Rant On: OK, I know this might be unpopular and some will call me brutal, however,

[ShazzieB]

133. They go to the hospital when it gets so bad that they're desperate.

That's what it comes down to: sheer desperation. It's pretty easy to play the denial game as long as you're fit as a fiddle and feeling fine or even just a little bit under the weather. There's a line, though, that people cross where all of a sudden the denial doesn't work any more. I suspect that line is in a different place for different people, but it's there, somewhere between "short of breath" and "omg I can't get any air in my lungs omg omg." Once that line is crossed, and they know they're good and screwed, they head for the only place that they know might be able to help them: the hospital.

Desperation can make people do things they never thought they would do under "normal" (non-desperate] circumstances. It's a very powerful thing.