But I'm not dead yet!

If you ever watch TV in Bakersfield you have to have seen those commercials for Bakersfield Family Medical Center with all the happy, healthy looking people smiling and singing while a very clean looking doctor jabs a needle into some kid’s eye. They leave me with a warm, fuzzy feeling that makes me envious my own doctor visits aren’t more of a celebration. Apparently BFMC is not quite the happyland they show on TV. At least it wasn’t for Frederick Timmerman.

According to this article, Mr. Timmerman went to BFCC with a nasty looking growth on his face. He was told it was cancer and that he should prepare for Hospice. (Doh! Nice bedside manner doc.) Timmerman asked to be referred to an oncologist, but was told, ‘Sorry dude, you’re as good as dead.’ Timmerman’s family asked for a referral and they were told to get in touch with Greenlawn. By the time the doctor did finally send the poor man to the oncologist the once innocuous sore had turned into a huge gaping, bubbling, festered hole in his face. Nasty stuff. The radiologist took one look at it, threw up, and then asked why in the hell this man hadn’t come in sooner. Evidently the cancer was completely curable if treated early enough. Turns out Timmerman wasn’Publisht really ready for the dead wagon, it just wasn’t in the BFMC’s best interest financially. With treatment Timmerman’s wound began to heal, but the whole experience weakened him. He died six months later of a broken heart.

Something tells me it wasn’t an open casket funeral.