Their solution was to feed her through a stomach tube. Forever.

Great Moments in Socialized Medicine

Eight-year-old Tilly Merrell hadn't had a normal meal since she was an infant, and the San Francisco Chronicle explains why:

British doctors found that the food she swallowed went into her lungs instead of her stomach, causing devastating lung infections. They said she had isolated bulbar palsy, and their solution was to feed her through a stomach tube. Forever.

But having a backpack with a food pump wired to her stomach wasn't much of a life for a girl whose favorite smell is bacon frying--a girl who once broke through a locked kitchen door in an effort to sneak some cheese. So her family got help from their community of Warndon, about 120 miles north of London, raising enough money to take Tilly, now 8, on a 5,000-mile journey they hoped might change her life, a journey to Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University.

Doctors there examined her and found out there was nothing wrong with her. Now she's eating normally, and loving it. Oh well, at least British medicine saved her from British food.

As summarized in Best of the Web Today - February 25, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO (Wall Street Journal)

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