Remember Phil Valentine, Conservative Radio Host in Nashville?

[Marius25]

He's spent months downplaying Covid and telling his listeners not to get the vaccine. He got Covid and was put on a ventilator last week.

His brother tweeted that they're now trying to find a hospital with an ECMO machine to transfer him to.

For those not aware, ECMO is Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine. It's basically dialysis for the heart and lungs. It's a last-ditch hail Mary, typically used to allow someone to live long enough to get a heart or lung transplant.

For Phil Valentine, that means his lungs are so badly damaged by Covid, they can't process enough oxygen for even a ventilator to help him, so his blood has to be oxygenated outside the body.

It's extremely expensive to operate (typically millions of dollars), requires a team of specialists, completely wrecks the body even if you survive, and has a fairly low survival rate.

It's crazy how many idiots are downplaying this virus. They never learn until they're dying in the hospital.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nashville-radio-host-phil-valentine-needs-ecmo-machine-to-fight-covid-brother-says

[PortTack]

1. Suppose his listeners will change their minds...

[Blue_true]

5. Who knows.

The Arkansas Governor got booed viciously for begging people to get vaccinated.

Their hero is a nut like DeSantis, a person who is throwing roadblocks in front of commonsense COVID reduction actions, while talking out the side of his mouth about people getting vaccinated.

[sheshe2]

8. I guess they should hold up huge posters.

They can state that they all want to die, have their family and friends die so they can state unequivocally...

[Blue_true]

9. That picture would make a good bumper sticker.

Unfortunately, it is all too real.

[Jim__]

52. Not unless it happens to them.

[NewHendoLib]

2. thoughts and....

oh, never mind.

[Blue_true]

3. Doesn't look good for him.

He will almost certainly need a lung transplant to have a prayer at long term survival.

[Strelnikov_]

17. Yea, his goose is cooked

Oh, forget, thoughts and prayers.

[DENVERPOPS]

26. Waste of a donor's lungs............

[Blue_true]

55. His brother and other family members seem to have some common sense.

I hope that his brother and other family members redouble their advice to people to get vaccinated ASAP.

[XanaDUer2]

4. Hopefully, listeners will now get vaxxed nt

[nattyice]

51. After 600,000 died so far, it's doubtful they'll change their minds now

[magicarpet]

6. He can play canasta, bridge and cribbage with Rush Limbaugh. That should be fun.

Fuck him/them.

[DFW]

7. What burns me up is this:

If he survives, he will ask his followers to send him money because the Lord heard his prayers (medical personnel get no credit), and thus hears him and speaks through him, etc.

If he doesn‘t survive, will there be any message of regret or contrition, or will we only hear that the Lord decided to call him home? Nothing like, „the Lord offered him vaccine and masks, but Satan talked him out of both,“ for which the evidence is just as convincing as for the other version.

[deurbano]

20. On Twitter, his son was criticizing some people for "politicizing" the situation when they were just

urging him to use this opportunity to not just ask for prayers, but to encourage his dad's (misled) followers to get vaccinated. They are nothing but projection (and shamelessness.)

[OAITW r.2.0]

10. I hope he gets the very best version of the Covid-Delta,

Seeya Phil.

[spanone]

11. Always hated that he broadcast out of Nashville...one of Tennessee's more liberal cities.

[left-of-center2012]

12. More info here ...

"Conservative Radio Host Battling COVID Needs Oxygen Machine"

Sat Jul 31, 2021, 09:31 AM
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215683807

[demtenjeep]

13. HE and Herman Caine can swap stories

too bad soo sad

[Blue Owl]

25. Herman will be glad to see him

[czarjak]

31. Herman, then Rushbo! Been an especially rough year for The Rich White Guy Party...

Dropping like flies. Real shame.

[sop]

14. These belligerent anti-vaxxers will never be convinced.

[GulfCoast66]

15. He's toast. No tears from me.

How many people did he send to death before him?

The family is just pissing away his estates money now. Too bad.

Not really. I hope it costs every penny he earned feeding people poison.

I really did not use to be this callous.

[Elessar Zappa]

54. That's how I feel.

It may be heartless but I can’t find it in me to give a damn about these assholes who are harming themselves and others with their ridiculous rhetoric. Only thing I have to say is that I hope some of his followers choose to be vaccinated now.

[roamer65]

16. Adios.

It is what it is.

Enuff said.

[machoneman]

18. So? If he dies, he's solely to blame, eh?

[Comfortably_Numb]

19. Wow. That's something. Now watch this drive.

[CanonRay]

21. I tried to find some extra fucks to give, but

[Pepsidog]

22. He finally expressed regret but too late for him. Reminds mw Steve Jobs after being diagnosed

with pancreatic cancer, the survivable kind, and he refused traditional treatment until it was too late. In Isaacson’s biography Jobs did express regret for not listening to the docs and friends who pleaded with him to ditch the holistic, mind over matter bullshit that he thought he could cure himself without traditional medicine. I don’t know why. I just thought of that. This radio host, by all accounts, spread lies and disinformation and now is suffering the same fate as Jobs. While I feel sad for Jobs because he really did change the world and could jave done so much more had he lived, Valentine is getting what he deserves.

[wnylib]

32. A survivable type of pancreatic cancer?

Didn't know there was such a thing. I thought surviving pancreatic cancer depended on early diagnosis and treatment rather than type. Even when found early it's tough to beat. I have known two people who died from it. One was a hospital chief of surgery. He declined treatment because he knew the odds and did not want to put himself and his family through prolonged suffering and expense.

The other one was my aunt. She suffered a long, painful death.

[Pepsidog]

42. I read the book many years ago and there is some controversy regarding Jobs delaying surgery

for nine months. Some experts say he might have survived. For a brief overview of the issue read
and see what you think

[link:https://www.mercurynews.com/2011/10/20/cancer-experts-say-apples-former-ceo-steve-jobs-could-still-be-alive-had-he-had-surgery-earlier/amp/|

However, reading about pancreatic cancer just now it seems you are indeed correct, it is a fatal form of cancer.

[wnylib]

43. Surgery for Jobs might have delayed the inevitable

for him, giving him a little more time.

My aunt tried that, followed up by treatments. But finally she just accepted the reality and insisted on staying home instead of being hospitalized. She had morphine for the pain. This was my father's sister. Every time he visited her at home, she begged him to kill her with a morphine OD to end the pain.

[Pepsidog]

44. Very sad to hear the pain people with cancer and their loved ones experience. They had no choice

which makes this covid situation and the idiots all the much maddening.

[wnylib]

47. I don't understand it.

Like other people my age (70s), I grew up with vaccines as a normal and welcome part of life, to prevent crippling illness and death.

Many years ago, in my 20s, I had a coworker who was a Christian Scientist. She was avid about natural foods, vitamin supplements, and "living right" to avoid illness. But even she said that her religion allowed for medical treatment to save lives.

The anti medicine and anti vaccine movement today is self-destructive. It is also very selfishly socially destructive.

[NNadir]

23. I hate to be cold, but if it cost $1.25 to treat him, it's not worth the money.

[monkeyman1]

24. karma is a a bitch & now paying the ultimate price , unfortunately more to come !!!

[SouthBayDem]

27. His father was a Democratic member of Congress, Tim Valentine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Valentine

He served in NC-2 from 1983-95 (the district is now represented by Deborah Ross, who was elected in 2020). I wonder what he would say about his son's behavior, not to mention today's politics.

[JCMach1]

28. ECMO causes strokes easily in patients... given what Covid does to the body...

I believe I saw one story about a patient in DFW who survived Covid with ECMO.

I would think it must be pretty rare.

[Tarc]

29. To be brutally honest, he should be ineligible for anything beyond basic care

Lie in the bed you made, son.

[alfredo]

39. Hey, let the hospitals use up his money.

[Grokenstein]

30. "He wishes he could do it over."

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/07/28/phil-valentine-coronavirus-vaccine

"What are my odds of getting COVID? They're pretty low,” he wrote on his blog. “What are my odds of dying from COVID if I do get it? Probably way less than 1%." He added: “I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m just using common sense.”

Now Phil Valentine wants people to know that he was wrong — and that he should have taken the vaccine. He wants others to reconsider their thoughts on vaccines.

Because Phil Valentine is struggling to breathe, Mark Valentine has been speaking on his brother’s behalf. Workers often reposition the radio host, who is still “extremely sick,” so fluid doesn’t collect in his lungs, Mark Valentine says.

“We're in for the long haul, it looks like. It's just a bad time,” his brother says, “and he wishes he could do it over.”

Wishes ain't fishes. Phil thought it wouldn't affect him, that he would dodge the bullet, that someone else would die while he laughed.

How's "common sense" working out for you now, bastard.

When Phil Valentine is back on air, Mark Valentine says his brother will double down on that message.

“Phil will be the most pro-vaccine person you've ever seen as soon as he's able to be,” he says.

...Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you--oh, wait.

[Pool Hall Ace]

49. What on Earth made him think that he was low-risk?

He will be 62 on his next birthday (if he makes it to September), he is unvaccinated, doesn’t wear a mask, yet somehow sees himself as low-risk?

[NBachers]

33. A death of pain, regret, and sorrow.

[Demobrat]

34. Who is paying for this?

Is this treatment available to everyone?

Or just people who have $1.25M lying around?

[IronLionZion]

35. And how many of his listeners got infected, spread it to others, or died

but don't have money for this expensive and desperate life saving treatment? There are only so many lungs available for transplant. So as COVID patients take them it will be longer and longer for people with other non-elective conditions to get new lungs.

[Grins]

36. "(The new treatment is) extremely expensive to operate (typically millions of dollars)"

I’m guessing the bill he has already run up has already cost his family a million plus. Now add this on top? This will financially ruin his family. And if he survives this last-ditch effort, the effects of surviving Covid that has hit him this bad will go on for years, costing even more money he won’t have. Until death.

Because he wouldn’t get a FREE vaccination.

I just can’t feel sorrow for him.

[dreamland]

40. I hope he survives long enough to run up the medical tab.

Call it karma payment for all those lives he may have ruined because of his lies.

[Demobrat]

41. As long as he's responsible and not us.

I really don’t want my tax dollars used or my insurance premiums hiked to pay for his stupidity.

[chwaliszewski]

37. Tots and pears...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6fxbwUX0AUgXfU?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Iggo]

38. Gawd, that sucks!

Was he vaccinated?

Or was he playing Let’s Own The Libs?

Either way, that’s a helluva way to go.

[LisaL]

45. Not vaccinated, of course.

He believed his risk of getting infected or dying was tiny.

[Nevilledog]

46. Very definition of "waste of oxygen"

[Roland99]

48. Fuck him

[Paladin]

53. X 1000. (nt)

[Texaswitchy]

50. Tough.

Should have masked up and got the vaccine.

[Owl]

56. Apparently stable now and not on ECMO.