Simone Giertz

[hamster_nz]

Oh my.... I'm wishing you the best!



P.S. Pirate eye-patches are rad.

[Seph.b]

I love Simone. I hope she has a speedy recovery.

[Mr. Scram]

It seems she got lucky in the sense that it's a benign tumour. Her sense of humour is undeniable, though. She sounds like a trooper.

This goes to show that if you have something unusual going on with your body, it pays to go to a doctor. Too many people wait until it's too late. Take care of yourself. You're much more fragile than you think.

[nctnico]

I've never heard or seen her videos before but in the other videos she is quite funny. I hope she recovers because she is way too young to 'go'.

[NiHaoMike]

I've never heard or seen her videos before but in the other videos she is quite funny. I hope she recovers because she is way too young to 'go'.

She is basically a comedian who intentionally engineers stuff that doesn't work well.

[nidlaX]

Oh no...

[AntiProtonBoy]

Saddened by the news. Hope she makes a quick recovery after the surgery.

[EEVblog]

Damn, so sad to hear, that's rotten luck 
I'm confident she'll pull through though, even brain surgery isn't brain surgery these days.

My dad had a massive brain tumor when I was young, prognosis was that he would not survive the surgery if they tried. No one wanted to do the surgery as this type hadn't been done before in the country, but eventually they found someone willing to "give it a go".
Well he survived the first surgery and I remember him coming home with 1/3rd of his skull missing (seriously, a huge concave indent in his head) as they deemed it too traumatic to put it back in knowing they had to go back in a 2nd time.
They sent him home to be with his family because they figured he wasn't going to survive the next surgery.
You guessed it, he survived the next surgery and lived a relatively decent life (but on medication and not able to work) for another 20 years to see his grandkids (my sisters) born and grow up. In the end it was a stroke that killed him, likely because he refused to give up smoking after they told him it would kill him. That was 40yo medicine and surgery at work.

[geekGee]

I feel she has the strength, support and positive attitude to pull through. 

She's got more "balls" than I would have facing this situation.

[NiHaoMike]

She's in the US so she should have an easy time accepting crypto to pay for medical bills (what's not covered by insurance) and whatnot. Maybe she or one of her friends should make a howto video explaining how to get started mining Curecoin and Foldingcoin? (From my experience, I can see beginners getting confused on how to set up the accounts and Folding@Home to merge mine the two.)

[chickenHeadKnob]

What Simone has reminds me of the case of a Canadian pro tennis player Helen Kelesi. She had to under go 7 operations to remove a benign tumor(s) around the optic nerve that kept on regrowing after they were removed. It might not be outright metastasis, but still the next closest thing and a damm serious health crisis none the less. I hope for Simone sake the mass is localized and doesn't come back.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-tumour-the-size-of-a-tennis-ball-couldnt-stop-hurricane-helen/article1352503/

[chickenHeadKnob]

Simone is going into surgery today (may 30) she just posted a new short video from her hospital bed:

[Ampera]

Good luck to her. Hopefully she makes it out alright.

[bitwelder]

Latest update from Simone, few hours ago:

Three years ago I made a toothbrush helmet and posted a video about it on YouTube. I could never have imagined this adventure and it’s all thanks to you. Also, just got the lab results and the tumor was noncancerous! So big fricking cheers to us and to many years ahead

https://twitter.com/SimoneGiertz/status/1005200679055454208

[Brumby]

That is good news.

[Marco]

i wonder what ppl do w/o insurance 

Personal bankruptcy and medicaid.

[Mr. Scram]

Personal bankruptcy and medicaid.

Isn't it one of those student loan type deals where the debt persists even when going bankrupt or after death? With those kind of numbers it would be too easy for everyone to just declare bankruptcy after a major medical incident, or that's what the health care provider might think.

[Howardlong]

after $232736.56 ... "what a bargain!" she said
i wonder what ppl do w/o insurance 

Indeed. Sadly my neice has had a similar problem to Simone at around the same time, and she’s about the same age. It was diagnosed about three or four months ago after two fainting attacks in two weeks, although for her it’s turned out to be not quite such a good prognosis. After removing the offending brain blob, she’s since had six weeks of combined radio and chemotherapy 5 days/week, a month off, and now is back on daily chemo for the next few months to try to flush out any more nasties. She puts on a very brave face, unbelievable emotional strength and balls.

I don’t even want to think what the bill for that little lot would be.

[nctnico]

after $232736.56 ... "what a bargain!" she said
i wonder what ppl do w/o insurance 

Indeed. Sadly my neice has had a similar problem to Simone at around the same time, and she’s about the same age. It was diagnosed about three or four months ago after two fainting attacks in two weeks, although for her it’s turned out to be not quite such a good prognosis. After removing the offending brain blob, she’s since had six weeks of combined radio and chemotherapy 5 days/week, a month off, and now is back on daily chemo for the next few months to try to flush out any more nasties. She puts on a very brave face, unbelievable emotional strength and balls.

I don’t even want to think what the bill for that little lot would be.

Most places have a saner health care system but it will be expensive.

[james_s]

Personal bankruptcy and medicaid.

Isn't it one of those student loan type deals where the debt persists even when going bankrupt or after death? With those kind of numbers it would be too easy for everyone to just declare bankruptcy after a major medical incident, or that's what the health care provider might think.

That's pretty much what does happen, medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. If you end up with bills of a few hundred thousand dollars in many cases it makes no sense to even try to work for a living when you end up owing anything you could ever possibly earn. Collectively we spend more per person on healthcare than any other nation, by a wide margin, and what we get is a nightmare.

[coppice]

Personal bankruptcy and medicaid.

Isn't it one of those student loan type deals where the debt persists even when going bankrupt or after death? With those kind of numbers it would be too easy for everyone to just declare bankruptcy after a major medical incident, or that's what the health care provider might think.

That's pretty much what does happen, medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. If you end up with bills of a few hundred thousand dollars in many cases it makes no sense to even try to work for a living when you end up owing anything you could ever possibly earn. Collectively we spend more per person on healthcare than any other nation, by a wide margin, and what we get is a nightmare.

When our son was born extremely premature a nurse loaned me a book on people's experiences with having seriously premie babies. The book was American, and was dominated by stories of lives of financial hardship caused by a new born baby's massive bills not being covered by the parent's insurance, like they thought they would be.

I have met three Americans who say they will never return to the US after being declared bankrupt after an accident. That's a pretty sad way to see your homeland.

[Marco]

too easy for everyone to just declare bankruptcy after a major medical incident

Most people don't don't hide their assets. If you file for chapter 7 to get rid of medical debt you can say goodbye to home equity for instance. When the individual mandate disappears you could take the calculated risk of taking no or non Obamacare insurance (ie. capped) and just rely on medicaid for a fallback, but it is a risk.

After those kinds of risks bites you personally I'm sure a lot of people change their perspective, but I feel those people should probably live outside of America. The individual mandate feels very un-American to me ... and the "inhumaneness" of personal bankruptcy a bit overblown. Welfare beggars who want to be choosers.

[CJay]

after $232736.56 ... "what a bargain!" she said
i wonder what ppl do w/o insurance 

 I watched that video last night and have to say I think that is a bargain, I'm really pleased she's come through it, I like Simone's sense of humour and attitude, she's also got a pretty interesting life story so far, plus my step brother had a very similar operation over a decae ago.

I'm also so thankful for the NHS here in Britain, where everyone contributes a little bit to make sure nobody has to face the terror of a bill like that and worrying that their 'insurance' might not pay.

Social healthcare FTW

[Pinkus]

Great news!

I'm also so thankful for the NHS here in Britain, where everyone contributes a little bit to make sure nobody has to face the terror of a bill like that and worrying that their 'insurance' might not pay.

Social healthcare FTW

For at least 50% of the Americans, the blue marked text above already counts as 'communism' which must therefore be strictly combated. Never give away anything that could benefit others.

[CJay]

Great news!

I'm also so thankful for the NHS here in Britain, where everyone contributes a little bit to make sure nobody has to face the terror of a bill like that and worrying that their 'insurance' might not pay.

Social healthcare FTW

For at least 50% of the Americans, the blue marked text above already counts as 'communism' which must therefore be strictly combated. Never give away anything that could benefit others.

I've had the conversation with a number of Americans, most of them believe they shouldn't have to help anyone else, trying to explain how it worked was a compelte waste of time and forget the 'common good', that was a compeltely alien concept to most.

Oddly the Americans who had used the NHS were already convinced of how much better it is.

Anyway, enough politics, I'm really pleased Simone has been so lucky.