Customer Reviews

Death by HMO: The Jennifer Gigliello Story

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Read this story very carefully and then keep it with you at all times. Even doctors now a days are saying that "hospitals are dangerous places". They are, he is right and the patient/consumer will need every bit of information to navigate this system and emerge alive.Believe me, as a Medical Journalist I know what I am talking about.

Death by HMO: The Jennifer Gigliello Story Reviewed by Kismet Oz

Perhaps there is no greater regret than when you choose one direction over another, then at the end of a long and difficult journey you realize that you have made the wrong choice and have paid the ultimate price. This is what happened to Jennifer Gigliello and her family, who relied on a medical system that was supposed to deliver appropriate care and have the right answers, but did not.

Death by HMO: The Jennifer Gigliello Story, written by Jennifer's mother, Dorothy Cancilla, provides important lessons for all who read it. Unfortunately, this family tragedy could happen to any of us or to our loved ones.

Death by HMO was not written for vindication. Dorothy Cancilla (the author and Jennifer's mother) writes with strong conviction that their family story should never have to be repeated. She advises readers to take full responsibility for their own care and for the care of loved ones. Her book includes resources on various illnesses. She encourages people to set up advocates, who will take charge of their treatment plans, do research, ask questions, and explore treatment options.

I feel this book was well written and a useful informational source for anyone. The tragedy the family went through and the treatment received from the doctors was appalling. This book exposes the hidden truth of our health coverage today and is a reminder that we have to depend on our family and friends NOT the doctors. I recommend this book to anyone interested in staying healthy and safe in the care of our health providers.

Reading this book was very difficult not because of its content but because of what this family went through. It is a highly emotional gut wrenching story. The reader will walk away with a wealth of information. This is a great book!

This is the sad tale of the painful life and untimely death of Jenny, a young woman who suffered from debilitating abdominal pain, endured years of medication and medical procedures, ultimately dying from the side effects of those treatments. The cause of her pain remains unknown. A wrongful death arbitration against Kaiser Hospital was settled for $175,000.

I had hoped to read a telling indictment of California's largest HMO, but instead I found a story which was unconvincing, both in tone and in the facts of the case. I have no trouble believing that an HMO would deny needed medical care to a patient, to the point of death, but there were too many facets of this story that did not ring true.

The author, who is the patient's mother, describes years of inaccurate diagnoses, delays in care, inadequate care, and unnecessary surgeries. The doctors and the hospitals are described in a way that leaves the reader wondering how these agents of death avoided jail time, never mind losing their licenses. All through this malfeasance, Jenny and her family gamely played along, never raising an objection, submitting to surgeries without any idea what they involved, because the surgeons never explained it. Even after years of pain and mistreatment, the author writes that Jenny "had complete faith in her doctors." And although the author displays a great deal of medical knowledge in this book, she writes that she knew nothing at all about medical care, and did not bother to learn anything about it during her daughter's long illness.

Some of the narrative seems designed to critcize the medical caregivers, but the reasons given are unconvincing. For example, Jenny felt "abandoned" by one of her doctors after she moved away from San Francisco. But it was Jenny who moved away, so how was she abandoned? Describing this same doctor, her mother writes, "She thought that he would be the answer to all of her problems. Like all the other doctors before him, he wasn't." Perhaps their expectations were a bit unrealistic?

There are factual inaccuracies in this book. Some have to do with medical facts which are mixed up or misconstrued (Hickman catheters are not "always full of blood," a partial pancreatectomy is not a "relatively uncomplicated operation"), some with minor details (Novato is not 60 miles from San Francisco, but only 25).

I was surprised that the book had a five star rating. The writing is technically good, but the aforementioned problems detract from the power of the story. It seems that many of the five star reviewers have no other reviews on amazon. That is a little odd.

I can believe that Jenny suffered from medical mistreatment. This may have been a "death by HMO," but after reading this book I still don't know for sure. The author does not make a believable case for her charges.

This book touched the nerve that ties all the problems and mistakes together within our medicine for profit system. It held my attention from begining to end. My heart goes out to this family that has suffered so much. I consider the money paid for this incredable story a donation to a worthy cause.

Larry

This book made me cry. It is such a sad story but worth reading. I read it in two days. It's a very easy read. I think we all need a wake up call once in a while to make us think about what is going on around us and make us appreciate what we have. My prayers go out to the family of this young woman!!!

This is a very disturbing indictment of modern health care. Dorothy Cancilla exhibits an extraordinary amount of restraint in recalling the preventable death of her daughter at the hands of inept doctors and an unforgiving system.

It's ironic that a organization whose charter is to maintain people's health can actually compromise their lives when the bottom line might be in jeopardy.

Kudos to Mrs. Cancilla for having the courage to face her demons by sharing them with others.

If Denzel Washington Touched Your Heart in The New Movie "John Q" Than read.....Jennifer's Story...DEATH BY HMO...A Real Life Tragedy.

This book is much much more than one which relays the horrible medical treatment that Jennifer received "While In The Hands of Kaiser" which resulted in her death.

This book is also about an organization that is more concerned about profit and image than the lives of any of it's patients. They will lie, they will trick, they will deny care in any manner possible until it is too late to save the patient if a patient is no longer profitable to them in the long run.

President Nixon when he was considering allowing the creation of the HMO Act was advised by Mr. John D. Ehrlichman who had received information on how Kaiser is run from the then CEO of Kaiser - Edgar Kaiser. Mr. Erlichman stated "...the less care they give them, the more money they make" and that just about sums up everything about this company.

Jennifer was tortured and abused by this corporation and like countless others she and her family found the inconceivable taking place right before their eyes. Medical personnel were not performing their prescribed duties in a professional nor competent manner. The medical staff with their conduct appeared to be a bunch of bumbling fools.

The Kaiser system is intentionally set up so that the patient and their family will choose to believe that a series of errors or incomptent events is taking place. These are really premeditated actions by a corporation that has put in place a system intentionlly fraught with systemic problems to delay treatment until the patient goes away one way or another.

For anyone that would question that statement how else can you explain how a doctor that goes to school for a decade to learn to be a physician and then passes a test to get a license could be so clueless over and over again.

It simply costs Kaiser less to settle an arbitration than it would to provide proper medical care in the long run.

Jennifer's family should be praised. They had the courage, the fortitude and the belief in themselves to put aside their pain and to focus their thoughts so that the public would have the opportunity to learn and avoid the never ending nightmare that they were all forced to endure by Kaiser and the for profit Permanente Medical Group.

This book is must reading for all people. If you must do business with Kaiser then at least be aware of what their business practices are so you can avoid the eternal suffering that Jennifers family must go through.

Jennifer's death was not in vain. She has lived on in this book to tell the story of what happened and to light the way for those that will listen.