Billion Dollar Spinal Fusion Surgery Scam Exposed in USA

dowhatyoucant

This story spends more time discussing the unapproved medical hardware that is being used by some hospitals to cut corners and save money, but the most important part of this story for people with back pain is the fact that both doctors and other "middle men" have been getting paid to send patients to the operating table for spinal fusion surgeries which, as the story mentions, are "sometimes" unnecessary. 

Here is the story: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whistleblowers-expose-billion-dollar-back-surgery-scam/

Based on my personal experience of being recommended to undergo a discectomy and spinal fusion by 2 surgeons, refusing to do so, and discovering that most (yes, most) back pain can be remedied through body awareness, posture and activity changes, I believe it's significantly more than "sometimes" that these surgeries are unnecessary. I would say most are not necessary. Reason being is the body is capable of healing itself, including conditions like spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, even disc herniations have been shown to improve and become asymptomatic with consistent and proper mobilization of formerly dysfunctional joints. 

I am so thankful that I refused to do the fusion surgery because there is no coming back from it, and I've been able to return to normal activity by simply changing my activity and my posture. Every day you spend with poor posture and activity, your body degrades, but every day you spend with the skeleton in proper alignment and the muscles adequately activated to do their job of supporting the skeleton, almost like magic the body is able to heal and become stronger.

My hope is that at least one person considering this surgery will think more critically about their options and possibly save themselves from making a permanent, giant mistake.

Ben

dowhatyoucant

Sorry for the duplicate post everyone, the site timed out every time I submitted the post so I tried it several more times and even though it timed out every time, viewing the forum page showed that each of them posted somehow.

GettinOlde

dowhatyoucant said:

Sorry for the duplicate post everyone, the site timed out every time I submitted the post so I tried it several more times and even though it timed out every time, viewing the forum page showed that each of them posted somehow.

TopTip: Use an offline editor to compose your text then copy-paste into the message field editing as necessary

Also, you can periodically use the 'Save Draft' button - good luck.

P.S. Where to find saved drafts is anyone's guess. 

GettinOlde

Ah, in the right-hand column - on pc/laptop that is - mobile devices YMMV

dowhatyoucant

@GettinOlde I know I tried both of those, and using the preview option, but got a timed out message on a frozen page as if nothing happened. Had to keep refreshing the page, pasting, trying again, but apparently it was working just for everyone else and not me lol

Adrian_Scope

Hi @dowhatyoucant,
Unfortunately the duplicate post issue is a known bug. I find if you let the post load up the inevitable error message, it posts successfully. Failing that, after posting I simply load a different page and it has the same effect.

Hope that helps,
Adrian

GettinOlde

@Adrian_Scope Could swear I posted a comment regarding a possible problem with system time / internet time being out of sync. Did it get removed or am I going daft?

On another note I couldn't access the community pages earlier > Twitter post to Scope

Adrian_Scope

I haven't seen a post from you about that and can't find any history of it either. Could it have timed out when you were posting?
Sorry you were unable to access the community earlier. If you ever have problems you can let us know by email at community@scope.org.uk

GettinOlde

Maybe I didn't hit the post reply button before closing the browser - oh well

GettinOlde

@Adrian_Scope Had a 'Gateway timeout' error posting this > https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/60982/had-cab-appeal-initiation-appointment-today

Possibly because of the attached image