a drive-by.
So what if the courts have held that the government is not responsible to protect its citizens? Just sometimes the courts are wrong.
There are many who think the government is responsible to protect seals in the Artic.
IMHO, the major responsibility of government is to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens.
When it fails to do so, it should be accountable politically and financially.
Demonspawn, you should have told your physician that he could use the same techniques as on your cat - ie, if something adverse happened, to just put you down. And had your procedure done in the vets office.
Just to make your comparison at all equitable. :)
It's a common misconception that there are substantial differences between veterinary and human medicine. They use the same/similar techniques, same standards of sterility, and pretty much the same standards of care. I wouldn't worry at all about having a vet preform a surgery or procedure on me.
But you are correct in one substantial difference. If someone needs a $50k operation or they'll die, in veterinary medicine it's up to the owners, in human medicine it's just plain done and then up to everyone else to absorb the bill if the person can't pay.
he's done a lot of great work on issues like FISA
Says the self-proclaimed libertarian who can't be bothered to care about FISA. Did you actually read any of Mr. Beutler's pieces on FISA? Why were they awesome? What do you think about FISA as a result? How should a libertarian feel about it?
Did this fellow have health insurance? It's a good idea to pay for insurance, even if you are young and relatively healthy. Not because you're especially likely to get shot, like this man tragically did, but because some stuff just happens. A perfect example is appendicitis. It just happened to my sister a couple of weeks ago. One day she was fine, the next day she had an awful pain in her side.
She's self-employed, but fortunately was prudent enough to have had health insurance. When they wheeled her into the O.R., I asked the O.R. nurse what was the most common operation they performed there. Turned out it was appendectomies. Her three day stay in the hospital probably would have ran into the tens of thousands of dollars had she not had health insurance.
Megan,
Just letting you know, not all Conservatives are pricks.
See here:
http://www.politicalbyline.com/2008/07/brian-beutler-update/
Good thing this happened in DC instead of Canada... he'd still be waiting for an operation. (tongue in cheek)
I have been away from a computer for the past few days, and so just heard about your friend's shooting. I am very glad that he will survive, and hope that he has a full and speedy recovery.
James
http://www.dccourts.gov/dccourts/superior/cvcp.jsp
Wow, you supposed free-speechers sure are quick to set ground rules for conversations that make damn sure that you get the outcome that YOU want.
How many comments have you blocked because they were off YOUR message? You lefties are the biggest hypocrites on the planet. You prove that it is useless to talk to you. Pinochet knew how to deal with you.
Linked here.
Smarty - Its hardly unreasonable to not want a violent attack on a friend to be used, in a forum you control and that is important to you, to be used to score political points. It also isn't a restriction on free speech. You are free to make any political point you want in any other forum that will accept it, or you can create your own forum.
Megan's restrictions are no more against the idea of free speech than your telling me to leave would be if I came to your home at 3AM wanting to spout a political agenda.