This Is What You Were Clapping In 2020...

A teenager is recovering from life-changing surgery to stop her heart and lungs from being crushed after a stranger stepped forward to pay for it.

Some American city, where they have no 'safety net' I guess?  

Autumn Bradley, 15, was diagnosed with pectus excavatum, known as sunken chest syndrome, which caused her ribcage to bend inwards at the sternum. NHS surgery had been available in England but funding stopped in 2019.

*blinks* 

The operation, which cost several thousand pounds, took place at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough at the end of September. It was paid for by a private donor from the Isle of Man, who read about Autumn's plight.

"I just sat on that phone call and I just burst out crying when I found out," Mrs Grierson said."She is doing so much better and as much as we had gone through all of that, I do believe that if she had not had this surgery now we would have lost her."

And the NHS you all clapped for would have been fine with that. 'Make you into a facsimile of a woman, sir? Of course, step this way. Outta the way there, dying little girl, we've got important medical stuff to do...'' 

Mrs Grierson said she hoped data from her daughter's recovery would form part of an ongoing review into NHS funding for the surgery, which was stopped due to insufficient evidence of benefits.

Without it, she'd die. There's evidence of benefits if they'd only look. Far more than I suspect they'd find in liposuction, tattoo removal, gastric band surgery or 'gender reassignment'...