Hole in the Head

Perhaps it is a good thing that Michael Moore gave us Sicko. Otherwise we may never have known as much about the Canadian health care system as we do now.

David Malleau awoke in hospital with a gaping hole in his skull.

The 44-year-old Hamilton truck driver had suffered a devastating car accident in 2004 that forced doctors at Hamilton General Hospital to remove a fist-sized piece of bone from his skull to relieve pressure on his brain.

Once the swelling subsided and he was ready for surgery in March 2005, Malleau was sent home and placed on a waiting list.

Three months passed. Then six. He waited at home, a prisoner unable to leave the house for fear something would hit the exposed side of his brain - for him a potentially fatal incident. In the end, it took nearly a year before he could get skull replacement surgery.

Placed on a waiting list.

My, my, my.

Malleau, after finally getting his skull replacement surgery in January of last year, is paralyzed on his right side and his speech is only now beginning to return.

"I've pretty much had to fight for everything," says his wife Pat, a former bookkeeper.

"We were taxpayers. Owned our own home. We went from having our jobs, being in the middle class, to nothing."

Excuse me. I thought it was only in America where people could lose their home due to the health care system we have.

Mr. Malleau could have avoided the wait by coming to America...as long as he had the ability to pay.

Seems like a Catch 22 situation.