The photo at the right shows Rafiki, a 25-year-old silverback lowland gorilla, during a CT scan at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Sept. 2, 2009. An all-volunteer medical team operated on the gorilla on Sept. 5, to remove an infection from a bone behind his right ear. Thanks to their efforts he has since recovered to normal health. I'm glad to hear it.
Editorialists at Gazette.com in Colorado Springs opined:
The team of specialists decided that in order to relieve pressure on Rafiki’s brain, the big gorilla would need surgery to clean out the infection. They called upon Dr. Joseph Hegarty, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Colorado Springs Ear Associates — another capitalist, free-market business. Hegarty not only made a house call for Rafiki, he performed surgery in the zoo’s Primate World Exhibit.
[...]
Fortunately for Rafiki, he’s an uninsured ape living in the United States. Had Rafiki been an insured human being living in a country with government-run health care, he might still be waiting for that CT scan. After the scan, he would wait an eternity to be seen by a neurologist, a radiologist or an ear, nose and throat specialist. He would have two choices: 1. Wait in pain and hope to survive the long wait; or 2. Travel to the United States, pay a specialist, and receive immediate care.
[...]
Here in the United States, the right to prosper has led investors and entrepreneurs to treat health care as a business. That’s why the specialists were able to find just the right doctor at a small business that earns a reputation and earns its money. Here in the United States, the equipment for CT scans and MRIs abounds. It is readily available, even to gorillas with no ability to pay. In the United States, a system of free market health care has created abundance.
Gorillacare. That's the ticket. One gorilla saved by a hospital and doctors generously donating their time and equipment. Forty-five thousand Americans dead each year from lack of health coverage. A pretty balanced scale, wouldn't you say?
= = =
h/t to DavidNYC
